The Davenport Hotel & Tower

The Davenport Hotel is world famous from opening day in 1914. It is the first hotel with air conditioning, a central vacuum system, housekeeping carts (designed by Louis Davenport himself), air walls and Crab Louis, the king of salads (named for Louis Davenport). The Spokane newspaper introduces the hotel to the public with a special Sunday insert trumpeting "the new two million dollar hostelry of Spokane," even though the project is 50% over budget and actually costs $3 million.

At its opening, The Davenport Hotel is the largest private telephone branch exchange in the entire Pacific Northwest (with 450 handsets) and is similarly the largest and most complicated plumbing job (with 30-miles of pipes delivering hot, cold and drinking water to every one of its 405 rooms). Gilded with gold, sparkled by crystal and illuminated throughout with "electroliers," it is as grand as the finest ocean liners of the day. It is truly one of America's exceptional hotels.

Lewellyn "Louis" Davenport comes to Spokane Falls, Washington Territory, in the Spring of 1889 at the age of 20. He works, that summer, in his uncle's "Pride of Spokane Restaurant." The summer of 1889 is fateful for Spokane and for Louis Davenport. On a Sunday afternoon in August, a conflagration tears through the infant metropolis of Spokane Falls and turns 32 square blocks of civilization to ashes.
Monday morning, young Davenport salvages what he can of his uncle's restaurant from the rubble, buys a tent, and opens "Davenport's Waffle Foundry." From this humble beginning, literally as a phoenix, Davenport creates a hospitality empire that becomes famous around the world.

Spokane rebuilds quickly after the big fire. By one account, the city is a "human anthill." Washington becomes a state that winter and Spokane drops the Falls from its name. With timber, mining, agriculture and the railroad pouring money and people into the region, the city of Spokane is in the middle of a vast inland empire and poised to become one of the great cities of the West.

Davenport recognizes his opportunity and, in 1890, leases a brick building on the north-east corner of Sprague Avenue and Post Street, on a block his enterprise will soon claim in its entirety. He expands his culinary offerings to nearly 100 items. Within a few years, Davenport's Restaurant is described by a critic as "the finest thing of the kind in the country."

Business is so good, Davenport expands into an adjoining building within a decade. He hires up-and-coming architect, Kirtland Cutter, to make the two buildings appear as one in 1904. Cutter offers a Mission Revival style theme. The white stucco walls and red tile roofs stand in marked contrast to every other building downtown. This remodel adds the finest ballroom in the West on the second floor, the Hall of the Doges.
Building the hotel

The Davenport Hotel is neither Louis Davenport's idea nor is it built with his money. Leading businessmen desire a large public house in which to board and entertain their guests. They want a building to represent their dreams and ambitions and to speak for the ages, as architecture does, that Spokane is built by great men. Great men are sought to build and run it. Their searches for the best men of architecture and hospitality end with their first choices, Cutter and Davenport. Leveraging Davenport's already strong name, the Davenport Hotel Company is formed in 1912 and preparation of the site begins that year.

The hotel tower goes up in eight months of 1913 using horse carts, steam jacks and hand tools. Not a single worker is seriously injured or killed--a rarity for the time. Cutter and Davenport shop the world for ideas and furnishings for their new hotel. They want it to represent the world to Spokane and be Spokane's welcome to the world. Cutter designs spaces inspired by the great architects of France, England and Spain.

Davenport fills them with fine art and songbirds and prepares to seat his guests at tables dressed in the finest Irish linens from Liddell (whose linens sail on the Titanic) and set with 15,000 pieces of silver (the largest private commission ever created by Reed and Barton). Ever since opening day, the hotel promotes itself as "one of America's exceptional hotels." It still is.
The men behind the magic

The September 1915 Hotel Monthly describes Louis Davenport as "the man with a vision who created a hotel with a soul." Davenport is a "quiet, unassuming, earnest man," but demands perfection in every facet of his operation.

He orders silverware be set exactly one thumbknuckle from the edge of the table; coins be washed and bills be pressed through housekeeping before being given in change; the lobby fireplace be always burning as an abiding symbol of hospitality. In all things, he wants his staff to consider first the comfort and convenience of the guests. "When you get that 'home' feeling in the hotel," he comments, "you get all that can be attained."

Architect Kirtland Cutter comes to Spokane attracted by the same thing that bring Davenport, an uncle with a job. Cutter is a bank teller by day and pursues his artistic talents at night, though he is never fully satisfied in creating works of art that only hang on the wall. Cutter finds his true calling when his uncle commissions him to draw up a house. Cutter comes to view architecture as "art incarnate," and invites his patrons to step over the frame and enter a three dimensional painting in which they may work and play.

