Formerly: Davenport Hotel
Spokane, Washington · Founded 1914 · Building: 1914
Spokane's 1914 Kirtland Cutter hotel, closed for 17 years and revived through a major 2002 restoration.
Louis Davenport opened the Davenport Hotel in Spokane on September 1, 1914. Designed by Kirtland Cutter, its grand public rooms and then-modern hotel systems made it a major Inland Northwest destination. After closing in 1985, the building escaped demolition and returned to hotel use after Walt and Karen Worthy's restoration, reopening on July 15, 2002.
Louis Davenport opens the Davenport Hotel in Spokane, designed by architect Kirtland Cutter.
Source: HistoryLink, "Davenport Hotel (Spokane)"; Historic Hotels Then and Now, "The Historic Davenport Hotel (1914), Spokane"
Guest Ellen McNamara falls through a skylight above the hotel lobby court and later dies from her injuries.
Source: The Spokesman-Review, "Davenport ghost has roots in fact"; The Inlander, "Spooked in Spokane"
The Davenport Hotel is added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Source: National Register of Historic Places reference 75001874; Historic Hotels Then and Now, "The Historic Davenport Hotel (1914), Spokane"
The Davenport closes, and demolition is later considered while the building remains vacant.
Source: HistoryLink, "Davenport Hotel (Spokane)"; Davenport Hotel Collection history page
Walt Worthy purchases the hotel and begins a major restoration after earlier redevelopment efforts fail.
Source: HistoryLink, "Davenport Hotel (Spokane)"
The restored Davenport reopens as The Historic Davenport Hotel.
Source: HistoryLink, "Davenport Hotel (Spokane)"; public historical summaries of the hotel restoration
A KSL Capital Partners affiliate announces its acquisition of the Davenport Hotels portfolio from Walt and Karen Worthy; Davidson Hospitality Group is named manager.
Source: Davenport Hotel Collection, "KSL Capital Partners Acquires Davenport Hotels"
Every claim gets rated. A business's own website can never earn "documented."
The hotel and its ownership group publicize the Davenport's 1914 air cooling, central vacuum, and chilled-water systems as national firsts. The systems were striking for the period, but this pass did not locate independent hotel-industry or engineering evidence sufficient to verify each nationwide-first claim.
The Davenport is one of several venues credited with creating or popularizing Crab Louis, and the dish is often associated with Louis Davenport. Competing Pacific Coast origin stories prevent a defensible sole-invention claim from the sources reviewed here.
A contemporary 1920 newspaper account reported McNamara's fatal fall through the hotel skylight. Later reporting revisited the incident and traced the hotel's subsequent ghost lore to the documented accident.
The hotel and local ghost lore have repeated reports of a woman in 1920s dress looking over the lobby railing. The 1920 accident is historically documented, but purported apparitions cannot be verified and should not be presented as evidence that McNamara remains at the hotel.
The hotel closed in 1985 and reopened in 2002 after a major restoration. Its building and institutional legacy survived, but its hotel operation was interrupted for roughly 17 years.
Everything below has been reported by two or more independent sources — this is an informational record of what's said about this place, not a verified account of paranormal activity. Still Open America doesn't certify hauntings as real.
For decades, guests and staff have reported seeing a woman in 1920s-style clothing peering over the lobby or mezzanine railing as though searching for someone below. The recurring apparition is commonly associated with Ellen McNamara, who died after falling through a hotel skylight in 1920.
Multiple accounts describe an old-fashioned bellhop appearing in or near hotel elevators and then vanishing. The figure is generally described as a separate recurring apparition rather than part of the mezzanine woman legend.
Guests and employees have reported the smell of cigar smoke in the lobby and other areas when no smoker or source can be found. Retellings sometimes associate the scent with hotel founder Louis Davenport, but the scent reports are the core recurring activity.
Night-shift workers and hotel guests have reported a male figure in a bathrobe and slippers walking the hallways. The apparition is commonly identified in local ghost lore as hotel founder Louis Davenport.
Louis Davenport's connection to the hotel is historically established, but no source reviewed confirms that the reported bathrobe-and-slippers figure is him.
The Davenport Hotel operated continuously without closing after 1914.
The hotel closed in 1985 and reopened after restoration in 2002.
Source: HistoryLink, "Davenport Hotel (Spokane)"; Davenport Hotel Collection history page
Walt and Karen Worthy are the current owners of The Historic Davenport.
Walt and Karen Worthy restored the Davenport and later sold the Davenport Hotels portfolio to a KSL Capital Partners affiliate in 2021. Davidson Hospitality Group was announced as manager.
Source: Davenport Hotel Collection, "KSL Capital Partners Acquires Davenport Hotels"
The Davenport survived because local preservation advocates and later owners treated it as a civic landmark rather than a disposable downtown property. Its history is not one of uninterrupted hotel operation: it remained closed from 1985 until restoration and reopening in 2002. The restored hotel continues as part of Spokane's Davenport Hotel Collection under post-2021 KSL ownership and professional hotel management.
The Historic Davenport opened in Spokane, Washington, on September 1, 1914, as Louis Davenport's grand hotel designed by Kirtland Cutter. The hotel closed in 1985, then Walt Worthy purchased the building in 2000 and restored it. It reopened as The Historic Davenport Hotel on July 15, 2002.
No. The Historic Davenport opened in 1914 and cannot claim to be Washington's oldest operating hotel because it was closed from 1985 to 2002. Its significance lies in its early-20th-century architecture, landmark status, and successful preservation after a long closure.
The earliest source located in this review is a 2005 Spokesman-Review article that said guests had reported seeing a woman in 1920s clothing for decades. That article connects the lore to Ellen McNamara's documented 1920 fatal skylight fall, but it does not establish when the first ghost report was made or that any apparition occurred.
10 S Post St, Spokane, WA 99201
(509) 455-8888
Check the hotel's current dining, lobby, and lounge hours before a non-guest visit.