The city has a problem.  The main street downtown is crowded with transients.  There are many, many unemployed men and wandering boys.  It is 1934 and the country is in the depths of the Great Depression.

The First Solution

To house the transients, the city has decided to lease the former Sherman-Clay Music Store at 321-323 West Riverside Avenue.    They just signed a 2-year lease to billet these men.   Remodeling work will start this morning, October 1st, 1934. 

The cost of remodeling is $30,000, and the money has been approved and granted by the state. 

The Transients

The project is ambitious.   It will handle over 700 men that flock in every winter from working in the mines, lumber mills, and farms.   When they show up, they have no place to go.   Housing them in a downtown building avoids panhandling, begging on corners, and avoiding large crime waves.

The Remodeling

"The building will be changed."   "That involves new equipment for sleeping quarters, a medical clinic, a dentist room, a recreational hall, a shoe repair shop, a barber shop, and the building will also have classrooms for teaching."  said the director of the WRA - The Workers Relief Fund.

"The Sherman-Clay Building is a four-story building." "Another nearby building on North Bernard Street will be used as a kitchen to feed the men and boys."   

"That building already houses many transient men." 

“The Sherman-Clay Building is the only vacant building available that met all the requirements.”  said Dan Merriam, the local welfare director. 

“It has to be a very large space, in the downtown area, and it needs to be centrally located for convenience.”  “One floor has to be suitable for all the offices and other medical facilities.”  "This building has been vacant for a few years."  "It is owned by Len Holland, the builder who now lives in Portland."

“An added benefit is the building has both Sprague and Riverside entrances.”  “That allows the building to have a 'family transient group' entry on Sprague Avenue, and a 'men’s only'entrance on Riverside Avenue.”

“The families can be cared for on the south end of the structure, but separated from the 'men only' group.”  “No transient families will be housed overnight in the building.”

 

Businessmen Oppose New Billet

The next day the downtown business community loudly protested!  

It sounded like the opening guns in a very heavy battle.   A lot of merchants quickly contacted Fred Jones, head of the local Chamber of Commerce.  Their complaints were loud and heavy.   

Jones said he would do everything he could to stop it.   The main complaint by the business community was that it was simply way too concentrated a project.  They worried because it would house 700-800 transient men daily.  Everyone suggested it be moved to some other locations far away from the downtown.

 

Jones wired both Governor Martin and the head of the Washington State Relief agency and he told them of all the merchants that were complaining.  

Governor Martin shot back: 

“We are fine with moving the project, but you tell us where it can move to....”

The next day a score of businessmen met.    Walter Burns, head of the adjacent Shaw-Borden Printing plant, protested.  He started a petition.  

Dan Morgan, owner of the Fairmont Hotel adjacent to the billet said it would ruin his business.   

Adjacent to the Fairmont Hotel is the Garden Dancing Palace.  The owner Frank Kellogg said it would drive away customers and he strongly opposed the project. 

The group threatened legal action and getting a restraining order. 

The objection had now spread. 

The owners of the million dollars tall nearby office buildings opposed the billet.  Andy Paulsen, owner of the Paulsen Building, and DW Twohy, owner of the ONB Building both very very vocal in opposition of the billet.   

Across the street, Al Jensen, owner of the Jensen-Byrd Hardware firm, said it would ruin his walk-in traffic.  The nearby Northern Pacific railroad feared the billet would cause transient men to loaf around their ticket office all day, driving away customers.  

Charles Gonzer, manager of the nearby Hutton Building, said his tenants would vacate if the project happened.  He wanted the entire project to be move into a brand new building that would be built from the ground up and located far away.

Union Park

Someone suggested the entire project move to the fairgrounds in Union Park....

A week later the project had been moved to the fairgrounds.  Now the protest changed.  The residents of Union Park were riled up.   On October 9th a storm of Union Park protesters headed to the city council meeting to shout their displeasure. 

The simple fact was that the Union Park residents also opposed the use of the fairgrounds to house the Washington Emergency Relief Agency (WERA) unemployed men’s billet. 

