USER:SPOKANEWILLY

Editing Wikipedia sporadically since 2005 and regularly since 2021. Generally focused on the geography, human and physical, of the Inland Northwest, as well as its history. Also big into taking photos for the articles I work on and digging through archives to find public domain historical images. I chose my username when I was in the 8th grade and now I am stuck with it even though at no point in my life have I gone by or been called Willy. Oh well.

I love Wikipedia and love working to make Wikipedia the best thing on the internet. Frankly, I think it might be the only truly good thing that has come from the internet. It's worth making even better.

Build a bonfire build a bonfire put seattle on the top. Go Timbers.

Most of the photos listed below are my work, but photos with an * are by someone else and historic photos with a † are images I found in archives and added to commons. None of the non-photographic images are my work. All images are from the page linked to.

Also, quick disclosure. I am a regular freelance contributor for the Inlander. I use Inlander articles as sources and reference them in my editing regularly (local newspaper does a good job covering local area, who would have guessed) but I do not use any stories I have personally worked on and I do not favor Inlander sources over any others. In fact I probably cite the competitor paper even more than I do Inlander stories because it's a daily and Inlander is a weekly.

Spokane Historic Places Project

Having made full articles for each of Spokane's official neighborhoods, my next project is to build full articles on each property in the Spokane area listed on the National Register of Historic Places —— save for single family homes still utilized as single family homes that are not notable for any reason other than being on the NRHP.

A list of properties can be found at National Register of Historic Places listings in Spokane County, Washington. It's about 40/60 to 50/50 right now between blue and red links on that list. I see this project having four major facets, in no particular order:

Taking updated photos for all properties which have 10+ year old photos at the moment, and taking additional photos for those with more recent photos.
Expanding the already extant pages, most of which are stubby stubby stubs.
Creating new articles for landmark buildings currently lacking.
Creating new articles for the rest of the buildings currently lacking.

This is where I'm keeping track of progress.

Began: June 24, 2022

Individual building articles made

Individual building articles expanded

(these pages are extant, and will be linked to once expanded)
Grand Coulee Hotel
Otis Hotel

Historic Districts needed and made

Browne's Addition Historic District
Corbin Park Historic District
East Downtown Historic District
Hillyard Historic Business District
Mission Avenue Historic District

Historic Districts needing expansion and expanded

Nine Mile Hydroelectric Power Plant Historic District
Hutton Settlement District

Historic buildings not on the NRHP made

Spokane Neighborhood Project

For more than a decade I've wanted to see a day when each of Spokane's neighborhoods had its own article. In the fall of 2021 I started actually working towards that goal. This is where I'm keeping track of progress.

Began: October 27, 2021 Completed: June 19, 2022 ("completed" is obviously not a thing on Wikipedia, but all neighborhoods now have a full article, each following the same template)