The city is also home to the Riverfront and Manito parks, the Smithsonian-affiliated Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, the Davenport Hotel, and the Fox and Bing Crosby theaters.

[27] In 1853, two years after the establishment of the Washington Territory, the first governor, Isaac Stevens, made an initial effort to make a treaty with Chief Garry and the Spokanes at Antoine Plantes' Ferry, not far from Millwood.

[42] The marketing campaigns of transportation companies with affordable fertile land to sell along their trade routes lured many settlers into the region they dubbed "Spokane Country".

At the onset of the initial 1883 gold rush in the nearby Coeur d'Alene mining district, Spokane became popular with prospectors, offering low prices on everything "from a horse to a frying pan".

[43] According to historian David H. Stratton, "From the late 1890s to about 1912, a great flurry of construction created a modern urban profile of office buildings, banks, department stores, hotels and other commercial institutions" which stretched from the Spokane River to the site of the Northern Pacific railroad tracks below the South Hill.

[55] Spokane became an important rail shipping and transportation hub for the Inland Empire, connecting mines in the Silver Valley with agricultural areas around the Palouse region.

Control of regional mines and resources became increasingly dominated by national corporations rather than local people and organizations, diverting capital outside of Spokane and decreasing growth and investment opportunities in the city.

Job sharks and employment agencies were known to cheat itinerant workers, sometimes paying bribes to periodically fire entire work crews, thus generating repetitive fees for themselves.

[62] Crime spiked in the 1890s and 1900s,[63][64] with eruptions of violent activity involving unions such as the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), or "Wobblies" as they were often known, whose free speech fights had begun to garner national attention.

[66] Although overshadowed in importance by the vast timbered areas on the coastal regions west of the Cascades, and burdened with monopolistic rail freight rates and stiff competition, Spokane became a noted leader in the manufacture of doors, window sashes, blinds, and other planing mill products.

[69] The Palouse was and still is a breadbasket and was able to develop and grow with the completion of several railroad networks as well as a highway system that began to center around the city of Spokane, aiding farmers from around the region in distributing their products to market.

[74] The situation improved slightly with the start of World War II as aluminum production commenced in Spokane due to the area's cheap electricity (produced from regional dams) and the increased demand for airplanes.

[81] At this time, market forces began to impact the local Kaiser Aluminum plant and layoffs, pension cuts, a 1998–1999 labor strike, and eventually bankruptcy in 2002 followed.

[109] Other structures designed by Cutter include the Spokane Club, Washington Water Power Substation, Monroe Street Bridge (featured in the city seal), the Steam Plant, and the Davenport Hotel.

Built in renaissance and Spanish Revival style, the Davenport Hotel cost two million dollars to complete and included new technologies at the time of its opening in September 1914, such as chilled water, elevators, and air cooling.

[114] In high demand following his firms' design of the Idaho Building at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893, Cutter found work constructing many mansions for mining and railroad tycoons such as Patrick "Patsy" Clark and Daniel C. Corbin and son Austin.

This architectural style occupies the neighborhoods where the integrity of Spokane's street grid pattern is largely intact (especially the areas north of downtown and south of Francis Ave.), and the houses have backyard alleys for carports, deliveries, and refuse collection.

[145] Spokane's location, between the Cascades Range to the west and the Rocky Mountains to the east and north, protects it from weather patterns experienced in other parts of the Pacific Northwest.

People of German descent made up 19.5% of the population of the town, followed by English at 13.1%, Irish at 11.5%, American at 7.6%, Norwegian at 5.5%, Italian at 4.3%, Scottish at 2.7%, Swedish at 2.3%, French at 2.2%, Polish at 2.0%, Welsh at 1.5%, Ukrainian at 1.3%, Dutch at 1.2%, Scotch-Irish at 1.1%, Arab at 1.0%, Russian at 1.0%, Danish at 0.7%, Sub-Saharan African at 0.6%, Czech at 0.6%, and Swiss at 0.6%.

[45][56] In the early 1880s, gold and silver were discovered in the Inland Empire; as a regional shipping center, the city furnished supplies to the miners who passed through on their way to the mineral-rich Coeur d'Alene, Colville and Kootenay districts.

[80] Spokane is becoming a more service-oriented economy in the face of a less prominent manufacturing sector which declined in the 1980s, particularly as a medical and biotechnology center;[81] Fortune 1000 technology company Itron, for instance, is headquartered in the area.

[170] As the metropolitan center of the Inland Northwest, as well as parts of southern British Columbia and Alberta, Spokane serves as a commercial, manufacturing, transportation, medical, shopping, and entertainment hub.

Fortune 1000 cybersecurity leader, F5, Inc., has two offices in the area with over 250 employees whom are focused on hardware product development, software engineering, global services support, and digital sales.

[234][235] The museum houses glass art by Dale Chihuly, bronze sculptures by Auguste Rodin, tapestries, paintings, ceramics, photographs, and a wide range of gifts, including from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation and Collections.

[249] Students from the Spokane campus of Mukogawa Fort Wright Institute, Gonzaga, Whitworth, and other area schools organize an array of Japanese cultural events.

[276] Special collections focus on Inland Pacific Northwest history and include reference books, periodicals, maps, photographs, and other archival materials and government documents.

[317] Spokane's extensive skywalk system covers thirteen blocks in the downtown area and is among the largest in the United States; it is used for pedestrian travel in cold and inclement weather and retail space as well.

[326] The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) is tasked with improving local highways to keep up with the region's growth and to try to prevent congestion problems that plague many larger cities.

[329] In 1927, the strip was one of the first in the western U.S. to receive official recognition as an airport by the U.S. Department of Commerce and is now named in honor of James Buell Felts, a Washington Air National Guard pilot.

[335] Sacred Heart Hospital opened originally with just 31 beds[336] on Spokane Falls Boulevard on January 27, 1887, but later moved to its present location at 101 West Eighth Avenue.