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The
Hotel Upton is historically significant as a Single Room Occupancy
hotel, or SRO, in Spokane’s central business district.
It was built during, and in response to, an unprecedented period
of growth in Spokane’s history between 1900 and 1910, when it assumed
its role as the regional distribution hub of the “Inland Empire.”
Like other SROs, which appeared on nearly every block of the
central business district during the period, the Hotel Upton was built
to accommodate the many itinerant laborers that flocked to Spokane to
benefit from the expanding industries such as mining, agriculture,
lumber and railroads. The
Imperial Investment Co., headed by principle owner, manager, and
secretary Andrew Laidlaw, a mining and real estate investor, contracted
prominent Spokane architect Loren L. Rand to design the building.
Some of Rand's other notable local works
include the First Presbyterian Church, the Marble Bank (now demolished),
numerous schools including Lewis and Clark High School, and
the Riverside and Main additions to the Crescent Building. The Grand Coulee,
as the building is now known, retains the functional integrity of a
typical SRO, with the ground floor given over to commercial space and
housing on the upper floors. It is the western terminus of the
West Downtown Spokane Historic Transportation Corridor, a National
Register Historic District.
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