The Shell Oil Building is a small, one-story brick masonry building with a corbelled brick cornice and a two-bay instate storefront. The entrance, with original door and hardware, is located in the southern-most bay. Rosettes appear on a cast iron I-beam located above the storefront’s transom windows. The Shell Oil Building was home to Ethan O. Palmer Auto Repair in the 1920s and 1930s and to S & E Plumbing and Heating Company from 1945 to the late 1980s.

The community of Hillyard developed as a "railroad town" for the hundreds of workers and their families who were employed at the Great Northern Railroad's western regional terminal facility, which was noted as the internationally acclaimed rail yard that at one time manufactured the heaviest and most powerful steam locomotives in the world. The huge rail yard was constructed in 1892, the same year Hillyard was planned and platted. Stimulated by the enormous success of the rail center, the town of Hillyard thrived in its location adjacent to the Great Northern yard. The Spokane Register Hillyard Historic Business District was the market place and pulse beat of the community and provided the town's necessary staples, sundries, and services such as food, clothing, shelter, business enterprise, and places for socializing.

The Shell Oil Building is a contributing property in the Hillyard Historic Business District which was listed on the Spokane Register in 2003 and the National Register in 2002.
 

Management Agreement