Balch Hotel

Last updated
Balch Hotel
Balch Hotel - Dufur Oregon.jpg
The building's exterior in 2008
Location Dufur, Oregon, U.S.
Coordinates 45°27′02″N121°07′53″W / 45.450443°N 121.131327°W / 45.450443; -121.131327 Coordinates: 45°27′02″N121°07′53″W / 45.450443°N 121.131327°W / 45.450443; -121.131327
Built1907
ArchitectF. M. Andrews
Architectural style Italianate
NRHP reference # 87001469
Added to NRHP1987

The Balch Hotel is a historic commercial lodging building in Dufur, Oregon, United States. It was built in 1907 by Charles Balch, a local land owner and businessman. The hotel has changed hands a number of times over the years, but it has remained in continuous use since it was constructed. Today, the Balch Hotel is an active hotel serving visitors to the Dufur area. Because of its importance to local history, the Balch Hotel is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Hotel Establishment that provides lodging paid on a short-term basis

A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a refrigerator and other kitchen facilities, upholstered chairs, a flat screen television, and en-suite bathrooms. Small, lower-priced hotels may offer only the most basic guest services and facilities. Larger, higher-priced hotels may provide additional guest facilities such as a swimming pool, business centre, childcare, conference and event facilities, tennis or basketball courts, gymnasium, restaurants, day spa, and social function services. Hotel rooms are usually numbered to allow guests to identify their room. Some boutique, high-end hotels have custom decorated rooms. Some hotels offer meals as part of a room and board arrangement. In the United Kingdom, a hotel is required by law to serve food and drinks to all guests within certain stated hours. In Japan, capsule hotels provide a tiny room suitable only for sleeping and shared bathroom facilities.

Dufur, Oregon City in Oregon, United States

Dufur is a city in Wasco County, Oregon, United States. The population was 604 at the 2010 census. It is a farming community where wheat, tree fruit, and grapes are important crops.

Oregon State of the United States of America

Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region on the West Coast of the United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. The parallel 42° north delineates the southern boundary with California and Nevada. Oregon is one of only three states of the contiguous United States to have a coastline on the Pacific Ocean.

Contents

History

The first homesteader arrived in the Dufur area in 1852. The earliest community records are of church meetings beginning in 1862. The town was named for the Dufur family, successful ranchers who settled in the Dufur Valley in 1872. The Dufur post office was established in 1878. The town of Dufur was incorporated 1893. [1] [2]

A post office is a public department that provides a customer service to the public and handles their mail needs. Post offices offer mail-related services such as acceptance of letters and parcels; provision of post office boxes; and sale of postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. In addition, many post offices offer additional services: providing and accepting government forms, processing government services and fees, and banking services. The chief administrator of a post office is called a postmaster.

The need to accommodate travelers grew along with the town of Dufur. The Balch Hotel was designed by F. M. Andrews for Charles P. Balch, a local rancher and pharmacist. It was built in 1907, and opened on 17 January 1908. When the hotel opened, the cost of a room ranged from $0.50 to $1.25 per night. The hotel boasted that it had hot water in every room, electric lights, and steam heat. At that time, there were only two places in the Dufur Valley that had electricity, the Balch Hotel and Dufur's saw mill. The two businesses shared the limited power supply; each got twelve hours of electricity per day. The lumber mill had electricity for 12 hours during the day, and the hotel was connected for twelve hours beginning in the evening. In its early years, the Great Southern Railroad would drop off salesmen, who could connect at Dufur between the railroad's northern terminus at The Dalles and coaches to points south in Central Oregon. The salesmen typically stayed at the Balch Hotel, and would set up their wares in the hotel's parlor. This made the hotel a center of community activity as well as a haven for travelers. [3] [4] [5]

The Great Southern Railroad was a 41-mile short-line which interchanged with the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company, later the Oregon-Washington Railway and Navigation Company (OWR&N), in The Dalles, Oregon, United States. The rail line ran south along Fifteen Mile Creek through Boyd to Dufur, and on to the small community of Friend. Besides the railhead junction with OWR&N, the Great Southern also had connections with two steamship line operating on the Columbia River; The Dalles, Portland & Astoria Navigation Co., and The Open River Transportation Co.

The Dalles, Oregon City in Wasco County

The Dalles is the county seat and largest city of Wasco County, Oregon, United States. The population was 13,620 at the 2010 census, and is the largest city on the Oregon side along the Columbia River outside the Portland Metropolitan area.

Stagecoach type of covered wagon

A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses.

In 1914, Balch sold the hotel to Frank and Ethel Ingels. The onset of the Great Depression, which was attended by the closure of the railroad and the failure of a major local apple orchard, marked the end of Dufur's and the hotel's heyday. The Ingels family operated the hotel until the 1940s. When they sold the building, it was converted into apartments. It was a rooming house for a number of years and later a private residence. The building was eventually purchased by Howard and Patricia Green in 1988. The Greens restored and modernized the building and reopened the hotel. In 2006, Jeff and Samantha Irwin purchased the hotel from the Greens. The Irwins continued the Greens' restoration work. Then in June 2015, Claire Sierra and Josiah Dean took over operations. Today, the Balch Hotel is a small but well-appointed tourist hotel. [3] [4] [5]

Great Depression 20th-century worldwide economic depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression that took place mostly during the 1930s, beginning in the United States. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations; in most countries it started in 1929 and lasted until the late-1930s. It was the longest, deepest, and most widespread depression of the 20th century. In the 21st century, the Great Depression is commonly used as an example of how intensely the world's economy can decline.

