Rockwood Boulevard's curved path largely follows along the lower side of a steep bluff which winds across the area.

[4] Early neighborhood developer Jay P. Graves choose to embrace the terrain rather than view it as an obstacle, and as a result many of the district's oldest and grandest homes sit atop or immediately below the steep bluff, which in some places is a vertical cliff.

[3] Many of the Ponderosa Pine and Douglas Fir trees in the area at the time of development were left in place and now form an extensive canopy over large portions of the historic district.

Along the parkways and boulevards designed by the Olmsted Brothers, many species of Maple, Oak and Linden were planted in rows as shade trees.

[3] The City of Spokane was formally incorporated in 1881 encompassing an area of 1.56 square miles that now comprises part of the downtown core.

[3] Those additions were removed during an expansion and modernization effort completed in 2015,[7] but the original 1921 structure was left and subsequently added to the Spokane Historic Register.

It was in the years and decades which followed World War I that stonemason and architect John E. Anderson put his mark on the visual aesthetic of the neighborhood with the addition of Spanish Colonial-style homes.