File:Rookery Building, Spokane.jpg

English: Once one of downtown Spokane's finest examples of Art Deco architecture, the Gustav Albin Pehrson-designed Rookery Building was built in 1933 at the prominent corner of Riverside and Howard, replacing the original 1890 Rookery Building. The Rookery originally comprised of 4 separate buildings built by four separate owners after the 1889 fire, all were purchased by mining magnate Charles Sweeny in 1904 who then deeded them to the Sweeny Investment Company. In 1929 the buildings were leased to the United Cigar Stores Corporation whose contract required that the present buildings be replaced within 5 years. Originally speculated as a 10-story building, by the time construction commenced in the Summer of 1933, the Great Depression was in full swing and only a 3-story building was built, half the size of the buildings it replaced, but well within the terms of the lease. The Whitehouse department store, which had operated in the Rookery Building since 1890, was among the tenants evicted. The Rookery and all its historic neighbors were demolished between 2004 and 2006 and replaced by a parking lot.