Historic Register Tour -

HISTORIC NAME	Lindsley-Larsen Estate
COMMON NAME
DATE BUILT	1914
ARCHITECT/BUILDER	C. Harvey Smith
PROPERTY STYLE	Colonial Revival
ON THE SPOKANE REGISTER	Yes - added 11/11/2002
NATIONAL REGISTER	No
IN A DISTRICT	No
DISTRICT	No
NEIGHBORHOOD	Lincoln Heights

STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE

The Lindsley-Larsen Estate is one of the few remaining undivided, multi-acre residential estates built during the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Spokane. The property includes the main house, a carriage house/garage, a chauffeur's cottage and garage addition, and landscaped grounds and garden features. Designed by Spokane architect C. Harvey Smith, the Lindsley-Larsen Estate is an excellent example of the Colonial Revival style and was built in 1914. The home won a city-wide contest held in 1921 and was honored as a "Notable Example of Architecture in Spokane" as reported in The Architect and Engineer.

In 1928, the Spokane Daily Chronicle described the Lindsley-Larsen Estate as "one of the residence show places of the city." Reported in a June 29, 1937 Spokane newspaper, the grounds contained "the largest assortment of specimen Rhododendrons east of the Cascades" and were designed by landscape architect Norby Balzer who was associated with the design for Manito Park.

The property was built for Maude and Edward Lindsley, owner of Lindsley Brothers Cedar Products, and was later home to Lewis P. Larsen and his wife Bertha for more than 27 years. Larsen was one of Spokane's most brilliant mining engineers and lived in the Lindsley-Larsen Estate during the zenith of his career from 1928 to 1955. He discovered and operated one of the world's largest lead-zinc fields located north of Spokane. In addition, Larsen established the Pend Oreille Mines and Metals Company and founded Metaline Falls, a town planned for workers employed in his mining operations.