Hot Lake Hotel (also known as Hot Lake Resort) 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.
After a fire burned down over half of the hotel in 1934, the remaining building was used for various purposes, including a retirement home, asylum, and a nurse's training school during World War II. After that, operations were intermittent under various owners before the building's abandonment in 1991. The hotel and surrounding structures were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
Today, it is operated as a hot springs resort, pub, and theater. Previous restoration done by the Manuels. Prior owners included future governor Walter M. Pierce and former state senator Parish L. Willis.
Background
The hot springs that make up Hot Lake themselves rest at the foot of a large bluff, and were often used by Native Americans before settlement and colonization occurred in the area; the lake was named "Ea-Kesh-Pa" by the Nez Perce. It is thought by historians that Hot Lake was one of the first thermal springs to be visited by European settlers, and the springs themselves were documented by Washington Irving in his recording of Robert Stuart's explorations during the Astor Expedition in 1812. Irving wrote in his record:
Emerging from the chain of Blue Mountains, they descended upon a vast plain, almost a dead level, sixty miles in circumference, of excellent soil ... In traversing this plain, they passed, close to the skirt of the hills, a great pool of water, three hundred yards in circumference, fed by a sulphur spring, about ten feet in diameter, boiling up in one corner. The place was much frequented by elk, which were found in considerable numbers in the adjacent mountains, and their horns, shed in the spring-time, were strewed in every direction around the pond.
After the Oregon Trail expedition brought settlers into the area, the land surrounding the lakes was utilized as a cattle ranch, and was purchased by a sailor named Tommy Atkins. An apocryphal story claiming that Atkins was cured of numerous health ailments after falling into the spring was published in The Oregonian in 1914 in a piece detailing the hotel's history. The lake's spring bubbles nearly a half-million gallons of water each day, and the average temperature of the lake is around 200°F (93°C).
History
1864–1906: Initial construction
In 1864, Samuel Fitzgerald Newhart, a native of California, arrived in the Grande Ronde Valley, and constructed the original wooden structure on the lake, which faced toward the bluff rather than outward toward the lake. The structure was similar to the contents of a modern-day shopping mall, containing a post office, blacksmith, dance hall, barber shop, bath house, and several other businesses.
By 1884, the Union Pacific Railroad commenced its construction, running near Hot Lake. In 1903, the original wooden structure was demolished, and construction began on a new hotel and various bath houses. Dr. Phy became involved with the project in 1904, and a brick structure intended for use as a hospital began construction.
1907–1933: Heyday
Well-renowned architect John V. Bennes of nearby Baker City has been attributed to the architectural design of the building, reminiscent of the Colonial era; Bennes also designed numerous buildings on the Oregon State University campus, as well as several buildings in Portland. In 1908, the main brick wing of the hotel was completed, which alone comprised 65,000 square feet. The construct featured a Georgian-style U-shape with a solarium facing the bluff. The building was heated with the geothermal waters, and was the first known commercial property in the world to use geothermal heating.
Upon its re-opening, the hotel housed a total of 105 guest rooms, a 60-bed surgical ward, a ballroom, a barber shop, confectionery, drug store, news stand, reception rooms, laboratories, and a commissary. The hospital featured state-of-the-art soaking tubs supplied by the lake water, as well as an operating room complete with an elevated observation deck, and a 1,500-guest dance hall. The hotel came to be known by locals as "The Town Under One Roof," and was a mostly self-sufficient property, producing its own vegetables, dairy products, meats, and eggs.