The Davenport Hotel had a parapet around the whole hotel roof, about 18 inches high, with a concrete cap on it.  Around the perimeter, pipes stuck up out of the cap.  The pipes were about 4 inches across and six foot high.  On top of each pipe was a light fixture, looking over the parapet about 8 stories to the sidewalk below.

The lights had been out for years and the decision was made to get them lit.  The fixtures had originally been wired in conduit coming up through the pipe in the parapet with lead coated cable inside the pipe.  After a number of years the lead had adhered to the pipe and it was impossible to remove.

We ran conduit across the roof to each pole.  In each pole we would drill a hole, tap a ½” thread, and run a wire through the conduit, through the hole, and then to the light fixture on the top of the tall pipe.

We would strap ourselves to the pipe, stand on the parapet, and rewire each fixture.  While we were drilling the pipe and tapping it we had a rope fastened from the drill to the center of the building roof.  We didn’t want to lose the drill and have it fall to the street below on someone’s head!  We must have worked a week on the project, as there were at least a dozen fixtures.

When we finished the job the other guys and I stood there admiring our work.  There were three more poles sticking up between that building and another building next to us.  The roof on the adjoining building was about 3 stories lower than the roof of the Davenport.

As we were standing there I reached over and bumped a pole with the palm of my hand.  (I wondered why they didn’t want these three fixtures lit.)  The pole broke off at the concrete edge.

We managed to catch the pole before it went over the edge, and laid it down inside the parapet.  We all got quiet.  I felt rather sick.  How we had been hanging off those poles for a week, wiring them!  We picked up our tools and left the job rather quickly.  None of us wanted to go back and disconnect all those poles because they might have been a danger.

Even now, after many years, I still feel a little bit of a shudder.

The Davenport Hotel is, if not the oldest hotel in Spokane, certainly one of the oldest.  At one time it was a grand hotel!  I don’t know why it had deteriorated to the point it had when I was called out to work on it.  For a period of time the shop I was working for was taking care of the electrical, trying to keep it going.

There was a basement to the hotel, and also a sub-basement.  In the sub-basement there was an old air conditioner with water running through a grid.  It was defunct when I began working there.

The electrical tap, off of the city sub-electrical system, was still operating.  It came into the sub-basement from under the street.  The sub-basement was very damp, with water standing on the floor.  I was afraid to leave my tools there overnight, as I was concerned the whole thing might blow up at any time.  I have no idea how they finally corrected the dampness situation.

The basement extended out under the city sidewalk surrounding it.  An old antique elevator went up through the sidewalk to facilitate receiving or removing materials. In the basement there were layers and layers of pipe attached to the ceiling.  The uppermost, top layer was the electrical conduits.  The electrical conduit was connected to open junction boxes with wire sticking out.  It was not possible to fix the open boxes with code worthy wiring methods because the layers of plumbing (sewer, water, gas, steam, air, etc.) kept the boxes out of reach.  The heating system for the hotel was steam.  Valves were located throughout the hotel to regulate the heating.

On the first floor there was a laundry and a sewing room that were no longer in use.  In fact, no one knew the sewing room was there until a wall was removed during renovation.

The most incredible thing about the hotel was the kitchen.  It was decided to remove all the old cooking equipment and install new equipment.  The existing units were made of cast iron and had never been moved from the time the kitchen was first installed.  When the cast iron equipment was removed they workers found a buildup of hardened grease up to 18 inches deep.

Working on all the equipment was an education in itself.  When the electrical inspector came down to inspect my work, I pointed out to him that there were wires lying across a steam pipe.  I told him I hadn’t done that.  Then I pointed out open junction boxes.  I said I couldn’t reach them to fix them.  He commented that it was pretty bad but made no further comments.

Later on I learned that in the Davenport’s “Hey Days”, the inspector I conferred with had been the building electrician.

Over the years since the Davenport Hotel was first built, many codes – both electrical and building standards – have changed.

Recently the Davenport has been restored and remodeled to a five star hotel.

One day a local bank called my current employer to have us come down and check out why some of their circuits were not working.  On the lowest floor there were the main electrical panel and several other electrical panels.  Scattered about the building in various locations were more electrical panels.

I checked all of the panels I could find, and couldn’t find anything wrong.  I checked frequently with the people working there and no one knew of any other electrical panels.  So I went searching.  I went through all of the floors of the building to see if there were other panels that no one seemed to know about.

One door opened into a large utility room.  It contained air conditioners, furnaces and fans.  Aha!  There was also another door leading off somewhere.  When I opened the door I learned that it was a door to the outside with a flight of stairs leading to the street.

I also learned it was connected to a warning siren.

I immediately closed the door, hurried through the room into the main area of that floor to an elevator.

All the elevators had immediately gone to the top floor and locked there.  I took the stairway down to the bottom level, quickly, and resumed my search down there.  I pretended that I had been there all the time.  After awhile the sirens quit and the elevators started working.

I went back up to the third floor.  It seemed to be the area where the power was mostly out.  I asked each employee if they had seen any sort of electrical panel anywhere.  Person after person just gave me blank looks.

Finally in one office the guy behind the desk pointed at a wall and said there was something behind the picture, but he didn’t know what it was.  I moved the picture and there beneath it was a small 12 circuit electrical panel!

Sure enough, two breakers were tripped.  I reset them and everything worked.  I located the custodian and told him what I had found and where.  He was as surprised as the man at the desk in the room where I had found the panel.  I suggested that he make an “as built” diagram locating all the electrical equipment and controls.

I never heard a word about any complaints from the bank, or of any “as built” being made.

I know I got paid for my time.

Today the bank is gone and the building still stands.