Hillyard: Spokane's Oldest Neighborhood

The Hillyard neighborhood is located in the northeast corner of the city of Spokane in the state of Washington. The zip code 99217 encompasses the entire neighborhood and parts of unincorporated Spokane County that include Orchard Prairie and Pleasant Prairie. Spokane is the second most populous metropolitan area in the state and is situated within 18 miles of the Idaho border and 92 miles of the Canadian border. This places Hillyard in the Pacific Time Zone, or PST/PDT. In terms of the 2020 Census, Hillyard is situated in the 2.01, 2.02, and 144 census tracts.

The Hillyard neighborhood covers approximately 3.1 square miles of the city of Spokane. By all accounts, this area is classified to be within the urban area boundary for Spokane-Spokane Valley. For Census 2020, the Census Bureau determined boundaries for urban areas with 5,000 or more people or 2,000 housing units, which could have fewer than 5,000 people.

Named after the great railroad tycoon James J. Hill, the northeastern Spokane neighborhood Hillyard, derived from Hill's Yard, was put on the map thanks to the booming railroad industry in 1892. The townsite was originally platted for 5,000 homesites adjacent to the rail yard.

The rail yard was the ultimate economic driver of the late 1800s in Spokane, developed by the Great Northern rail line. James Hill situated the rail shop as a west coast connector to his railroad operations in Minnesota. Additionally, the railroad giant set up shop just outside of Spokane city limits to avoid the steep city taxes. This brought ample job opportunities to the area and attracted immigrants laborers, especially of Italian and Japanese decent, looking for work.

The rail shop boasted a 20-stall engine house with shops to repair locomotives and rail cars, and offices. Its greatest claim to fame was the production of the R-1 Mallet starting in 1927, the largest and most powerful steam engine to date. Over the following years, the rail yard built nearly one a month totaling 26 by the time they stopped production.

Most men who have really lived have had, in some share, their great adventure. This railway is mine.

Hillyard was incorporated as a town in 1907 with the rail yard and shops carefully being excluded from the city limits. To its south, the city of Spokane had begun to grow to the point of bordering Hillyard. Spokane looked to annex Hillyard into its limits, but was not successful until there was an election held on the issue in 1924. Hillyard brought approximately 4,500 people and just under one square mile of land to the city of Spokane.

After years of lucrative success, the economic boom in the area slowly came to a halt. The diesel-electric engine proved to be a formidable alternative to steam power and began to phase out the older technology. The old steam locomotive shop was transformed into a heavy repair shop for the new diesel engines. 1968 ultimately began the shift out of Hillyard due to the large scale merger of Great Northern, Northern Pacific, and other smaller rail lines to form the Burlington Northern.

The consolidation effort moved jobs and repair shops to other areas of the country, in turn leading to a economic crash in Hillyard where hundreds lost their jobs. The working class of the community effectively lost its largest employer. By 1982, all rail yards in Hillyard had been shut down completely. The coming decades brought blight and poverty to northeast Spokane.

According to 2020 Census Tract data, Hillyard has a population of approximately 9,686 people. Of that, 12.6 percent are aged 65 and older. Over the last decade, Hillyard experienced an estimated percent population change like that of the county, an increase of between 10 and 30 percent. The median age was 37.5 years old with the largest age subsection being 25 to 29 years old. This neighborhood accounts for approximately 4.4 percent of the population for the city of Spokane with a population of 219,185. The population of Spokane County grew by nearly 68,000 people from 471,221 in 2010 to 539,339 in 2020, a 14.5 percent increase. In the past 20 years, Washington state has seen a population increase of just over 30 percent, totaling an additional 1.8 million people. Spokane's growth in population compared to the region and state can be seen in the graph below.

Based on 2020 Census figures, Hillyard is a predominantly white neighborhood, similar to the racial makeup of Spokane show in the neighboring bar graph. While three-quarters of the neighborhood population identify as white, there is a significant composition of minority populations in the Hispanic, Asian, Black, and American Indian communities; 8.2 percent, 2.8 percent, 2.5 percent, and 1.7 percent respectively. The remaining 8.6 percent is comprised of individuals who identify as multiracial.

The education attainment in Hillyard is generally working class and has a population with a bachelors degree or higher at 14 percent. The remaining 86 percent is represented by those who took some college or received an associates degree, 34.2 percent having achieved a high school diploma, or equivalent, and 5.8 percent having never graduated from primary and/or secondary education.

The National Register of Historic Places recognized the Hillyard Market Street district as a part of its rankings in 2002. Market Street is widely known as the main arterial of Hillyard. Over 85% of central Hillyard's historic buildings are still in tact in this area. The simple one and two-story buildings represent the construction, materials, and design of early twentieth century commercial structures associated with a typical working-class town.

Spokane locals describe Hillyard as a prime spot for antiquing given its abundance of antique shops and historical architecture. There have been various newspaper articles over the years that have highlighted the historic Hillyard business district as an integral part of their connection to place and culture.

"I like Hillyard best because of the people. They have been here for years. They are the children, grandchildren and great grandchildren of the rail workers that started this town."