Because the Balch Hotel played an important role in the commercial development of Dufur and central Wasco County, the hotel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on 8 September 1987. The historic site covers ten acres, with one historic building (the hotel) and three other non-contributing structures on the property. [6] [7]

Wasco County, Oregon County in the United States

Wasco County is a county in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 census, the population was 25,213. Its county seat is The Dalles. The county is named for a local tribe of Native Americans, the Wasco, a Chinook tribe who live on the south side of the Columbia River.

Structure

The Balch Hotel is a three-story Italianate style brick building. The bricks used in the hotel's construction were made at a brickworks on Charles Balch's ranch, near the building site. The hotel's brick walls are 18 inches thick. This keeps the hotel's interior cool during the hot summer months. [3] [4]

Brickworks factory of bricks

A brickworks, also known as a brick factory, is a factory for the manufacturing of bricks, from clay or shale. Usually a brickworks is located on a clay bedrock, often with a quarry for clay on site.

All the rooms were restored and modernized between 1988 and 2007, so the Balch Hotel is quite modern; however, it still retains an early 20th-century feel. There are no telephones or televisions in the rooms, but there are wireless Internet connections. The building's historic character has been maintained in many small details; for example, original fire hoses hang in the hallway and an old electric meter is still in its original location on the second floor. [3] [4]

The hotel has 19 guest bedrooms plus a suite on the third floor with a view of Mount Hood and private whirlpool tub. Each room has an individual style with antique furnishings and unique period décor. All the rooms on the south side of the building have private baths. The rooms on the north side share common bath facilities with original claw-foot tubs. [3] [4] [8] [9]

See also

Related Research Articles

The Dalles Carnegie Library art center and former library in The Dalles, Oregon, USA

The Dalles Carnegie Library is a historic former library building located in The Dalles, Oregon, United States. It is one of the thousands of libraries whose construction was funded by Andrew Carnegie. The construction grant of $10,000 was approved in March 1907, and it was dedicated in September 1910.

The Dalles Civic Auditorium historic building in The Dalles, Oregon, USA

The Dalles Civic Auditorium is a historic building on the National Register of Historic Places located at the corner of Fourth and Federal streets in The Dalles, Oregon. It is currently owned by the Civic Auditorium Historic Preservation Committee, a non-profit corporation formed specifically for the purpose of purchasing it from the City of The Dalles to save it from scheduled demolition, restore it, and operate it as a local and regional cultural center.

Boyd, Oregon Place

Boyd was a town in Wasco County, Oregon, United States, disincorporated in 1955, and now vacant except for a few abandoned homes, weathered outbuildings, and a derelict wooden grain elevator surrounded by the wheat fields, which still produce the grain that used to fill it.The site was recently bought and turned into farmland. The site of the former settlement is 9.5 miles (15.3 km) southeast of The Dalles, on the east side of U.S. Route 197 from which it is visible at a distance.

Friend, Oregon Unincorporated community in Oregon, United States

Friend is an unincorporated community in Wasco County in the U.S. state of Oregon. Considered a ghost town, little remains of the community except the Friend Store, a one-room schoolhouse, and a cemetery.

Hot Lake Hotel

Hot Lake Hotel is a historic Colonial Revival hotel originally built in 1864 in Hot Lake, Union County, Oregon, United States. The hotel received its namesake from the thermal spring lakes on the property, and operated as a luxury resort and sanitorium during the turn of the century, advertising the medicinal attributes of the mineral water and drawing visitors worldwide. It is also the first known commercial building in the world to utilize geothermal energy as its primary heat source.

The Palmer House (Sauk Centre)

The Palmer House is a historic hotel in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, United States. It was built in 1901 and expanded in 1916. The hotel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 for having local significance in the themes of commerce and social history. It was nominated for being an example of a once-common hotel type catering specifically to traveling salesmen. In 1994 the Palmer House was also listed as a contributing property to the Original Main Street Historic District.

New Redmond Hotel

The New Redmond Hotel is a historic commercial hotel in Redmond, Oregon, United States. The hotel was built in 1928 after the original Redmond Hotel, was destroyed in a fire. It is a three-story Georgian-style brick masonry building located on 6th Street in downtown Redmond. It has been in continuous use as a commercial hotel since it first opened. Today, the New Redmond Hotel is a major landmark in downtown Redmond. Because of its importance to the history of Redmond, the New Redmond Hotel is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Trevitts Addition Historic District historic district in The Dalles, Oregon, USA

Trevitt's Addition Historic District is a neighborhood, primarily residential in character, located in The Dalles, Oregon, United States. Victor Trevitt platted the first expansion of the original 1855 "Dalles City" townsite in 1860, and continued to extend his addition in response to economic developments. The district saw the first flour mill and electrical and water systems in The Dalles, one of the area's earliest Catholic churches, and direct connection to transportation networks including the Columbia River Highway and the railroad. Surviving buildings in the district reflect a continuous spectrum of architectural styles from 1864 to 1937.

