Album of Original Photographs of the Highlights in the Life of Milton McGoldrick, Race Car Driver and Timber Baron. by (PHOTOGRAPHY: WASHINGTON) - 1911-1917

[Spokane]: N.p., 1911-1917. This intriguing album contains 76 original silver gelatin photographs dealing with all aspects of the life of Milton McGoldrick. The photographs are 7 1/2 x 5 and 5 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches in the main but there are two groupings of very small photographs; the first shows 7 photographs of the McGoldrick logging operations (with fine views of the log hauling trucks of the time) and the second deals with Milton's departure to fight in WWI. Original oblong black cloth album. Excellent condition and with zero photographs having fallen out of their mounts.As the wealthy son of a timber magnate, Milton McGoldrick was a bit of a playboy and has a passion for cars and car racing. 22 of the largest photographs in this album deal with his 1914 race car Buick #6 and his win at the 1915 Auto Races at the Spokane Fairgrounds and with his attempts at Nationals in a different car. Apparently he was married soon after as we find photographs of him and his wife traveling to California in a luxury roaster and flying a San Francisco banner. Soon after he became enlisted and spent time at Fort Lewis and was eventually shipped off to France. Arriving home in one piece was was able to partake in the downtown Spoke Victory parade. All shown herein. There is also an interesting photograph of the McGoldrick family manse at E. 547 Rockwood. Laid in are professional portraits of Milton and his wife.James P. McGoldrick, born in 1859, started in the timber business in Minnesota. Seeing that most of the lumber he sold came from the Northwest, he moved to Spokane in 1906 and bought a mill south of Gonzaga College, east of downtown Spokane. The McGoldrick Lumber Co. eventually covered 60 acres along the Spokane River. Logs were stored on the river and milled lumber was dried in piles outdoors. The company added timber holdings around the region and the mill became one of Spokane’s largest employers. They were Spokane royalty with a grand estate to prove it. A son, Milton [featured in this album], took over the mill and other businesses when his father died in 1939. The sprawling complex had suffered a number of fires over the years, but on a hot August day in 1945, gusty winds fanned flames that leveled most of the plant before firefighters could make a stand. It threatened the Gonzaga football stadium and surrounding houses, but 175 Navy sailors who were training at Gonzaga pitched in to stop it. A pair of 200-foot smokestacks crumbled in the heat. Milton and his son, James II, planned to rebuild, but the war made new equipment hard to find and timber prices were dropping, so the McGoldricks decided to shut down after 41 years of operation.