Statement of Significance

Built in 1905 at the corner of Crestline Street and Bridgeport Avenue in northeast Spokane, Washington, the Wallace-Lyberger Building was one of the first commercial blocks built in the Hays Park neighborhood along North Crestline Street.  The property symbolizes the importance of the area’s early 20^th-century development as a mixed-use residential and commercial neighborhood—one that by its pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use design promoted retail shopping within walking distance from home.  The building was initially owned and built by Spokane carpenter, David W. Wallace. The property was designed with three commercial storefronts on the west facade and housed a barber and beauty shop in the north commercial bay, a meat market in the center bay, and a grocery market in the south bay.  A feed store operated from a storeroom in the southeast corner of the building which opened south onto Bridgeport Avenue.  The P.A. Lyberger family founded the Bridgeport Grocery & Hardware Store, a family-owned and operated grocery business that occupied the building for 34 years from 1912 to 1946.  After 1946, the Wallace-Lyberger Building continued to be occupied by various commercial concerns, including Ethyl’s Beauty Shop, Johnson’s Barber Shop, and Baruffi’s IGA Grocery.  Especially during its period of significance from 1905 to 1955, the Wallace-Lyberger Building gained historic significance in the area of “commerce” and “community planning & development” as an excellent example of the type of commercial enterprise and mixed-use construction associated with patterns of development and settlement that occurred in the early 1900s in the Hays Park neighborhood along North Crestline Street.  

 In 2004, entrepreneurs from Issaquah, Washington, bought the property and remodeled the building to accommodate their business, Café Godimento. The cafe has since been renamed as the Bridgeport Cafe.

> Back to Spokane Register Properties                                           > Wallace-Lyberger SR Nomination (PDF)