Downtown Spokane is immediately east of the neighborhood, and spreads into West Central along Monroe Street in the Kendall Yards area.

The neighborhood is diverse, with single and multi-family residential zones dating back to the early days of Spokane, a new mixed use development on the site of a former rail yard, the Spokane County Courthouse campus and associated government buildings and a few commercial districts.

[5] The commercial district on the eastern end of Kendall Yards spills directly into Downtown Spokane across Monroe Street.

From spring into fall, a few blocks of Summit Avenue in the heart of the commercial district are closed to automobiles every Wednesday evening for the Kendall Yards Night Market.

[6] Nettleton's Addition Historic District makes up a significant portion of the residential area of Spokane's West Central neighborhood.

[8] The district has played a large role in the streetcar-era of Spokane, and also reflects the typical lifecycle of American cities of rapid development, slow decline, and urban renewal.

Fishing camps were established on the banks of the river to take advantage of the great salmon runs in the area.

The Spokane County Courthouse was completed on the eastern end of the neighborhood, on Broadway a block west of Monroe, in 1895.

By the first decade of the 20th century, the neighborhood had been connected by bridge to the downtown core and was seen as a middle-class suburb of the city center.

The neighborhood became home to a variety of architectural styles such as American Craftsman, Bungalow, Queen Anne and Victorian.

In the decades prior, Japanese immigrants settled on the outskirts of Spokane and set up small vegetable farms.

The Spokane Vegetable Growers Association was established by Frank Hirata at 1109 W. Ide Avenue on the eastern edge of West Central.

The park was home to a swimming pool, baseball diamond, hotel, casino and numerous amusement rides and roller-coasters.

Summit Boulevard, running along the crest of the Spokane River Gorge, is a minor collector from Broadway in the south to Mission Avenue and Pettit Drive in the north, as is Belt Street from Maxwell to Boone.

[35] The Spokane Transit Authority, the region's public transportation provider, serves West Central with five fixed route bus lines.