Southgate is a neighborhood in Spokane, Washington. It is located in the southwestern corner of the City of Spokane and part of the broader area known locally as the South Hill. Southgate is one of the newer neighborhoods in the city, with development first taking hold in the post-World War II housing boom and continuing into the present day. It is a mix of single-family residential, multi-family residential and commercial districts. The neighborhood has grown as Spokane has expanded southward, with multiple annexations expanding Southgate and the city since 2000 and as recently as 2016.
History
What is now Southgate has been inhabited by the Spokane people for centuries. The area was historically the site of a travel route from the Spokane River in the north to Latah Creek in the south.
European-American settlers first made their presence known in the Southgate area when the Mullan Road was constructed between 1859 and 1860, passing through Southgate near present-day Havana Street. The Mullan Road was the first wagon road to cross the Rocky Mountains into the Pacific Northwest and connected what is now Montana with present-day Spokane and beyond to Fort Walla Walla. Homesteading began in the area when Joe Jackson, from Missouri, moved in and established a supply stop for prospectors and trappers passing through. Jackson sold his land in 1870 to the Joseph Morin, a French-Canadian rancher. Morin's land was subsequently obtained after his death in 1889 by John J. Browne. The Moran Prairie, which occupies the southeastern portion of the neighborhood, and Browne's Mountain, immediately to the southeast, bear the names of these early settlers.
The Spokane and Inland Empire Railroad, an electrified interurban railway reached Browne's farm on the border of present-day Southgate and Glenrose in 1908. It served the neighborhood via the Pine Grove Station at 37th Avenue and Havana Street on the northern edge of the neighborhood. The railroad connected Southgate with more established parts of Spokane to the north as well as the broader Palouse and North Idaho region. The railroad served the community until 1939.
An early commercial district where farmers from the Moran Prairie, Glenrose and Southgate areas sold fruit from their orchards was established at Regal Street and Palouse Highway, which to this day remains a commercial district in the neighborhood. In the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s the original orchards were replaced by greenhouses and chicken farms. Which subsequently gave way to residential and commercial development which continues to this day.
The northern tier of the neighborhood, from 44th Avenue north to 37th, was incorporated into the city of Spokane in 1907. Subsequent annexations brought the areas from 44th to 50th Avenues into the city between 1958 and 1979. Piecemeal annexations continued to the south and east throughout the 1980s and continuing to as recently as 2016, expanding the neighborhood into its current size. Development has outpaced annexation, and the Southgate area transitions almost imperceptibly into unincorporated Spokane County to the south and east, with only arterials featuring signs delineating the city limits.
Southgate has seen continued infill growth into the 21st century, along with the growth beyond its boundaries, such as in 2013 when ground was broken on a Target store at Palouse Highway and Regal and nearby multi-story apartment complexes.
Geography
Southgate is, as the name suggests, situated along the southern edge of the city of Spokane. Its southern and eastern boundaries also serve as the city limits. 37th Avenue makes up the entire northern border, separating it from Lincoln Heights. Perry Street serves as the entire western border, across which lies the Comstock neighborhood. 53rd Avenue constitutes most of the southern border, though from Freya it zig-zags to the northeast until reaching 37th Avenue. Beyond 53rd and the zig-zag boundary lie unincorporated areas of Spokane County including Glenrose.
Though it is located in the broader South Hill area of Spokane, Southgate itself is relatively flat. The South Hill takes its name from the steep relief of the hill as it climbs up from the Spokane Valley floor at Downtown Spokane in the north. Southgate, like the Comstock neighborhood to its west, are located beyond the crest of the hill. Here, the land is at the same relative elevation as the broader, surrounding Columbia Plateau. Elevations rise rapidly to the east and southeast, however, as Southgate and the South Hill give way to Krell Hill, the southernmost peak of the Selkirk Mountains, which begins to rise dramatically within a mile distance from the neighborhood.