A petition was signed by 33 prominent businessmen and property owners located in Union Park.  That petition was given to the city council.

“Tell us where it can be built?” was the response from the council.  “Perhaps it can be located outside the city.”   the Union Park residents suggested.   

"But where?” shot back the city council.  "Tell us where it can go...."

Now the state announced that IF the billet were not built inside the city – state funds would be withdrawn.   That eliminated the Tourist Camp site in the Highbridge Park along Latah Creek.  The Highbridge Park land had been a gift and the deed specifically prohibited any use of that land except for a park use.

The argument was made by the downtown business men that the fairgrounds housed cattle, and nobody protested the cattle being there  The Union Park citizens shouted back that if the transients were kept in corrals and not roaming the neighborhoods, that would be a fine ida. 

“A lot of these men are radicals, they will not work, and many of them are thieves."  claimed the neighbors.  "Everyone would be afraid to go out and shop if these men lived at the fairgrounds."

 

The suggestion was made that perhaps Fort Wright had extra housing that would work.  

The commander shot back:   “If these men are as bad as described, we do not want them anywhere near our soldiers”.

Mayor Leonard replied:  

“Most of these men are college men who cannot get work.  "Some are broken businessmen."  "Most come from good families".  "Many are honest laborers whose conditions has placed them in bad situations.” 

 

“And many are skilled workers of all kinds”.  “They are good fellows who simply cannot get jobs.”

The next day the East Sprague Businessmen’s Club hired James Dillard, confidant  to Governor Martin, to push their opposition.   By now thebusinessmen claimed they had hundreds of protestors opposing the fairgrounds being used to house the transients.

Abandonment of Fairgrounds

On Thursday, October 11th 50 Union Park women stormed into the city council chambers.  They demanded the city abandon using the fairgrounds to billet transient men.  The council was stunned at the amount of protest, but had a plan.

The council told them it was now considering using a Main Street or Trent Avenue flop house Hotel to house the men.

Bring near the railroad tracks near the river would satisfy everyone.   It was out of sight - but downtown.   But this solution would need at least four or five hotels to house such a large group.   That cost might be way too much....

And with so much controversy, and as it was now getting late in the fall – there was no clear resolution. 

The Sherman-Clay Building was never converted and the state just paid out the 2-year lease.

The Fairgrounds was never converted into billeting homeless men.

And the state did house some men in different hotels on Trent Avenue and Main Street.  But not all of the 700-800 transients which they wanted to help.

Mostly  the relief agency kept its existing building on North Bernard that winter, feeding and with limited housing for transient and homeless men and boys.

The Holland Building

The building on Riverside Avenue known as the Holland Building had a wonderful history.   The original promoters leased the new store at 319-321 W Riverside Avenue.

The store was built in 1904 specifically to house this new giant department Store.  It was fondly promoted as the Wonder Department Store.    The store had everything available for a family to buy in one place.   It was the beginning of the giant new department store concept sweeping the east.   The Holland Buildiing cost $60,000 to build and it was owned by SJ Holland.

On that lot was another business in an adjacent new building.  

Holland also built the Washington Liquor Building  for $20,000 at 323 W Riverside Avenue.   He leased this building to the Washington Liquor Company, a wholesaler of bottled alcohol drinks.

 Both the Holland Building and the Washington Liquor Building  were four stories high.  Both had  60' frontages on Riverside Avenue and 40' foot frontages on Sprague Avenue.    Both  lots were 179 feet deep and on slightly different levels of ground.

A Century Passed

Homelessness has always been a part of our society.   When economics get tough, people get desperate.  They often lose everything they own.

Where they can live and eat has always been an issue.   Neighborhoods often oppose homeless living in their area.

What these previous workers did for a living and who they are now which caused them homelessness and unemployment has always been a question.

What is known for sure is that so far nobody has solved this problem.

Homelessness still exists today as it has forever and more obvious to the community for the past century....