East Central Neighborhood
Sponsored by the Spokane Regional Health District, this oral history project documents the devastating effects of the construction of the I-90 freeway on the E…
location_fill Start tour16 stops
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Neighborhoods Matter: The Impact of the I-90 Freeway on the East Central Neighborhood, an Oral History - Introductionlocation_fillSpokane's East Central neighborhood is located just east of Division street and north of Sprague avenue, a str…
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Ivan Bush, Resident Since 1978location_fill"At one time the East Central neighborhood was the most diverse neighborhood in the city." In this interview … -
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Debbie Takami, Resident Since the 1960slocation_fill"The area where we grew up was a real neighborhood. Now it's just fast food restaurants and the freeway." De… -
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Theo Adams, Resident Since 1949location_fill"When we moved here, to this house, people put up a petition because they didn't want us here. That's been ye… -
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Tommy Fletcher, Resident Since 1950location_fill"It was quite difficult, I have to tell you like it is . . . . We couldn't buy a house in South Hill because o… -
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Violet Noble, Resident Since the 1940slocation_fill"We didn't like the things they did and they didn't like the things we did." Born in Meridian, Mississippi in… -
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Jim Hanley, Resident Since 1942location_fill"It was just a nice little community, and then the freeway came through and bisected the thing so we ended up … -
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Jerome Green, Resident Since the early 1960slocation_fill"The freeway truly impacted the community. It dispersed families. It was a total division between the north … -
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Bill and Doug Trudeau, Business Owners Since 1948location_fill"Some of the residential that was left wasn't worth saving. Probably the best homes are still left here." Th… -
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Devin Samuelson, Business Owner Since 2013location_fill"Traffic being diverted to the freeway left the businesses here in more of a state of need than I think people… -
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Jack-Daniyel Strong, Business Owner Since 2012location_fill"We're divided. We're completely separate, and you have to make a concerted effort to get to one side or the … -
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Dave Clack, Resident and Business Owner Since 1938location_fill"It's been a very graphic, if not shocking display of what a major infrastructure change can have on a neighbo… -
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Jerry Numbers, Resident Since 1945location_fill"I-90 might have been good for Spokane, but it was not good for [the East Central] neighborhood." Jerry Numbe… -
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Claudia Holtz, Associated Since the 1908slocation_fill"[The I-90 freeway] separated the little neighborhood [to the north] from all the services on the south side."… -
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Wayne Struck, Resident Since 1944location_fill"[The effects of I-90 were] very negative. I don't know, it just seemed to take the heart out of the people."… -
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Lois D'Ewart, Resident Since 1960location_fill"You'd have thought we moved to the North Pole when we moved to the other side of the freeway." Lois D'Ewart …
16 mapped stops