page_title: The Crescent (department store)
section_title: Beginnings
hierarchical_section_title: The Crescent (department store) / History / Beginnings
caption_attribution_description: Former site of The Crescents department store, University City Shoppingi Center, Spokane.jpg
context_page_description: The Crescent was a small chain of department stores founded and based in Spokane, Washington. Once a subsidiary of Marshall Field & Company, the chain was sold to BATUS Retail Group in 1982. BATUS renamed the stores Frederick & Nelson, the company's Seattle, Washington division, in 1988. Frederick and Nelson eventually filed for bankruptcy and liquidated in 1992. At its peak, The Crescent operated seven department stores in Washington and Oregon, including three in Spokane.
context_section_description: The Crescent, originally the Spokane Dry Goods Company, was Spokane's leading department store for decades. The original Crescent, located on West Riverside Avenue next to the Spokesman-Review Tower building, opened for business on August 5, 1889, the day after the Great Fire that destroyed most of downtown Spokane.  As the town’s only remaining dry goods store, its entire stock sold out on the first day of business.  Owners Robert B. Paterson and James M. Comstock supported the post-fire effort and did not raise prices in order to take advantage of the disaster, which began the tradition, “be fair to everyone.” Construction of the Crescent building, designed by noted Spokane architect Loren L. Rand, began in 1917 and continued to 1919. Originally five stories in height, the building was later expanded to seven. In 1949 the Crescent purchased the Alexander Building, adjacent to the south, so that it extended half a city block. The final expansion was made in 1973 to include the NW corner of the block.
caption: The former University City store, still vacant
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