Built in 1936 and located in an architecturally prominent Rockwood-area neighborhood on Spokane, Washington’s South Hill, the Kirk Thompson House is a fine example of the Art Moderne style. Although the Thompson House is not included within the boundaries of the Rockwood National Register Historic District it is located on East Overbluff Road, one block east of the historic district in the greater Rockwood neighborhood. The house is a horizontally sprawling home custom-built on more than one acre of land surrounded by natural woodlands. The asymmetrical home has one-and-one-half stories and is made of steel-reinforced concrete composed of a series of stacked angular boxes. The home’s exterior walls prominently gleam with a skin of smooth white-painted concrete, a popular design element of the Art Moderne style. The house has a flat roof with metal coping, and horizontal multi-paned windows arranged in ribbons and bands that emphasize a mix of curved corners and flat planar wall surfaces. The exterior north facade of the home is articulated with a semi-circular round bay and a curved band of windows located next to the front entrance—both covered by a one-story projecting round-curved flat front porch canopy. The interior of the house has an open, spacious interior with nine-foot-high ceilings, unstained wide-plank wood floors, white walls and ceilings, and vertical rounded corners at partition walls. Although it underwent a remodel in 2018-2020 (see pages 9 and 10 “Modifications”), the Thompson House retains architectural integrity in original location, design, materials, workmanship, association, and is eligible for listing on the Spokane Register of Historic Places.

Management Agreement