Ghosts at the Spokesman-Review and the Chronicle Buildings, Spokane, WA

Last October, we did a brief walk-through, along with Psychic Medium Jennifer Von Behren, of the 1891 Spokesman-Review Building and Tower with Spokesman-Review reporter Cannon Barnett.

Neither the Review nor the Chronicle building has ever been investigated before, so in order to try and find out who the ghosts we saw in each area might be, one has to research the history of the buildings and the area they are in, as well as do an actual investigation to try and connect with the ghosts again.

In the back of the newsroom on the fourth floor of the Review building, Jennifer saw a short elderly female spirit and a male spirit who said he had been a reporter.

In 1912, Daily Chronicle editor Edward H. Rothrock was murdered in Room 21 on the second floor of the Review building.

He was well liked and very dedicated to his job, often being the first to arrive and the last to leave.

Up until 1894, the Review building was strictly a business building, but from 1895 on, there were lodging and boarding rooms available as well. The proprietor and landlady of the rooms in 1900 was Charlotte P. Carew. After being in Spokane only a short while, she passed away in March 1901 at the age of 62, possibly on the third floor of the Review building.

In March 1902, Mrs. M.A. Finnegan became the new proprietor, and the lodging business from then on was known as the Hotel Review. It was in operation until the mid-1920s and changed hands more than 10 times.

Over the years, there were three other recorded deaths at the Hotel Review.

In the archives room, Jennifer saw a tiny female spirit who had a strong Asian accent, and she seemed apprehensive. She said it was a cleaning area where she worked.

Jennifer felt that the basement had had a lot of water at some point, as she could hear chaos and a lot of running. The reporters confirmed that the basement had flooded several times, causing a great deal of damage.

The area streets flooded several times in 1894.

In the back corner of the basement, Jennifer saw a male and a tiny, short-haired female spirit. The female followed us down from upstairs. The two spirits knew each other. The male spirit used to work down there with coal. He said that the area had been way more open before.

The female spirit wants to be acknowledged, and she still feels like everyone's boss. She moves around the building sometimes and wants people to like her.

The male spirit doesn't like to hang around down there as much.

Both spirits interacted with the equipment we had set out for them.

Jennifer could also hear another male spirit down there who had been there during the flood.

In the tower area, Jennifer feels like there is a doctor or a dentist there. She also sees a female spirit who used to be some kind of teacher, possibly a private teacher for select families and a small group of kids. She was fascinated by the equipment and its colors and was sitting on the floor trying to play with everything.

She was the wife of a former employee.

She loves people and would love more visitors. She said that people used to be able to come there. She wants the remodel up there to be done.

She also goes to other buildings with other spirits, as downtown Spokane is quite the social scene, and her friends come hang out in the tower as well.

Jennifer also saw a male spirit whose name was John in one of the rooms on our way down.

The only reference I found to a deceased female teacher was Ms. Rice, who taught children in the church that was located on the site where the Review building now stands.

The last area we went to was the "haunted" staircase located in the Chronicle building. It is accessible only to the tenants of the apartments, which used to be business offices until 2016.

On the fourth-floor staircase, Jennifer saw an agitated and very drunk male spirit who needed help. Jennifer feels that he passed away that way, and he had been there a while. We caught his voice on a voice recorder, and he also used the equipment we had set out.

Jennifer also saw another male spirit there who had been shot in the head.

The Chronicle building doesn't have any recorded deaths, so again, one has to look into the history of the area and what was there before.

Hauntings can be related to the land, a building, a person, or an object. Energy attracts energy, and spirits roam. These spirits can be from the 1800s or more recent years, even from another state.

I found eight recorded deaths of people with gunshot wounds to the head and three deaths caused by alcohol.

In this block alone, there used to be two undertakers' establishments and a morgue from 1889 until about early 1900. In those early days, those who died—some even from out of state—ended up in one of the morgues or undertakers' parlors. There were many undertakers on the surrounding blocks as well in later years.

In 1889, the Commercial Hotel was on the corner of Riverside and Lincoln Street, where there were three reported deaths.

From Riverside to Sprague and Monroe to Lincoln, there were lodging houses on all sides after the Great Fire of 1889, where people passed away, ending up in one of the morgues in the area, and some died on the streets.

We don't know who all the spirits were that we encountered, but there are many possibilities to go from.

We want to thank Cannon Barnett for inviting us to this awesome building, Brooke Lauerman, and everyone at the Spokesman-Review involved in making this walk-through possible.

Also, a shout-out to Dana and Summer at the Spokane Public Library Inland Northwest Special Collections for the research help, and Logan at the City of Spokane Historic Preservation Office.

You can also find the article written by Cannon Barnett about this walk-through in the Oct. 21, 2025, issue of the Spokesman-Review.

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