Historic Downtown Cheney

321-327 1st Street

This 2-story building was erected by the Odd Fellows (IOOF) Lodge in 1904. The commercial space on the ground floor was initially a clothing store, for many years a hardware store, then a Safeway grocery.

The building is on the local and National Historic registers.

120 F Street

Opened in 1967, this is the latest location for this business, whose roots go back to 1882. Owl Pharmacy is the third oldest drug store in Washington State.

401 1st Street

Built about 1897 to be a bank, this small corner building was also used as a post office (903ca-1908), and a variety of restaurants. The original entrance was on the cut-off corner facing the intersection.

402-404 1st (now 120 F)

Built in 1909 as a single building split into two retail halves. The 402 side next to F Street housed a grocery then a hardware store for many years. The 404 side saw a number of variety stores, including a Ben Franklin.

The spaces were combined in 1968 and split again in 2012 with a new entrance on F Street for The Mason Jar Bistro. More recent remodeling has added additional small retail spaces.

405 1st Street

Designed for a bank, this building was completed in 1904. That same year, another building facing F Street behind 401 1st was erected. These two spaces were combined in 1916 to create the L-shaped building we see today. During the local & national alcohol prohibitions, this was Pastime Parlor, which became Pastime Tavern when prohibition ended. Pastime became Bill's Tavern and more recently, Wild Bill's Longbar, keeping a long tradition alive.

407-411 1st Street

Erected in 1890 with two retail spaces on the ground floor and professional offices upstairs. Those retail spaces have seen a variety of drug stores, hardware, restaurants, dry cleaners, bookstores, taverns, and specialty stores. The upstairs has been used as classrooms, a hotel, fraternal lodge hall, and apartments.

406 - 410 1st Street

This 1912 building was designed with 3 retail spaces of different shapes and sizes. 406 was a long-time café, 408 was a jewelry store, and 410 was a shoe repair shop and a drug store.

412 1st Street

This little building was erected in 1912 for a barber shop which became Kelly's billiard parlor. The Cheney Free Press called this home from the late 1930s to the mid-1980s. It was absorbed into the tavern next door in the 1990s.

414 1st Street

Opened about 1900, this was Houck's department store which grew to take over the building on the east (416) as Cheney's largest business. When Prohibition ended, Kelly's Tavern became a long-time tenant, then Showies, and Eagles Pub.

416 1st Street

Cheney's oldest brick commercial building, it was built about 1883 as a 2-story with a retail space on the ground floor and a multipurpose hall upstairs. It saw a variety of department stores, groceries, drug stores, etc. until Showies Tavern expanded into the building. It lost part of the 2nd floor in the 1990s due to deterioration.

420 1st Street

Built in the early 1890s, this building first was a general merchandise store. Its varied life has included a hardware store, meat market, grocery, news stand, computer repair, and museum.

422 1st Street

Erected by the Masonic Lodge in 1927, it blends the brick work design of its big brother on the corner. This building housed men's clothing stores for 54 years from 1928 to 1982.

424 1st Street

Spokane architects, Kirtland Cutter and Karl Malmgren designed this building for the Masonic Lodge in 1910. The main floor was designed as a bank with doctors/dentists offices upstairs and lodge rooms in the basement.

108 College Avenue

The Masonic lodge had this addition built in 1924 to house the Cheney Free Press on the ground floor and basement. The 2nd floor became the Lodge's meeting and ceremonial rooms.

112-116 College Avenue

This building was erected by Rubey Kelly, of Kelly's Tavern, in late 1925. It was originally a 50 by 50 foot building divided into two small 12-foot-wide spaces and a larger 25-foot space. Barber and beauty shops were the tenants of the smaller spaces, while a drug store was first in the larger one. The American Legion purchased the building in 1944, taking over the entire building in the 1980s. Recently, they have begun renting one of the smaller spaces again.

Renumbering of addresses has made this building challenging to research. A more detailed story will come in the future.

120 College Avenue

Built in 1909, this building first housed a drug store then a silent movie theater, and a café. Its longest use was as a barber and beauty shop. In the early 2000s it was absorbed into 122 next door, separated, then reabsorbed.

This is another building where address shifts have made it difficult to trace tenants.

122 College Avenue

This corner building was erected as the Post Office in 1908 (1908-1918.) It also housed a grocery, dry cleaner, Savage House Pizza, and a cinema. In the 2000s, restaurants have taken over along with the former 120 building next door.

505 2nd Street

Erected in 1907, this was the Cheney depot of the Washington Water Power Interurban electric train system. The building housed a variety of business enterprises after the line closed in 1922, including more than 25 years as a restaurant. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places.

111-115 College Avenue

Erected in 1890, it was purpose-built to house City Hall and the fire department. In 1955, after government offices moved, the front and ground floor spaces were significantly altered expanded for the telephone company and doctors offices.

A more detailed story is planned.

502/504 1st Street

This building was rebuilt from the ruins of a former 2-story one after the fire of April 18 1889 that destroyed much of downtown. Its longest use was as an eatery whether a lunch counter café or restaurant. The building was split into two spaces in the 1960s.

506 1st Street

Hidden under a new exterior façade is an 1890 building. It housed a drug store, grocery, news stand, and a variety of other businesses.

510/512 1st Street

Here is another 1890 building where remodeling has removed or completely covered any trace of the original structure. It was designed to hold two businesses including the Free Press (1903-1924) and a barbershop.

505 1st Street

This corner building is a 1953 expansion of a 1947 gas station owned by the Brown & Holter Chevrolet car dealership. Its life as a brew-pub began in the twenty-teens.

507 1st Street

A keen eye might find traces of the original 1890 building on its western wall or from the alley. In 1912, the building became an auto repair garage which morphed in the 1920s into Brown & Holter Chevrolet. They expanded, erecting two large buildings covering 100 feet.

The full story is coming soon.

513 1st Street

Another Post Office (1929-1960), this 1929 building was erected on top of an abandoned 1890 stone foundation. A pawn shop, restaurants, and insurance agencies followed.