Balch Hotel
The Balch Hotel is a historic hotel in Dufur , Oregon . It was built in 1907 by local landowner and businessman Charles Balch. Since then it has changed hands several times, but has been in operation continuously. Because of the building's importance to local history, the building was inscribed on the National Register of Historic Places .
location
The Balch Hotel is located on South Heimrich Street in the south of Dufur. The hotel is 15 miles south of The Dalles and 158 miles east of Portland . A number of leisure activities are available in the area, such as golfing , cycling , hiking , fishing , rafting or visiting wine cellars ; In the winter season, driving with snowmobiles is popular. There are also several small museums in the area.
description
The Balch Hotel is a three-story brick building in an Italian style. The stones used in the construction were made in a brick factory on Charles Balch's ranch near the construction site. The brick walls are 18 inches (around 45 cm) thick, which means it stays comfortably cool inside the hotel during the hot summer months. The hotel rooms were restored and modernized between 1988 and 2007, so the hotel equipment is modern, although the atmosphere of a hotel at the beginning of the 20th century was retained. There are no telephones or TVs in the rooms, but Wi-Fi access is available. The historical character of the building has been preserved in many small details; For example, the original fire hoses are in the corridors and an old electric meter hangs in its usual place on the first floor.
The hotel has 19 guest rooms and one suite on the second floor with a view of Mount Hood and a whirlpool . Each room is individually furnished, the furniture and decorations correspond to the period in which the hotel was built. On the south side of the hotel, the guest rooms have their own bathroom; on the north side, the rooms share common bathrooms, in which the bathtubs are still on claw feet.
history
The first settlers under the Homestead Act settled in the Dufur area in 1852. The first records of the village show that church events began in 1862. The town got its name after the Dufur family, who settled in the valley in 1872 and became successful ranch owners. The post office Dufurs was founded in 1878, in 1893 the place was registered as a city.
As the city grew, so did the need for hotel rooms. Local rancher and pharmacist Charles P. Balch hired FM Andrews to design a hotel. It was built in 1907 and opened on January 17, 1908. At that time, the room rate of 0.50 reached to 1.25 US dollars per night. The hotel boasted that all rooms had hot water, electric lights, and steam heating. At that time there were only two facilities in the Dufur Valley that had electrical power, the hotel and the sawmill . The two institutions shared the limited power supply. The sawmill was supplied with electricity for twelve hours during the day, the rest of the day the hotel received the existing electrical energy. In the early years, mainly commercial travelers arriving on the Great Southern Railroad stayed at the Balch Hotel. They advertised their goods there, so that the hotel lobby also became a community meeting point.
Balch sold the hotel to Frank and Ethel Ingels in 1914, whose family ran the hotel until the 1940s. After they sold it, it was converted into an apartment building with commercial accommodation. It was later converted into a private dorm and finally acquired by Howard and Patricia Green in 1988. The Greens renovated and modernized the building and reopened it as a hotel. The current owners Jeff and Samantha Irwin bought it in 2006. Today the Balch Hotel is a small but well-equipped tourist hotel.
Because the Balch Hotel played an important role in the economic development of Dufur and its centrally located region in Wasco County , it was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 8, 1987. The site covers 10 acres (about four hectares ) on which are the hotel and three other listed buildings.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Historic Balch Hotel (English) . In: Northwest Renovation , Twenty First Avenue Publishing, December / January 2007/2008.
- ↑ a b Welcome ( English ) Historic Balch Hotel. Archived from the original on February 15, 2009. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved February 28, 2009.
- ↑ a b Leah Hennen: A Retreat in Rural Oregon (English) , VIA Magazine . January 2008. Retrieved February 28, 2009.
- ↑ a b c d History ( English ) Historic Balch Hotel. Archived from the original on February 16, 2009. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved February 28, 2009.
- ↑ Lewis A McArthur, McArthur, Lewis L .: Oregon Geographic Names , 7th Edition, Oregon Historical Society Press, Portland, Oregon 2003.
- ^ History Dufur Oregon ( English ) Thunderbolt Designs. August 14, 2004. Retrieved February 28, 2009.
Web links
Coordinates: 45 ° 27 ′ 1.6 ″ N , 121 ° 7 ′ 52.5 ″ W.