1912 - 410 1st Street

This building houses three addresses: 406, 408, and 410. It was erected in 1912 after a fire destroyed two wood frame business buildings in July of that year. Like the building on the corner, this one has a single exterior façade with interior walls that divide it into three business spaces. 410 has had the most varied business use. The upper façade of the building is original, but the lower storefront of each space has been altered. 

What was here before? In 1884 Cheney’s Post Office shared the space with a stationary store. Other shared space combinations included a drug store and grocery or dry goods. The wood frame building also housed a furniture store, clothing store, and billiard parlor before Arthur S. Nicholson settled in with his Cheney Tailoring Company about 1908. Mr. Nicholson lived in a four-room bungalow on Second Street with his wife and son. A fire on July 17, 1912, destroyed his shop along with Royce’s meat market next door.

Nicholson’s Cheney Tailoring Company was the first tenant of this space in the new brick building. His was a successful and well-known businessman. One incident made the front page in August 1917:

“Harry Snyder, a tailor, was apprehended in Spokane for fraud and petty larceny. Snyder had been employed by the Cheney Tailoring Company for some time, but on Saturday evening was discharged by his employer. It is reported that he left town Monday without settling for a board bill owed his landlady, and it was also alleged that after his departure a suit of clothes, suitcase, and articles of jewelry belonging to another boarder in the house were missed. He pleaded guilty before Cheney Police Judge, H.N. Stronach who sentenced him to a total of 45 days in the county jail.”

Another long-term tenant was the Cheney Shoe Hospital. F.S. Bunnell came here in 1916 after learning shoe making in St. Louis. He operated in several locations before settling here. Bunnell retired in 1940 and the shoe shop had several more owners into the 1950s.

In January 1955, the Free Press announced that Cheney would soon have a second drug store with the opening of the Cheney Drug store in the former shoe hospital space. Owl Pharmacy had been the only drug store in town for the prior decade.

Flash forward to the day before Thanksgiving 1959, when husband and wife pharmacists, Pauline and Warren Westerman took over Cheney Drug. Warren Westerman served as an Army pharmacist aboard a hospital ship during World War II. Both were graduates of WSU, though they met in Spokane while Pauline was working as a pharmacist in a drug store that Warren was a partner in. They were married in 1953 and moved to Cheney when they became the proprietors of Cheney Drug.

Both Warren and Pauline were active in the community. He was a member of the Chamber of Commerce and was an unofficial photographer for the Cheney Free Press in the 1960s. She held several offices in the Tilicum Club, as well as being active in the American Association of University Women.

The Westerman’s Cheney Drug store was a fixture of downtown Cheney for nearly 20 years. They retired in February 1979, selling their stock to Tom Byers who opened SAV-MART Drug next to Ranch Thrift grocery on Cheney-Spokane Road.

A series of retail businesses followed including Another Man’s Treasures, Box Car T-Shirt Shop, Eddy’s Boot & Tack, Winners Circle Western Wear, Clothes Horse, Oakridge Furniture, and Lori’s Sewing & Crafts.

In 1993, optometrist, Dr. Michael Miller relocated to 410 1st, operating there until his death in 2007. Dr. Miller had been Cheney’s optometrist since 1952, operating from several locations. Miller, who was originally from Asotin, Washington, served in the Navy during World War II. He was one of the founders of Cheney’s Lions Club in the 1950s, as well as a member of the American Legion and Cheney Chamber of Commerce. He served as the “sheriff” during many Cheney Rodeo Days, capturing folks not wearing western gear. Dr. Miller was well known for his sense of humor and his stories.

• Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps 1884, 1888, 1890, 1891, 1897, 1905, 1908, 1916, 1939
• Cheney Historical Preservation Commission Reports
• Southwest Spokane County Historical Society image collection
• Cheney Free Press, various dates
• Cheney phone books 1955 - 2010