Country Homes is a census-designated place (CDP) in Spokane County, Washington, United States. The population was 6,251 at the 2020 census. The campus of Whitworth University is located in Country Homes. It is a largely suburban area that blends into the north side of the city of Spokane and the neighboring CDPs of Town and Country and Fairwood.
History
What is now Country Homes was part of the traditional homeland of the Spokane people since prehistoric times. The tribe made great use of the nearby Little Spokane River which flows just north of the CDP. The first permanent European presence in the area near Country Homes came in 1810 with the construction of Spokane House by the North West Company of fur traders. The trading post was established where the Little Spokane meets the Spokane River, approximately four-and-a-half miles northwest of the current CDP.
Whitworth University was established in 1890 on the west side of the state and moved to its current location in Country Homes in 1914. Division Street, the main north–south thoroughfare through the north side of Spokane, which carries U.S. Highway 395 through Country Homes, was an unpaved road through the area until 1932 when pavement reached from downtown Spokane to north of "The Y" where U.S. Highway 2 and U.S. Highway 395 fork on the southeastern edge of Country Homes. Further integration with the expanding city of Spokane to the south occurred in 1965 with the construction of Country Homes Boulevard which cuts diagonally across the CDP in a southwest–northeast direction. Country Homes Boulevard connected the expanding suburban areas of Country Homes and areas to the north and northeast of Spokane with the core of the city and the at-the-time new Maple Street Bridge.
As the city of Spokane has grown and expanded north over the decades, Country Homes has remained an unincorporated area of Spokane County. This is despite the city of Spokane annexing areas to the east of Country Homes in 1967 and again in 1985. Areas to the west of Country Homes along the bluff of Five Mile Prairie were annexed in 1975 with additional annexations in 1984 and 1986.
Geography
Country Homes is a suburban area on the north side of the Spokane urban area, just over five miles due north of Downtown Spokane. In addition to Five Mile Prairie, Country Homes borders Spokane's Shiloh Hills neighborhood on the east, the CDP of Town and Country to the south and the CDP of Fairwood to the north. There is a steep bluff immediately to the west of Country Homes which rises to over 2,400 feet on what is known as the Five Mile Prairie. The northwestern corner of the CDP is located on the gentlest part of the bluff where development is possible. According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of , all of it land.
Demographics
2020 Census
As of the census of 2020,
- 25px - U.S. 395 - to Colville (north) and Spokane (south)
U.S. 395 passes north–south through Country Homes along Division Street.
Public Transit
Country Homes is served by the Spokane area's public transit provider, the Spokane Transit Authority, which runs three fixed-route bus lines through the CDP.
{| class=wikitable style="font-size: 100%"
! width="100px" | Route
! colspan=3 | Termini
! width="250px" | Service operation and notes
! width="300px" | Streets traveled
|-
|style="background:red; color:white" align="center" valign=center|<div>25<br />Division</div>
| ! width="240px" align="center" | Downtown Spokane<br />STA Plaza<br />
! <span style="font-size:140%;">↔</span>
| ! width="240px" align="center" | Fairwood<br />Hastings Park and Ride<br />
| High-frequency route
| Newport Highway, Hawthorne, Division
|-
|style="background:blue; color:white" align="center" valign=center|<div>28<br />Nevada</div>
| ! width="240px" align="center" | Downtown Spokane<br />STA Plaza<br />
! <span style="font-size:140%;">↔</span>
| ! width="240px" align="center" | Country Homes<br />Whitworth University<br />
| Basic-frequency route
| Hawthorne, Whitworth Drive, Wall, Hawthorne
|-
|style="background:pink; color:black" align="center" valign=center|<div>124<br />North Express</div>
| ! width="240px" align="center" | Downtown Spokane<br />STA Plaza<br />
! <span style="font-size:140%;">↔</span>
| ! width="240px" align="center" | Fairwood<br />Hastings Park and Ride
| Express route during peak weekday hours
| Wall, Waikiki
|-
|}