Built in 1910, the Dutch Colonial Revival styled Dorothy Darby Smith House in the Rockwood neighborhood is significant for its association with local theater advocate, Dorothy Darby Smith. For six decades, Dorothy Darby Smith nurtured community theater in Spokane with unmatched energy, passion and tenacity. As a co-founder of Spokane Civic Theatre and a driving force both behind the scene and onstage, she helped the group mature into one of the country's most respected amateur theatrical organizations. Mrs. Smith also taught thousands of acting students in a variety of settings - initially at her home on Nineteenth Avenue, where she lived for 64 years, and later at Holy Names Academy, Gonzaga University and Spokane Civic Theatre. And she brought the joy of live theater to tens of thousands more through the plays she appeared in or directed, from the fledgling Civic's 1947 production of "State of the Union," in which she starred, to a reader's theater version of "A Man for All Seasons" she directed in 2000 at age 90. Besides acting, directing and teaching, Mrs. Smith was a valued source of Spokane theater lore who always could be counted on for colorful anecdotes drawn from her decades of experience and delivered with her characteristic dramatic flair. Mrs. Smith's extraordinary contributions to Spokane's cultural life brought numerous citations over the years, including an honorary doctorate from Gonzaga in 1996 and a prestigious Spokane Arts Commission award in 2002. But the true measure of her influence - the joy she brought and the lives she changed through community theater - is inestimable.

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