When
James Jerome Hill, generally known as J.J., brought his
Great Northern Railway to Spokane, the decision was made to set up the railway shops, service center and roundhouse adjacent to what became the town of Hillyard, named, naturally enough, after J.J. himself, literally,
Hill's Yard.
In the early twentieth century the prosperity brought about by the presence of the Great Northern yards gave rise to much new construction, primarily of much more substantial brick and stone buildings, forming the Hillyard business section we see today. Prosperity continued until the closing of the yards in the early 1980s, a culmination of the mergers of the Great Northern into the Burlington Northern Railroad and eventually the BNSF Railway, resulting in the relocation of the railroad yards to Yardley. The loss of their only industry to speak of created instant economic woes for Hillyard, which continue to this day, with its continuing to be the poorest neighborhood in the state of Washington.
Given the ongoing economic state of the community we believe they can be forgiven for the low tech design of their weather station. Bereft of many, if not all, of the advanced features of the average contemporary weather station, it nevertheless seems to serve the purpose for the Hillyardites who make daily use of it.
Below are the detailed instructions for the use of the station.
If this sign is:
MOVING - it's WINDY
WET - it's RAINING
WHITE - it's SNOWING
IF you can't SEE IT
it's FOGGY
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