Collection is open for research.
Gift, in part, of Jack L. Meier, March 1978 (Lib. Acc. 14417).
The Portland Hotel, in Portland, Oregon, began in 1883 as a project of railroad magnate Henry Villard. After Villard's financial failure, construction on the hotel came to a halt in 1884. It sat incomplete until 1888, when a group of Portland investors took over the project, and the hotel finally opened in 1890. For a time, it was the largest and most elegant hotel in the city, but by the 1940s, the hotel was struggling. In 1944, Meier & Frank purchased the building, and it was demolished and replaced with a parking lot in 1951. In the 1980s, the site of the former hotel became Pioneer Courthouse Square.
Source: "Portland Hotel" by Leland Roth, Oregon Encyclopedia,
Portland Hotel Company records, Mss 745, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
Collection includes materials that were previously designated Mss 745-1 and Mss 745-2.
This collection consists of records of the Portland Hotel and the company that built and owned it. Records include articles of incorporation and board of directors' minutes, 1888-1926; a stock ledger, 1891-1943; stock subscribers' assessments, 1889-1931; a stock dividend book, 1904-1940; a brochure, circa 1895; stationery; and a hotel register with entries for April-June, 1890.
The Oregon Historical Society owns the materials in the Research Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from copyright owners.