Spokane Coliseum (nicknamed The Boone Street Barn)
was an indoor arena in the
northwestern United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
, located in
Spokane, Washington
Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the ...
. Opened in late 1954,
it had a
seating capacity
Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available, and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile tha ...
of 5,400.
After more than a year of construction, the arena was dedicated on December 3, 1954, in a program headlined by
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is opera ...
soprano
Patrice Munsel, a Spokane native.
The largest crowds in its early years were for a Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
Mass
Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different ele ...
and stage shows by Lawrence Welk
Lawrence Welk (March 11, 1903 – May 17, 1992) was an American accordionist, bandleader, and television impresario, who hosted the '' The Lawrence Welk Show'' from 1951 to 1982. His style came to be known as "champagne music" to his radio, te ...
and Liberace
Władziu Valentino Liberace (May 16, 1919 – February 4, 1987) was an American pianist, singer, and actor. A child prodigy born in Wisconsin to parents of Italian and Polish origin, he enjoyed a career spanning four decades of concerts, recordi ...
, respectively.[
It was host to a number of teams, including the ]Spokane Chiefs
The Spokane Chiefs are a major junior ice hockey team that plays in the Western Hockey League based out of Spokane, Washington. The team plays its home games at the Spokane Arena. Their uniforms are similar to those of the NHL's Montreal Cana ...
of the Western Hockey League
The Western Hockey League (WHL) is a major junior ice hockey league based in Western Canada and the Northwestern United States. The WHL is one of three leagues that constitutes the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) as the highest level of junior ...
(WHL). The arena served as the home of the Gonzaga University
Gonzaga University (GU) () is a private Jesuit university in Spokane, Washington. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. Founded in 1887 by Joseph Cataldo, an Italian-born priest and Jesuit missionary, the ...
basketball team
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's ...
, from its entry into NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...
University Division (now Division I) competition in 1958
Events
January
* January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being.
* January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed.
* January 4
** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third ...
, until the opening of the on-campus John F. Kennedy Memorial Pavilion in 1965
Events January–February
* January 14 – The Prime Minister of Northern Ireland and the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland meet for the first time in 43 years.
* January 20
** Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn in for a full term ...
, later the Charlotte Y. Martin Centre. The Bulldogs returned to the Coliseum in 1979
Events
January
* January 1
** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the '' International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the '' Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the so ...
, their first year in the West Coast Athletic Conference
The West Coast Conference (WCC) — known as the California Basketball Association from 1952 to 1956 and then as the West Coast Athletic Conference until 1989 — is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I consisting of ...
, for conference home games only, then returned to Kennedy Pavilion for the 1980–81 season. They continued to use the Coliseum for occasional home games until its demise. The venue was used for some events of the 1990 Goodwill Games
The 1990 Goodwill Games was the second edition of the international multi-sport event created by Ted Turner, which was held between July 20 and August 5, 1990. Following an inaugural edition in Moscow, the second games took place in Seattle, United ...
.
Replacement
During 1990, discussions for a new arena to replace the Spokane Coliseum began. One factor that led to the idea included several damages to the arena which had a leaking roof and rusted boilers.[ Another major issue was the size of Spokane Coliseum, which had then recently lost potential bookings from ]ZZ Top
ZZ Top is an American rock band formed in 1969 in Houston, Texas. For 51 years, they comprised vocalist-guitarist Billy Gibbons, drummer Frank Beard and vocalist-bassist Dusty Hill, until Hill's death in 2021. ZZ Top developed a signature sound ...
and New Kids on the Block
New Kids on the Block (also initialized as NKOTB) is an American boy band from Dorchester, Massachusetts. The band consists of brothers Jonathan and Jordan Knight, Joey McIntyre, Donnie Wahlberg, and Danny Wood. New Kids on the Block enjoy ...
due to its small size; Spokane was losing concert dates to larger venues in Pullman and Boise
Boise (, , ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho and is the county seat of Ada County. On the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is east of the Oregon border and north of the Nevada border. The downtown area's ...
.[
The Spokane Coliseum was replaced by the ]Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena
Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena (Spokane Arena) is a multi-purpose arena in the northwestern United States, located in Spokane, Washington. Opened in 1995, it is home to the Spokane Chiefs of the Western Hockey League.
Facility Construction
Wi ...
in 1995, and was demolished that spring and summer. The space it occupied is directly north of the new arena, towards Boone Avenue, now a parking lot.[
]
References
External links
''Spokane Daily Chronicle''
- photos from December 3, 1954 edition, opening night
Sports venues demolished in 1995
Defunct college basketball venues in the United States
Gonzaga Bulldogs basketball venues
Defunct indoor ice hockey venues in the United States
Sports venues in Spokane, Washington
Western Hockey League arenas
Defunct indoor arenas in the United States
1990 Goodwill Games venues
Demolished sports venues in Washington (state)
1954 establishments in Washington (state)
Sports venues completed in 1954
1995 disestablishments in Washington (state)
Indoor arenas in Washington (state)
Spokane Chiefs
{{Washington-stadium-stub