Welcome to the visitors home page
Hopefully, you are here because you are interested in knowing more about Hangman Hills. You will notice that your navigation rights are restricted to the "General" tab. This is to protect the privacy of the Hangman Hills residents. Nonetheless, we have included what we hope you will agree is some interesting and informative content regarding our small and close-knit community. If you are a resident of Hangman Hills, you may obtain full navigation rights by completing the requisite site registration as described on the site home page.
A little about Hangman Hills
Hangman Hills is a small community of approximately 200 residences located about 11 road miles (8.5 miles "as the crow flies") south of downtown Spokane, Washington, and lying beside Hangman Creek and neighboring Hangman Valley Golf Course. Hangman Hills Addition dates back to the very early 1970's, while Hangman Hills First Addition was platted in 1978. Our community is surrounded by farm country and lies near the northern boundary of the famous Palouse country.
Living in Hangman Hills provides the best of both worlds. Driving to/from town is a truly relaxing experience (deer-dodging notwithstanding) as you travel through a mix of farms, wheat fields, open country, and 10-acre homesteads. But when home, you find yourself in a community with all the amenities: paved streets; street lights; garbage pickup; sewers; personalized mail delivery; underground electric power; gas service; available 7mbs DSL; a golf course "right next door". Yet, you are only 10 minutes from all the usual services, and under 20 minutes from downtown. We've all discovered that life is good!
Our community is essentially at full build-out, so "what you see is what you get". We have a really eclectic mix of architecture, owing mostly to a devestating forest fire that destroyed 20 homes back in 1987. Consequently, we have a number of early 1970's homes and some brand new homes—and everything in between. Oddly, before the fire there were essentially no view lots, but the loss of trees along the valley bank and ridges created truly remarkable views of the Hangman Valley, Hangman Creek and Hangman Valley Golf Course.
What's with "Hangman"—it sounds kind of weird
Yep. Actually, Hangman Creek is also known as Latah Creek, but the federal government still refers to it as "Hangman", the term locals use most. That term harkens to a dark period in our region's history, when in 1858 Colonel George Wright hung revered Yakama warrior Qualchan and many other tribal members along the banks of Latah Creek, near what is now the town of Waverly, Washington. Afterward, the creek was called Hangman, memorializing that somber event. Click here for an illuminating account. This January 2003 Nostalgia Magazine article, written by local historian Glenn Leitz, offers some great perspective.
Our Community's Protective Covenants: A Little History
The original protective covenants were filed in 1973 by the William Main Corporation, the developer of Hangman Hills. They were woefully inadequate—pretty standard for the day—and had no real substance, save for some very basic quasi-regulatory language with literally no way to enforce any provisions.
In 1999, the Hangman Hills Residents' Association board challenged our community to undertake an in-depth review of those original covenants, which resulted in a wrenching process to totally rewrite them—this time with a bit of a bite, and more importantly with authority. This culminated in July 2000 when the new covenants were adopted. Then in 2010, the Association followed up by adopting the Covenant Enforcement Policy, Procedures and Fine Schedule and also a formalized complaint submittal process.
Our new covenants provide for a more realistic and sustainable dues schedule—currently (2011) $100 per year (that's right: per year)—and the legal authority to place a lien on real property in the event of non-payment of dues or non-compliance with the covenant provisions resulting in financial burden to the Association. Now, HHRA has the ability to seriously consider legal action when a non-complying action threatens the community's character and safety.