Since the depreciation of the local economy from the exodus of the rail industry, Hillyard has been regarded as having "rough edges" and being the economically depressed part of Spokane. The median household income in Hillyard is nearly $30,000 lower than the state of Washington. Washington has a poverty income set at an annual household income of $52,570 or less, placing both the city of Spokane and the Hillyard neighborhood below it.

The poverty rate tells a similar story would 15.2 percent of Hillyard residents qualifying as in poverty. According to the literature, concentrations of poor households virtually guarantee that poverty becomes multigenerational. Poverty is cyclical by nature. The comparison of income from neighborhood to state level in the table below tells a compelling story regarding the importance of policy development and implementation at a local level. Opportunity and access can change significantly from the neighborhood to statewide levels.

There is a relatively low housing vacancy rate in the Hillyard neighborhood at 5 percent. Of the occupied homes, approximately 60.2 percent are owner-occupied and 34.8 percent renter-occupied. This ratio closely follows the Washington state average of 62.2 percent owner-occupied and 37.8 percent renter-occupied according to the 2020 Census. In Hillyard specifically, the 2022 average rent was $1,093.70, which corresponds to a 26 percent rent-to-income ratio. The median mortgage cost follows a similar trend at an average of $1,206.70 at a 29 percent mortgage-to-income ratio.

The Washington Housing Portal, linked above, highlights multiple affordable housing locations throughout the state. Fortunately, Hillyard is home to one of them: The Agnes Kehoe Place Apartments which was previously highlighted in the community assets section. Originally built in 1907 by the Hillyard School District, Agnes Kehoe Place was once the site of Hillyard High School. The last Hillyard high school class graduated in 1931 and then during World War II, the buildings were converted to the Martindale Apartments. In 2010, the apartments were converted to affordable housing using Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) and Historic Tax Credits (HTC) with a price tag of $12.3 million.

The apartments were named after Agnes Kehoe, a business woman, state legislator, and civic leader. She was responsible for fueling the initiative to preserve many historic buildings in Hillyard such as the old Hillyard High School and was a strong proponent for social services in the community such as education and poverty. In her tenure with the state, she was one of only eight women on the 145-member legislature. Notably, she championed the creation of the state library commission in 1939.

After the closure of the rail yards in the early 1980s, there was significant contamination of bulk petroleum, lead, aluminum dross, bunker C fuel, and solvents discovered in the soil that can be attributed to the decades of industrial use on the site. The site became commonly known as "The Yard". The citizen and city concern is predominantly around the contaminants leeching into the Spokane Valley-Rathdrum Prairie aquifer. Heavy metal contamination has been linked to potential long term health effects, especially to those under the age of 18 (EPA, 2024).

In 2022, the City of Spokane was awarded a $500,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for Brownfield Redevelopment. Funds from this grant will go towards environmental assessments, reuse plans, and the Hillyard Subarea Plan and supporting community engagement activities.

Hillyard has been working to find its footing for decades. Multiple plans have came and gone with great intention, but without the actionable strategies to bring forth real change. A brief outline of historic plans is outlined below:

In May 2023, the Northeast Public Development Authority (NEPDA), in partnership with Stantec, began the pursuit of developing a plan that would take existing conditions of and previous planning efforts into consideration to bring forth a detailed set of actionable planning strategies and recommendations for implementation, specifically for the Hillyard subarea.

The basis of this plan centers around developing an urban framework plan with revitalization strategies throughout the neighborhood focusing on mobility, supportive infrastructure, amenities, marketing/branding, and management. Each property in the plan area will be added to an opportunity inventory that documents property conditions and identifies sites for potential development. The focus area for the project was divided into six plan areas as shown in the visual below:

1. The Hillyard Business District
2. Hillyard Residential
3. The Yard
4. East Wellesley Business District
5. Esmeralda
6. Beacon Hill

We want to create something that is emblematic of Hillyard's trajectory. Hillyard's on the rise, and we want to tap into that momentum.

A key principle of community development emphasizes the importance that neighborhoods are not static and should evolve over time based on the evolving population of the community. Since the project's genesis, planners have described the public engagement as amble and robust. The Public input and community involvement have been at the forefront of the planning efforts for the Hillyard Subarea Plan.

The consensus has been that the themes shown in the graphic shown below are of particular importance. Each of the plan areas will have a specific vision for growth and development based on the its specific needs.

The strategies recommended will have an emphasis on the expansion of financial and physical capital, while maintaining the strength of the existing social and cultural resources present in the neighborhood. The Hillyard Subarea plan is anticipating adoption in summer 2024.

Despite its shortcomings, the sense of community in Hillyard is strong in its history and community involvement. The neighborhood has several organizations such as the Hillyard Neighborhood Council and the Hillyard Community Futures, a non-profit organization dedicated to continued revitalization of it's historic community, that citizens participate in to better their community. Hillyard to date has stood the test of time and continues to exhibit cultural resilience. The significant amount of support from policy makers for the revitalization of their constituents community has made the difference of allowing thorough and comprehensive analysis. These place-based approaches help to recognize the contribution and value of community sentiment and support to residents (Green & Haines).

The future of Hillyard is a dynamic and thriving metropolis that allows for the continued evolution of community development led by active engagement. This degree of community involvement is the true catalyst for meaningful change. It is evident that the community is eager to see the reinvigoration of Hillyard and all of northeast Spokane.