Told by the Pioneers - Washington Secretary of State

Told by the Picmeers
mahogany were used in parts of the building', and California redwood
was imported for finishing some of the upper rooms.
Wall Paper Over Art TVork
According to Mrs. W. C. Gray, W. 414 Sixth, for whom the house
was built, Charles Wilbert, still a resident of Spokane, was the contractor,
and the late H. Pereusse was the architect. Terms rarely
heard now were used by Mrs. Gray in telling what the mansion contained.
There was a drawing' room, a butler's pantry, aleoye suites
and other features which are noticeable by their absence in homes in
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modern times.
Quarters for servants were finished on the third floor. There was
a carriage entrance approaching a high step at the west side of the
house, where the ladies entered their carriages or mounted horses, in
the days before automobiles.
One of the rooms was frescoed by an artist from Germany but in
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the ill luck which befell the place in later years someone co\'ered the
frescoing with cheap wall paper.
Builder Well.to-do
"When my husband built the house he was considered one of the
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,,'ell-to-do men of the cih'. We had sold the site of the California
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House at Front and Howard the year before as a site for the city hall
for $67,000, and Mr. Gray had been successful in a number of railway
construction contracts, a business that he followed before coming to
Spokane in ] 878.
""'\Ve had a ranch of 700 acres in Stevens county, which we operated
with a number of men, but Mr. Gray wanted a nice house in Spokane
that we could call home. He built that house to please me, but to tell
the truth, we lived in it but one year, and I afterward usel! to joke him
by calling it "Gray's folly."
"During our first winter in the house, 1892-1893, it was \'ery cold,
aud Mr. Grav estimated that it cost him $100 a month to heat it.
About that ti~e my health was poor and I found that life on the farm
in Stevens county was more beneficial, so most of my time in the next
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few years was passed on the farm.
Ownership Becomes Burden
"Mr. Gray and myself were pals and business partners. "'\Ye had no
children. "'\Vhile he consulted me about everything that he did, he was
the business head of the house and I usually concurred in everything
as being for the best. While I did not encourage his building such a
fine home, still it was all for me and I acquiesced.
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