Spokane Falls Builds Through the Winter

With the close of the building season of '83 the work of the year we summed up and found to have been in excess of the expectations of the most sanguine admirer of Spokane Falls, and surpassed the anticipations of those who calculated upon wonderful development for years.

The increase in taxable property was a source of a great deal of congratulation to the population, and a corresponding amount of chagrin to those who had predicted that the Falls never would nor never could grow to be a city. It now appears that the advancement that opened out auspiciously last spring is to continue through '84 and on indefinitely. The fact of the matter is that building operations for 1883 and last are blended together so closely that it is impossible to say where one ends and the other begins. During almost the entire winter building has been going steadily ahead. Not with the clatter and bang that accompanied the sun on his daily travels during the summer, but the music of the hammer has been almost incessant during the winter months. With the first outcropping of spring, however, the building fever breaks out afresh, and the ribs of new houses will soon be seen starting from the earth in every direction. So anxious are contractors to force the good work that operations were commenced Sunday, and the ground at the corner of Mill street and Riverside avenue was cleared for the purpose of beginning the construction of the Mason block to embellish that corner. From all we can learn the additions to the city in the way of buildings will numerically surpass that of last year, and among them will be many attractive and costly edifices of stone and brick. Contractors and architects are busy figuring on and drawing plans, and the carpenter and mason will find enough to do to keep out of idleness. We hear rumors of a number of handsome residences that will be among the improvements of the coming season, some of which will be equal in finish and surroundings to anything in the territory. It is no exaggeration to predict that the growth of the city for the next ten months will almost double its present size, and if the improvements keep up for a few years, and the indications make such a result very probable, Spokane Falls will be second to no city in the northwest. Every indication points to the season of 1884 as the brightest in the history of the city, a summer that will be marked with increased prosperity, giving evidence of that more we have frequently foretold and the realization of which we hope to live to see accomplished. A large town must necessarily build up in this section and the natural location of the Falls gives it a prestige that other points cannot overcome.