Today on the Inland Journal, a visit to one of Spokane’s most historic buildings.
One of Spokane’s most well-loved buildings is up for sale. For the last 17 years, the law firm Eymann, Allison, Hunter and Jones has owned the Patsy Clark Mansion in Browne’s Addition. Now the four partners have put it on the market, ready to pass on the iconic building to another buyer who will take good care of it.
Mining executive Patrick Clark, also known as Patsy, had the renowned architect Kirtland Cutter design and build the three-and-a-half story home for Clark’s family in 1889. It has since served as a bed and breakfast and a spendy restaurant. When it went on the market in 2002, Richard Eymann took notice. His law firm was based downtown, but open to a move.
“I think all of us knew that this was an extraordinary site and it was empty. The restaurant had essentially stopped operating. And so we decided to at least take a look," Eymann said. "We walked in here and everything was really dusty. It hadn’t been operating for awhile. But its incredible uniqueness, the furnishings, were kind of overwhelming. We could actually own this building and operate a law firm out of it.”
And so the firm bought it and did some major renovation. The partners wanted the building to look like it did originally. They had to make some concessions to modernity; for example, they had to add a long handicap-accessible ramp that runs along one side of the building. They had to gradually jack up the middle of the building by an inch because it had sunk over the years. There was a new roof. Repairs in the kitchen. Fix cracks in the walls caused by a minor earthquake several years ago.
From the main floor, Eymann takes us down a short flight of stairs into a cozy little room dominated by a small, round table.
“There’s rumors that the first president that ate dinner in Patsy Clark’s was Theodore Roosevelt. We’ve never been able to verify that, but that particular rumor’s been around," he said. "We do know that the senior Bush ate dinner in here. In fact, the chair that he sat in, we know have in the drawing room. It now has his name on it. We also heard that President Ford also, when he came to Spokane, also came here for dinner, but we’re not sure that he had dinner in this particular room.”
Now the first floor rooms, with their large windows that look out over Coeur d’Alene Park, are for the lawyers to meet with their clients. And they’re available for public meetings.
As you ascend the stairs to the second floor, you see two huge Tiffany stained glass windows.
The partners’ offices are on the next level. A pool table from the era occupies the center of John Allison’s office. He says the best space went to Eymann.
“Nobody questioned who got the primo office when we moved in. This was Richard’s dream and passion and it was a big lift to get us in here. The roof alone was $100,000. That kind of gets you on the right road as to what it took to preserve this place," Allison said.
Partner Carol Hunter’s office is down the hall. When she’s there working, she says she sometimes feels the history of the old mansion.
“Yeah, even now and then I just kind of stop and I imagine kids running around, because that’s really what it was. It was a house," Hunter said. "I don’t think about the restaurant days so much, all the hustle and bustle. But I think about the little kids.”
Those are the little things that make this mansion so special for the four principals in the practice, including co-owner Richard Eymann.
“We want to make sure that whoever buys this place become the kind of stewards that we have been," he said.
Eymann says the partners don’t have a timetable for selling. Could be tomorrow, could be five years. There’s no fixed asking price, though Eymann says the break-even point for them is about $2.5 million.
“It’s very hard on all of us as partners to even consider selling the place and we’ll probably cry the day we walk out the door," he said.
But all good things come to an end.
The winning buyer will not only get the mansion, but a carriage house behind the building and a two-story duplex originally built as a space for in-laws to stay.