1520 S. Rockwood Boulevard

Statement of Significance

Begun in 1913 and completed in 1936, the Dessert House was erected as one of Spokane’s most unique homes.  Perched high on a rocky precipice above Rockwood Boulevard, the home is built near the top of a steep hillside on a spectacular view site and is an excellent depiction of the Spanish Eclectic style.  With its stucco cladding, multi-level red tile roof, and multiple units, the Dessert House resembles the compound plans and varied roof forms associated with Spanish villages.  In 1936, the Spokesman-Review reported the “new Dessert Home…is situated on one of the really fine viewpoints of the city” with “a commanding view of the Spokane Valley” and Mt. Spokane. The house was described as a “rambling home of the provincial type” with estimated construction costs from $10,000 to $25,000.  The castle-like thick black basalt rock foundation, curved rock terraces, and rock stairways were designed by Frank G. Hutchinson, and the house was designed by Gustav Albin Pehrson, two of Spokane’s most accomplished professional architects.  The home was built on the 1913 foundation/terraces in 1936, for Victor Dessert and his wife, Georges Wilson Dessert, prominent civic benefactors, city leaders, and founders/proprietors of the Desert Hotel chain which included at least seven hostelries built in Spokane, Ritzville, and Coeur d’Alene.  Along with its intended single-family use, required construction cost, and “modern style of architecture,” the Dessert House embodies the direct intentions of the property’s original developers as prescribed and conveyed in subdivision covenants written in 1910.

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