The Historic Davenport Hotel

You do not have to book a room to enjoy the Davenport. The hotel opened in 1914 and its lobby has long been treated as a public space. It is Spanish in style, ringed by a mezzanine, and topped with a skylight. People have called it Spokane's living room for a century.

Walk in, look up, and look for the details in the ceilings, columns and lighting. The hotel also runs a free self-guided history tour and a history game for kids, so you can learn the story without a guide. Many visitors stop for a drink or a meal.

At Christmas the lobby is filled with trees and lights, which makes it a seasonal destination of its own.

What to see and do

Local tips

• Go in the evening when the lobby lighting is softest.
• At the holidays, check opening times and arrive early on weekends; the crowds are large.
• Ask at the front desk about the self-guided history tour.
• Parking is set up for hotel guests (the hotel lists self-parking and valet nightly rates); for a short visit, use a downtown lot or street parking and check current rates.
• Dogs are welcome at the hotel for a per-stay fee; other pets are not.
• Walk over to Riverfront Park afterward; it is about ten minutes on foot.
• Dress however you like; the lobby is relaxed and used to visitors.

A little history

Louis Davenport, a local restaurateur who had started with a small waffle stand after Spokane's 1889 fire, built a reputation with his downtown restaurant. Civic leaders wanted a big hotel to draw conventions and tourists, so he hired Spokane architect Kirtland Cutter. The Davenport opened September 1, 1914, at a cost of around $2 million. It had a pipe organ, air cooling and chilled water piped to rooms, features that were advanced for the time, plus 406 guest rooms and a kitchen that could serve thousands of meals a day.

Davenport retired in 1945. Over the following decades the hotel changed hands, then closed in the mid-1980s and faced demolition until preservation efforts took hold. In 2000 Walt and Karen Worthy bought it, and a restoration of roughly $36 million brought it back. It reopened in September 2002 and is now part of the Davenport Hotel Collection.