1890: Spokane Falls
Spokane rebuilt quickly with a dramatic building boom. The birdseye map below, is of Spokane Falls eleven months after the Great Fire. The rapid rebuilding was made possible in part by the ample supply of electric power. In December 1890, the Spokane Falls Daily Chronicle extolled the hydroelectric power capacity of the city:
"The wealth and prosperity of this city, its marvelous and unparalleled growth in the past to its immense and inexhaustible water power. To govern a power of such magnitude, under some circumstances, might baffle engineering skill, but here by the numerous natural divisions made by islands, the control of the vast power is rendered comparatively easy. The power sites are distributed over a large area, affording ample space for mills and factories, and Spokane is destined to become the largest manufacturing and milling city of the Pacific northwest. Through the heart of the city flows the Spokane river, which offers thirty thousand available horsepower..."
1891: Spokane
The city reincorporated and dropped the 'Falls' from its name. The Washington Water Power Company (WWP) acquired the financially fledgling Edison Electric Illuminating of Spokane Falls. WWP's operations grew and extended from Spokane to neighboring Idaho and the Coeur d'Alene mines. Additionally, the electric power generated at the Monroe Street dam powered several electric streetcar systems. The streetcars expanded the town connecting spreading neighborhoods and connecting them to the downtown business core. WWP grew at a steady pace for the first part of the 1890s until a major financial panic.
1893: Spokane
The financial panic of 1893 swept the nation and many businesses closed while some managed to continue. Washington Water Power "nearly went under" but was able to recover by the end of the decade.