100 years ago in Spokane: A park with no name? More like a name with no park, a city business group complained

The East Side Industrial Club, a business group, wanted to do away with the name Union Park for its East Spokane neighborhood.

Why?

Because there was no such park in Union Park.

“It was claimed that visitors to the city take a car marked ‘Union Park’ and upon arriving at the end of the line, are disappointed in finding no park or place to rest,” the Spokane Daily Chronicle wrote.

The group wrote a letter to the Spokane City Council asking for action. The council was considering the change and also planned to ask the streetcar companies to change the name of the route.

The club members apparently got their wish, eventually. Today, the neighborhood is no longer known as Union Park. It is called East Central, Eastside or East Sprague.

From the auto beat: The Inland Empire Automobile Association was running a contest to pick the best nickname for reckless auto drivers.

Some of the early contenders were “Juggernauts,” “Gas Hounds,” “Me-First-ers,” and “Loose Nuts.”

From the baseball beat: Eleven Spokane Valley churches went on record as opposing a proposed Sunday baseball league.

They did not object to the baseball part of it; they objected to the “Sunday” part of it.

They said they would support a Saturday league.

So on this day

(From the Associated Press)

1991: The Warsaw Pact military alliance came to an end.