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Overview

This landmark newspaper building had a striking appearance with its candle-snuffer topped tower 146-feet high and its extensive, six-floor capacity. Many newspapers in the 19th (and 20th centuries) hoped that their office buildings would project the stability and cultivation of the towns in which they operated, becoming important local symbols. The Spokane Falls Review Building was one of these ambitious structures, devised to raise the business's profile and public standing.

Building History

Designed by the OH-born architect Chaucey B. Seaton (1848-1896), the notable, Richardsonian Romanesque Spokane Falls Review Building was completed in 1891. Seaton, like a number of other carpenters, building contractors and architects, traveled to Spokane after its Great Fire of 08/04/1889 to find work. He also designed Spokane's Northwestern Industrial Exposition Building of 10/1890 during his relatively brief stay in town.

Two Spokane city newspapers, the Spokane Falls Review (founded on 05/19/1883) and the Spokane Spokesman (founded in 1890), merged during the economic depression of 1893. A new, sole owner William Hutchinson Cowles (1866-1946) relocated from Chicago and officially renamed the newspaper the Spokesman-Review on 06/29/1894.

Historian Ian Reeves has written of the building: "Originally begun in March, 1890, and completed in October of the following year, the Review Building and tower became the home of the Spokane Falls Review, a joint business venture between the Portland Oregonian and A. M. Cannon. Although today it stands in the shadow of the federal building across the street, when it was completed, the six story brick building dominated the skyline in the wake of the fire of 1889, and would remain the tallest building in town for the next ten years. As a Spokane landmark, the Review Tower projected an air of power, respectability, and reliability, all things which the owners of the Spokane Falls Review wanted Spokane’s citizens to associate with their paper." As Reeves noted Seaton's building had excess capacity when it was first constructed, and in its early years, it actually housed two newspapers (including the Spokane Chronicleuntil 1921) and the Hotel Review on its upper floors. (See Ian Reeves, Spokane Historical.org, "The Review Tower," accessed 01/30/2025.)