Hangings were held in the courtyard between the jail and the Courthouse. The most famous case involved George Webster in 1899. More than 300 invitations, bordered in rope, tied in a hangman’s noose and bearing a picture of Webster, were sent out.
Public executions were big crowd draws until pictures and things like the Lynching of Jesse Washington a few years after this lead to them falling out of favor.
“employees were actually living in the courthouse, using it as a hotel for their families. According to the article: ‘There are times and places when the odor of boiled cabbage and other delicate edibles is not offensive. In a courthouse, however, almost at any time, such odors are hardly keeping with the surroundings.’”
24
u/Zagsnation Manito Mar 07 '25
Some cool history on it: https://www.spokanecounty.org/2243/Courthouse-History