The initial ceremonies commemorating the 50th anniversary of Spokane’s world’s fair take place this weekend.
The opening celebration that kicks off nine weeks of Expo-related activities will run from 3-6 p.m. at Riverfront Park, with some of the entertainment happening in the remodeled pavilion that was the architectural centerpiece for the 1974 fair.
Other events include the Club ’74 Speakeasy parties at the Stepwell art venue in the northern part of the park. They include music spun by DJs, dancing and drinks. The parties will be held in during the evenings of May 4,5, 10, 11, 12, 17, 18 and 19.
The Riverfront Park pavilion and clocktower will be provide light shows every Friday through Sunday night through May 17.
The Spokane Indians baseball club will celebrate the opening of Expo ’74 Saturday night with a fireworks show after the team’s game against the Eugene Emeralds. The team will wear special jerseys with the Expo logo and offer a special ticket offer that includes a seat, hot dog and bag of chips for $19.74.
Others, including River Park Square, will also have special events on May 4. See a more complete list here.
Spokane Public Library remembers Trent Alley
A downtown neighborhood that was drastically changed to make room for Expo ’74 is now the subject of a new exhibit at Spokane’s Central Library.
Eastern Washington University archivist Steven Bingo says the area was located on Trent Avenue, now known as Spokane Falls Boulevard, roughly between Bernard and Post Streets. It’s known as Trent Alley.
“It was largely changed by the fair itself with many buildings coming down as part of the urban renewal project. In terms of learning about that history, some of it has to do with the way the fair built up the city. Some of it has to do with the ways in which certain parts of the city were built down as a result of the fair,” he said.
Bingo collected many of the artifacts that will be on display on the third floor of the Central Library until June 2.
“The original thought was that maybe [the construction that made way for the fair] displaced people,” said Margaret Albaugh, the program manager for health and wellness at Asians for Collective Liberation. She’s part of the group that developed the exhibit.
“The area was, I’ve seen it described as skid row in various publications. There were many businesses that had saved money, regulations were changing. They were able to move out of the area onto Sprague and Division and buy larger properties for a more affordable price where they could have their businesses. So they were actually excited to have the beautification project,” Albaugh said.
Albaugh says there are no historical markers to point people to the site of Trent Alley and show where some of its businesses were located, though efforts are underway to change that.
Expo at the MAC
The Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture also has a special exhibit in honor of the 50th anniversary of the world’s fair. “It Happened Here: Expo ‘74 Fifty Years After” opens to the public on May 4.
The display included artifacts from the exposition itself, such as an original Sky Ride gondola and a bejeweled denim and fur costume worn by Liberace for his Expo ‘74 performance. Some items that have never before been displayed include a “Poison Pen” collection of letters for and against President Richard Nixon’s participation in the fair’s opening.
“Hopefully, there's stuff that even the most ‘Expo Expert’ will come in and learn something new,” exhibit curator Anna Harbine said.
The exhibit aims to put the effects of the exposition on Spokane in context, Harbine said, citing the destruction of the historic international district known as Trent Alley.
“I think when we think about celebration, sometimes we want to think only of the happy things,” she said. “And the impacts are both positive and negative in the community.”
In addition to the material displays, the MAC has also set up a way for community members to share their own memories of Expo ‘74. Anyone with a story to tell about the fair can visit the portal the museum set up to submit audio, video, or text to the archive, and those stories will become part of the museum’s exhibit.
“It Happened Here” runs from May 4, 2024, to Jan. 26, 2025 at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture in Spokane.
