Brad Sondahl's photos of
East Sprague and Trent
in Spokane Washington
(2004)

These streets were the major passageways through Spokane before the Interstate took over, and remain as a time capsule of that era.  Sprague was and is the retail sprawl road, with car dealers, specialty shops.  Out in Spokane Valley, Sprague becomes more successful in a suburban sort of way, but I like the older architecture of just east of downtown.


There are two palm readers in a fairly short area, oriental food markets, surplus stores...


This building is my favorite architecturally.  I'd guess it was a movie theater.  Is that art nouveau style?


This is another empty building, where the blank sign turns the whole thing into a totemic sculpture...


There are houses mixed in to the retail spaces.  This one's chimney attracted me, the way it was constructed crookedly.


Speaking of chimneys, how about the superb craftsmanship of the chimneys on this building, now used by a storage and transfer company?
Buildings today deemphasize chimneys for the most part...

Along Sprague there are some newer storefront churches.  The older mainline churches were placed a block off Sprague to the south.
Some of these congregations nearly died when the freeway cut their parishes in half...

The reason I took these photos was that I was waiting for a report on my van's transmission, at this shop that has probably looked like this since the 1960's when it opened.

It was unclear to me if this place was still in business--there were only  a couple old trucks on the lot...

The mills define this area of Spokane--there are at least 4 of them, most apparently still in use.


This one, the end of a row actually halfway between Sprague and Trent on Napa, features Billy, who risked his life to proclaim his love to Lisa.

Trent Ave. somewhat parallels Sprague, but becomes the highway out to Rathdrum and Spirit Lake. Towards Downtown they've renamed it Spokane Falls Boulevard, a new hotbed of uban renewal.   It also fronts the yard and mainline of the BNSF railroad, and so has heavier type industrial  businesses.  It is sort of like the digestive system--absolutely necessary but you'd rather not have to look at it...


Some businesses, like Spokane pump, have a sense of humor about their strict utilitarianism.  They made a fountain with an extra large pump in it.  I think the big pump wasn't working though--bad advertising...


This equipment is probably absolutely necessary for civilization's continuance, but I have absolutely no idea what it does...

The same is true for this business and the HVAC industry...