Mr. Cutter lights the first fire in the hearth of all his commissions as a symbol of welcome to the new owners. Similarly, he lights the first fire at the Davenport Hotel, which Mr. Davenport orders be constantly tended as a welcome to visitors. The order still stands and while the fireplace is now converted to natural gas, it continues to burn as an abiding symbol of hospitality.

The Davenport Hotel is often called "the house of comfort." Mr. Davenport likes that description very much. "In all things," he writes, "the hotel sincerely tries to so well please its guests that they will be glad they came, sorry to leave and eager to return." This mission statement still guides the hotel today.
Famous guests

The Davenport Hotel is a regular home to royalty, kings of industry, captains of commerce, stars of stage and screen and just about every American president of the 20th century. In these halls, you can walk in the shadows of great men and women including Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, Mary Pickford, Clark Gable, John Philip Sousa, Lawrence Welk, Marian Anderson, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Benny Goodman to name just a few.

Authors Zane Grey and Dashiell Hammet write scenes in their works set at this most famous hotel in the West. A selection of archive photos and artifacts in display cases make for an enjoyable stroll along the hotel's mezzanine.
Broadcasting from their studios in The Davenport Hotel

The Davenport Hotel is home to the first commercially licensed radio station in Spokane--KHQ, which signs on the air in 1922. From its tower on the roof of the hotel, KHQ broadcasts the first voices many people pull from the air across the vast expanses of the Inland Northwest. KHQ features many local bands,including The Musicaladers. That group's drummer drops out of Gonzaga College and becomes world famous for his singing voice. His name is Harry "Bing" Crosby.
KHQ radio remains a strong voice on the air for more than half a century. Both KHQ and The Davenport Hotel go dark in 1985. Spokane loses its voice, its heart and its way.

Mr. Davenport sells his beloved hotel in 1945 and sees it die around him. Mr. Davenport passes away in his suite at the hotel in 1951; his wife Verus in 1967. Each successive owner through the remainder of the 20th century takes more than gives to the property. The Davenport Hotel is closed in 1985 and demolition is considered.

By the time the Davenport's only son dies in 1987, it is generally believed that the Davenport Hotel will be destroyed. A demolition crew determines the entire block can be dropped in 20 seconds but the nightmare of airborne asbestos saves it from implosion. Dismantling and salvage is determined to be too expensive so the hotel remains closed for 15 years.

"Hope for the Davenport" is reported in March of 2000 when local entrepreneurs Walt & Karen Worthy purchase the entire city block for $6.5 million, then spend the next two years of their lives--and $40 million of their own money--to make The Davenport Hotel grand again. The hotel's public spaces and ballrooms are restored to what they look like when new. (Yes, that's real gold leaf around the fireplace). The hotel's guest floors are taken back to bare concrete and built anew with fresh wiring, plumbing, drywall, furniture and fixtures.

The Hall of the Doges, Spokane's oldest and finest ballroom, is removed from the oldest part of the structure and re-installed in the new east addition. The removal is accomplished by lifting the ballroom out intact... making it the only flying ballroom in the world. The Davenport Hotel is re-established in September of 2002 with the ringing of a ship's bell eight times, signaling a change of the watch.

The Davenport Hotel stands today as a perfect blend of old and new, respecting the best of what was and embracing the best of what is. The old lobby fireplace burns again year-round as a symbol of hospitality. A new digital network invisibly ties every room of the hotel to the Internet. Spokane's finest restaurant, spa, candy shop, and dry goods store all reside under the same roof as Spokane's finest hotel. The Davenport Hotel is again "one of America's exceptional hotels."
As The Davenport Hotel begins to fill, its owners and managers begin asking "Wouldn't it be nice to have more rooms?" But where? Right across the street, as it turns out. The Davenport Hotel Tower opens in 2007 and is the tallest pre-cast concrete building west of the Mississippi River. Adding 328 rooms to 283 totals 611 rooms, making The Davenport Hotel and Tower the fourth-largest hotel in Washington state.

While the historic Davenport draws design inspiration from western Europe, the new Davenport Tower draws inspiration from Africa and Asia and offers guests a contemporary safari theme experience. Each building has its own front desk, business center, pool, restaurant, bar and room service. Guestroom keys unlock the facilities and allow signing privileges at both.