Historic Register Tour - Dry Goods Realty Building

HISTORIC NAME	Dry Goods Realty Building
COMMON NAME	Display House
DATE BUILT	c. 1909
ARCHITECT/BUILDER	Loren L. Rand
PROPERTY STYLE	Commercial Vernacular
ON THE SPOKANE REGISTER	Yes - added 11/27/00
NATIONAL REGISTER	No
IN A DISTRICT	Yes - added 11/23/99
DISTRICT	No
NEIGHBORHOOD	Riverside

STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE

The Dry Goods Realty Building is architecturally important as an example of the restrained but elegant styling of the industrial buildings being constructed in Spokane after the turn of the century. Its aesthetically pleasing design, and its compatibility with its notable counterpart, the Spokane Dry Goods Building next north, reflects the importance that Spokane merchants attached even to their storage buildings. Noted architect Loren L. Rand designed the building, and constructed by esteemed builder Frederic Phair. Though he designed many important Spokane buildings, much of Loren L. Rand’s work is gone today. Fred Phair’s legacy includes some of Spokane’s most monumental structures. The Dry Goods Realty Building is historically important for its association with James M. Comstock, Robert B. Paterson, and their associates Eugene A. Shadle and James L. Paine, founders of one of Spokane’s most eminent business enterprises, the Spokane Dry Goods Company and its retail chain, the Crescent Department Stores. The building is located at the eastern end of the West Downtown Spokane Historic Transportation Corridor, a National Register of Historic Places District.