We took the self-guided walking tour and had a great time. At one point, the front desk guy saw us walking around with our guidebooks and said, "We should hire you guys." That's us. Nerdy walking tour people.
As we were getting started, people were assembling for a wedding that was taking place upstairs. Not everyone had picked up their boutonniere.
Grand Lodge, as mentioned before, was a Masonic retirement home until 1999, when the Masons built a more modern retirement facility behind the original, and sold Grand Lodge to McMenamins. A year later the hotel opened for business. This makes it different from Edgefield, which was abandoned and dilapidated for a long time before the company bought and refurbished it. This building was in good shape.
Really awesome mosaic tiling, to go with the excellent original tile floors.
Matt becomes the dog, which is a greeter from the main entrance.
Masonic detail on the fireplace.
Quote from one of the sitting rooms.
Really beautiful picture. The art was chosen to reflect the history and the community, including Forest Grove's large Hispanic community.
Pictures of orphans playing in the snow. One of them is wearing striped socks that appear in a painting painted for the site.
The rooms all have names. I enjoyed that this one was called Mike's Light Bulb Room.
Art detail on the electrical panel.
Fabulous picture of Richard Nixon visiting Pacific University. One of the Fraternity Brothers managed to sneak the Pacific University mascot into the photo.
Ad to support the effort of building of the home.
I loved this picture of some of the last residents.
Another of the sitting rooms.
The lady painted on this door is a portrait of a ghost one of the artists saw while working. It's a very true-to-life (true-to-ghost?) portrait, scaring me a few times as I glanced down the hallway.
The back porches of the Grand Lodge had slides to make it easier for residents to escape in case of fire. Here's a fantastical painting of them in use. Which I don't think they ever were.
Photo of the Mozart Room, where we spent some of our time.
This painting is a portrait of a resident who was a photographer in World War II.
Another favorite room name: Pioneer Japanese Students.
More excellent mosaic and an early trapper.
I liked this portrait of a dog.
And liked even better the poem that went with it.
The entire downstairs was a mosaic frenzy. I wondered how long it took the artists to complete the mosaics.
Beautiful detail added to the pipes.
Matt reads the last of his tour, while leaning against a mosaic.
We enjoyed our walking tour.
2 comments:
McMenamins certainly knows how to do its funky hotels right, with all those great details. It's difficult to point out one more than any others that's the best, although the portrait of the dog really is quite nice. That ghost portrait would scare the crap out of me. It's oddly lifelike and creepy.
The artwork is really fun. The ghost lady is creepers, I can see why she might startle you.
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