Five years ago, waist-high weeds dominated cracked sidewalks along South Perry Street, drug deals went down in the middle of the day, and graffiti-covered commercial buildings sat boarded up and vacant, some residents there say.


This area was like going through Watts. There was graffiti all over the place; It was just pathetic, says Mel Silva, who moved to Spokane with his wife, Lynn, from Southern California in the mid-1990s, then opened Madeleines Antiques & Home Dcor, at 1014 S. Perry, in 1998.


Today, neighborhood residents and passers-by stroll through the South Perry Business District, which generally extends along South Perry from 8th to 12th, and business spaces there are filling up. Even the electricity-driven blades on an old building constructed to look like a Dutch windmill, which has served as a sort of landmark for the neighborhood, are spinning again, after decades of neglect.


New ventures, such as South Perry Therapeutic Massage & Shiatsu, Taekwon-Do America, and The Shop, have remodeled once-vacant structures scattered amongst the neighborhoods venerable businesses, such as Altamont Drugs and Liberty Park Florist & Greenhouse Inc.


Now, several shop owners along South Perry are planning a block party on July 22, which will include entertainment, a quilt show, and a classic car show, and are discussing ways to spruce up that commercial strip further. The group has enlisted city of Spokane urban planner Thomas Reese, to help the business district develop a conceptual design plan.


Plans for new streetscape


Last fall, some South Perry shop ownersled by the Silvasformed the South Perry Business Association. That group now is working with Reese to brainstorm themes for the busy thoroughfare, which carries more than 12,000 cars a day.


The whole purpose is to boost economic development, revitalize the neighborhood, and slow traffic down along Perry, Reese says. The goal is to make the area enticing enough that motorists will slow down and eventually stop and shop.


So far, the business association is leaning toward an arts-and-crafts theme, but also hopes to capture some of the areas historic elements. Some of the districts buildings were erected in the late 1800s, says Lynn Silva.


Theres a number of artists already in that area, and so the arts is a common thread that ties everything together in the district, Reese says. He adds that some of the artists who live or work in that area already have agreed to make park benches and planters that might be incorporated into the streetscape. He also has been trying to help the association decide how it can most effectively spend the $45,000 in community development block-grant money it has been promised by the East Central Neighborhood Association. The funds will be released to the association by the end of this month.


Although the association hasnt decided for sure how it will spend the money, it expects to select one intersectionlikely the intersection of Ninth Avenue and Perry Street, near Grant Elementary Schooland concentrate its efforts on street improvements there.


Reese has suggested that the association build what he calls bulb outs, which are concrete areas that would protrude into the intersection and could include planters with trees and some colorful shrubs and flowers. A bulb out narrows a roadway briefly, shortens the pedestrian crosswalk, and slows traffic. The citys engineering department currently is evaluating whether such a design concept could be allowed there, he says.


Other design concepts being considered include the planting of trees along South Perry and some type of welcome monument at both ends of the district.


Our first priority is to identify projects that could be accomplished using the $45,000 grant the district will receive, Reese says. The second step is to give the district an overall conceptual plan that would allow them to complete capital improvement projects down the road. Were trying to design a streetscape thats rich in texture and color and that provides some pedestrian gathering places.


Jim Ellis, vice president of the family-owned Liberty Park Florist & Greenhouse Inc., says some people have begun to show an interest in the possible street improvements.


Some of the ideas are just pie in the sky, but whatever improvements are made will be good for the area, Ellis says. The improvements can only help the businesses and the people who live here.


The city also has partnered with the Spokane County Air Pollution Control Authority and applied for a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in an effort to bolster the South Perry area, Reese says. The $75,000 grant, which is awaiting a nod from the EPA, could help the city do a pilot study to demonstrate how a district revitalization project could cut down on short commute trips and improve air quality.


The grant wouldnt pay for improvements in the district, but would fund the study of ideas to reduce commute trips, Reese says. For instance, Reese envisions using part of the Excell Foods stores parking lot for what he calls a shop-a-lot, which would allow commuters to park in the grocery store parking lot, catch a trolley that would drop them off at work downtown, then return via the trolley to the parking lot in the evening, where the commuters could run into the store to do some grocery shopping before returning home. To encourage shopping, Reese says South Perry shops could give out trolley tokens when customers make purchases over a certain amount.


When you put this total package together, it becomes extremely marketable, Reese says. The district could then use that package to pursue other money for further improvements, he says.


Reese explains that the South Perry neighborhood is the perfect area to pilot such a revitalization approach because it has sufficient services so that residents dont have to leave the area to run their errands. For instance, theres a grocery store, a post office, retail shops, restaurants, a park, and an elementary school. He says that he also will try to provide the association with a laundry list of other types of businesses that it might try to attract, such as a gas station, a coin-operated laundry, and an ice cream parlor, to help round out its offerings.


The neighborhood has a lot of the neat elements that create a great skeleton from which to work. Also, they have a core group of people who are willing to work to make this happen, Reese says.


Reclaiming the district


The South Perry neighborhood, which originally was known as the Grant Park Addition, has a rich history. The area is home to what some believe to be a Gustav Stickley-designed house, located near 14th and Ivory Street. Stickley was known by some as the father of the arts and crafts architectural movement in the U.S.


