Spokane Falls Council Orders Its Main Streets Graded
Aldermen vote to grade Riverside Avenue, Front, Main and Post streets — the first of a summer of public works meant to make the raw town look like a metropolis.
At the meeting of the City Council held Monday evening of this week the members gave evidence that they are wide awake to the growing necessities of our city and are ready and willing to do their share toward crowding ahead those interior improvements that are absolutely requisite in giving our streets a more finished appearance. A resolution was passed ordering the grading of Riverside Avenue, Front street, Main street and Post street. An adjourned meeting of the Board will be held next Monday evening to pass ordinances ordering this work carried out, and the grading will be at once pushed forward. The streets named are among our principal thoroughfares, and when worked down to a uniform grade and embellished with sidewalks will very materially add to the looks of the city. This is but a starter for other work of the kind that will be inaugurated during the present summer, and by the coming of next winter Spokane Falls will present the appearance of a thriving metropolis second to none on the coast.
“This is but a starter for other work of the kind that will be inaugurated during the present summer.”
The regrades that began with votes like this one literally reshaped downtown Spokane — some blocks were cut down by dozens of feet in the 1880s and again after the 1889 fire. Every time the city tears up Riverside or Front for another rebuild, it is still arguing about the same four streets.
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