Historic Properties of Spokane
National Hotel
Built in 1905, the design for the National Hotel evokes the building’s use as an SRO (Single Room Occupancy Hotel). The prominent features include symmetrically balanced exterior fenestration patterns, central skylights, commercial bays on the first floor and a separate door that opens to upper-story hotel rooms from the street. Providing housing needs for hundreds of working-class citizens for more than sixty years, the National Hotel is one of only a few remaining SROs throughout the Spokane region. The building was jointly owned by Huber and Margaret Rasher, E. Postel and M. Oppenheimer. The western half of the building was demolished in 1967 and replaced with a parking lot.
The National Hotel is a contributing property in the East Downtown Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.