The neighborhood also is dotted with classic Victorian houses, features two community parks, and currently claims a fairly low crime rate.


According to one Liberty Park resident, though, that hasnt always been the case.


The resident, who asked not to be named for fear of retribution, claims that a loosely formed organization, called the South Spokane Action Committee, which was formed in the mid-1990s, helped to put a number of people in jail, after which it was disbanded. That group worked to rid the area of prostitution and a total of 14 drug houses between 1995 and 1998, partly by serving as eyes and ears for the police, she claims.


Were still not perfect, but my God, compared to what it used to be, its great, the resident says. New houses are being built, there are far less rentals, and we even have young families moving in.


Habitat for Humanity-Spokane has completed eight homes on the 1800 block of East Sixth Avenue and has four more under construction there. Nearby, at 1004 E. Eighth, Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery is building a 12,000-square-foot facility to replace its current building.


Liberty Park Florists Ellis says he never noticed a severe crime problem in the Liberty Park area, but concedes that it had gained a reputation for that.


I think it was mostly just kids dinkin around, Ellis says, but we dont even have much of that anymore. It has really dropped off, and I think thats because if you take care of something, people tend to leave it alone. I think thats what weve seen here.


Investing in the district


Mel Silva echoes Ellis sentiment.


The people who were causing some of the problems here began to see some of us working here late at night to renovate these buildings, Silva says. I think the security in the area was increased just by the activity that was going on.


The Silvas spent four months renovating the 3,000-square-foot space that now houses Madeleines. At first, Lynn Silva says, the spaces windows had been knocked out, the awnings were falling off, and ceiling tiles sagged.


In September 1998, Madeleines opened. The awnings were gone, the buildings wooden floors had been refinished, and a fresh coat of taupe-colored paint covered the graffiti. Now, the nearly 100-year-old building is packed with antiques, some of which are older than the building itself.


About six months after Madeleines opened, Mark Camp opened his trendy espresso shop in a former mechanics shop, at 924 S. Perry.


Camp, who began leasing the old shop about six years ago, initially used the space as a welding shop where he made metallic art pieces, and later as a hangout where he and his band practiced. Then, he decided to gut the building, refurbish it, and open the coffee shop, which he did in March 1999.


When the weather is nice, its not uncommon to see the bay garage doors of the shop wide open and people sitting at metal patio tables out in the parking lot, surrounded by metal oil drums planted with pansies. Artwork by artists from the neighborhood hangs on the walls.


In addition to espresso drinks, Camp and his partners, Robert Hartwig and Jason Williams, also mix compact disks at The Shop in a recording studio theyve developed there. The recording business, called Black Coffee Recording Co., records songs for clients as well as live performances that occur at The Shop.


It really has worked well, Camp says. It sort of has become a gathering place. People around here easily can walk to it. They really associate with it. Its also one of the few places in town where you can come to hear live music.


When The Shop opened last year, though, there were at least five vacant business spaces along South Perry, Camp says. He teamed up with Mel Silva to form the South Perry Business Association to rally some of the business owners in the district, such as Gertrudes Black Forest Deli, Altamont Drugs, and Liberty Park Florist, to help recruit new businesses to the area. Silva and Camp are president and vice president of the business association, respectively.


Eventually, new businesses began to open up shop, and the businesses that were there began to spruce up their spaces. Camp cites as examples South Perry Therapeutic Massage & Shiatsu and Sunnybrook Farms, two of six new businesses that have opened their doors in the district during the last 12 months, and Lonnies Automotive Repair, at 826 S. Perry, which paved its parking lot. The massage parlor did a lot of remodeling to its now pink building, at 1016 S. Perry, before it moved in, and Sunnybrook Farms, a country gift shop at 1102 S. Perry, has expanded its store and also renovated the windmill, he says.


Several shop owners say the operating windmill, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, especially has helped breathe life back into the district.


Fran Anderson, owner of the 9-month-old gift shop, says the windmill is on its third motor since its blades began to turn again, but she believes all of the bugs finally have been worked out and its going to continue spinning for a while. A relative, Bill Warmenhoven, rebuilt the windmills blades and motors, she says.


No one is exactly sure when the windmill first stopped. Anderson says one customer recalled the windmill running when she graduated from high school in 1936, and that has been the furthest back anyone has remembered it operating.


Besides the work on the windmill, Anderson and her family have enlarged the shop from about 350 square feet of space to about 800 square feet. They also added a patio space on the shops south side this past spring. The sweet-smelling shop brims with scented candles, potpourri, note cards, and knickknacks.


People see the windmill going as they drive past, and they decide to drop in, Anderson says. It has been great.


My hope is that more neighborhood businesses like this open up, Anderson says. The more shopping that moves in, the more draw well have.


The South Perry Business District additionally is home to a quilting service, a small-engine repair shop thats located in an old firehouse, a commercial photographer, a hair salon, a dentist, a print shop, and a second-hand store.


There hadnt been much interest in this area in years, says Ellis, who is treasurer of the South Perry Business Association. Now, theres a nice variety of businesses moving in, and I think they mix well together.