Spokane’s South Hill and Browne’s Addition are known for large, sometimes historic, homes built between the city’s 1880s founding and World War II.
An aerial survey of northwest Spokane shows thousands of uniform, two-bedroom homes north of Wellesley, almost all built after WWII.
During the post-war construction boom, most of these homes were built by Western Mortgage Co. and Western Builders Inc., and their subsidiary businesses, including Alberta Homes, Northhill Homes, Wellesley Villages, Decatur Homes, Endicott Homes and Westview Investments, each one focused on a particular northside development.
R. Kline Hilman, a Seattle-area financier, organized Western Mortgage Co., later merged it with real estate firm Murphey Favre and financed many northside homes.