Original Wasco County Courthouse museum and historic courthouse in The Dalles, Oregon, USA

The Original Wasco County Courthouse is a historic former courthouse, located in The Dalles, Oregon, United States. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places under the name First Wasco County Courthouse, and is also listed as a contributing resource in the National Register-listed Trevitt's Addition Historic District.

Fulton–Taylor House

The Fulton–Taylor House is a historic house located in The Dalles, Oregon, United States. Built and modified in phases between circa 1858 and circa 1930, this house is only one of a few remaining houses of similar age and style in The Dalles. James Fulton emigrated to Oregon on the Oregon Trail, and eventually established himself as a cattle rancher, leader of the settler militia, and a state legislator. The Rev. O.D. Taylor was a Baptist minister, but was far more noted as the driving force behind a major, failed, but long-running real estate scheme that was widely regarded as fraudulent.

Rorick House Museum

The Rorick House Museum, also known as the Malcolm A. Moody House, is a museum located in The Dalles, Oregon, United States. The building was originally built in 1850 as a two-room residence for non-commissioned officers from Fort Dalles, this is the oldest remaining house in The Dalles. It was subsequently occupied by U.S. Representative Malcolm A. Moody, and has ultimately become a museum. The house is the current headquarters for the Wasco County Historical Society.

Davenport Hotel (Davenport, Iowa)

The Davenport Hotel is a historic building located in downtown Davenport, Iowa, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. It is currently an apartment building called The Davenport.

United States Post Office (The Dalles, Oregon) former post office in The Dalles, Oregon, built in 1916

The former United States Post Office in The Dalles, Oregon, United States, is a historic building constructed in 1916. Executed from standardized federal plans in the Greek Revival style, it was the first federal building in The Dalles and one of a set of nine built in Oregon in the 1910s. It remained in operation as a post office longer than seven of the other eight in that group. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

Joseph Sherar American bridge and hotel owner; road builder

Joseph Sherar was a 19th-century wagon road builder who, with his wife, Jane, owned and operated a Deschutes River toll bridge and a nearby stagecoach station and hotel in Wasco County in the U.S. state of Oregon. The bridge and buildings were slightly downstream of the river's lowermost waterfall, a traditional fishing spot for the native inhabitants of the region.

Hotel Roodhouse

The Hotel Roodhouse is a historic hotel located at 303 Morse St. in Roodhouse, Illinois. John Roodhouse, the founder of the city, opened the hotel in 1895. The hotel is a ​2 1⁄2-story building with Queen Anne and Romanesque influences. It was one of several hotels in Roodhouse which served travelers on the Chicago and Alton Railroad and the last such hotel to stand, before collapsing. The Hotel Roodhouse's amenities included a dining room, smoking rooms, lounges, and a showroom for traveling salesmen. During the Great Depression, the hotel also hosted a local soup kitchen.

Nansene, Oregon Unincorporated community in Oregon, United States

Nansene is an unincorporated community in Wasco County, in the U.S. state of Oregon. It lies along Long Hollow Market Road southeast of the small city of Dufur. Between Nansene and Dufur, the road crosses Dry Creek, a tributary of Fifteenmile Creek.

Jaeckel Hotel

The Jaeckel Hotel is a historic hotel in Statesboro, Georgia that is now being used as Statesboro City Hall. It is located at 50 East Main Street.

References

  1. ↑ McArthur, Lewis A. and Lewis L. McArthur, Oregon Geographic Names (Seventh Edition), Oregon Historical Society Press, Portland, Oregon, 2003.
  2. ↑ "History", Dufur Oregon, Thunderbolt Designs, The Dalles, Oregon, 14 August 2004.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "History", Historic Balch Hotel, www.balchhotel.com, Dufur, Oregon, 28 November 2008.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "Historic Balch Hotel", Northwest Renovation, Twenty First Avenue Publishing, Portland, Oregon, December/January 2007/2008.
  5. 1 2 Green, Patricia L. (28 November 1986), National Register of Historic Places Inventory—Nomination Form: Balch Hotel (PDF), retrieved 18 February 2012.
  6. ↑ "Balch Hotel", National Register of Historic Places, www.nationalregisterofhistoricalplaces.com, 18 February 2008.
  7. ↑ "Balch Hotel", Historical Places Database, www.hpdb.org, Oakland, California, 22 February 2009.
  8. ↑ "Welcome", Historic Balch Hotel, www.balchhotel.com, Dufur, Oregon, 28 November 2008.
  9. ↑ Hennen, Leah, "A Retreat in Rural Oregon", VIA Magazine, San Francisco, California, January 2008.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.