The Davenport Hotel (Spokane, Washington)
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The Davenport Hotel
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| Location | 10 South Post Street Spokane, Washington |
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| Coordinates | 47°39′24.5″N 117°25′27.65″W / 47.656806°N 117.4243472°WCoordinates: 47°39′24.5″N 117°25′27.65″W / 47.656806°N 117.4243472°W |
| Built | 1914 |
| Architect | Kirtland Kelsey Cutter |
| Architectural style | Mission/Spanish Revival |
| NRHP Reference # | 75001874 |
| Added to NRHP | September 5, 1975 |
The Davenport Hotel is a hotel located in Spokane, Washington. Commissioned by a group of Spokane businessmen, the hotel is named after Louis Davenport, its first proprietor and overseer of the project. Architect Kirtland Cutter designed the building in 1914. The Davenport Hotel was the first hotel in the United States with air conditioning, a central vacuum system, pipe organ, and dividing doors in the ballrooms. It is also the place at which the first Crab Louis (named after Louis Davenport) was created and served. The hotel is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Davenport Hotel was completely restored by developer Walt Worthy in 2002 and operates today under the name The Historic Davenport Hotel within The Davenport Hotel Collection brand along with its three sister hotels.
Lewellyn "Louis" Davenport came to Spokane Falls, Washington Territory, in the spring of 1889 at the age of 20. He had been a clerk in San Francisco and came up to Spokane to work the summer in his uncle's "Pride of Spokane Restaurant." The summer of 1889 was fateful for Spokane and for Louis Davenport. In August, a fire tore through the infant metropolis, turning 32 square blocks of civilization to ashes. Young Davenport salvaged what he could from the rubble, bought a tent, and opened "Davenport's Waffle Foundry." Spokane rebuilt quickly after the big fire. Washington became a state that winter and Spokane dropped the Falls from its name. With timber, mining, agriculture and the railroad pouring money and people into the region, the city of Spokane was in the middle of it all and poised to become one of the great cities of the West.
Davenport recognized his opportunity and leased a brick building on the North-east corner of Sprague Avenue and Post Street the next year. He expanded his culinary offerings to nearly 100 items. Within a few years, Davenport's Restaurant was described by a critic as "the finest thing of the kind in the country." Business was so good, Davenport expanded into an adjoining building within a decade. He hired up-and-coming architect, Kirtland Cutter, to make the two buildings appear as one in 1904. Cutter offered a Mission Revival style theme. The white stucco walls and red tile roofs stood in marked contrast to every other building downtown. This remodel added the finest ballroom in the West on the second floor, the Hall of the Doges.
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