Historic Hood River
Columbia Gorge Hotel Under Construction
6-6-2012
Notes
In 1921 Portland lumberman Simon Benson tore down the Wau Gwin Gwin Hotel to make room for his grand creation, the Columbia Gorge Hotel. Alva Day dropped by on a fall day to check on the progress. With a keen eye for composition, Mr. Day waited for a workman to scale the cupola before taking his shot.
Charlott
What a priceless photo this one is. Must show this to my daughter as she worked at Columbia Gorge for a number of years. What does the sign on the shed say? Photo says it all doesn’t it?
l.e.
Wow! Not a place for vertigo.
I wonder if the roof was shake or composition.
A neat photo and a little more interesting than broken utility poles.
Hood River was seeing huge changes. A highway and a five star hotel.
l.e.
There is a light shining on the tree trunk!
And a guy is tinkering with his car.
Arthur
The sign says "Dinwiddie Construction Company- General Contractors- Portland- San Francisco"
Charlott
The roof was and is Italian tile, naturally a reddish in color.
Arlen Sheldrake
My Mother was fond of the memory of the field trip as a Odell High School student to go see the wonders of the all stainless steel kitchen; a modern marvel of the time.
Diamonds are continuing to be mined from the photo archives……..
Charlott
Dinwiddie Construction is still in operation in California. It started in Portland in 1911 and then moved to San Fransisco in 1916. In about 1923 they merged with another construction company called Hathaway, so now known as Hathaway-Dinwiddle Construction. They have quite a few notable buildings to their credits throughout the United States.
Arthur
On closer examination, the guy on the cupola roof is installing tiles. l.e. is correct, there is a man with his head in the engine of one of the cars tinkering, and there are at least two artificial lights shining towards us.
l.e.
Of course. I should have realized it would be the red tiles. A history search of those tiles would be interesting.
Charlott…..I came across the memoirs of Velna Volga Lewis. She lived in the Columbia Gorge area in her younger years. Sorry for taking space here Arthur, but I wanted to post this link. Thought it might be of interest to some.
http://chadandkeishastory.wordpress.com/1970/01/03/velnas-memoirs/
Arthur
We are about 800 negatives into almost 3000 in the Alva Day collection– no telling what we’ll find. Every day is a surprise, and you’ve only seen a fraction of what we’ve already scanned. Train derailment last week, which Arlen will definitely want to see, along with some spectacular hunting and fishing images.
Scott Cook
Fabulous choice of photo Arthur! A little-known tidbit is that the Col Gorge Hotel was built as a sister structure to a similar home now-named "The House at Bridal Veil". A family named Jacobson hired architect Morris Whitehouse to build them an "Italianate" villa at Coopey Falls in 1916-1917. Three years after Whitehouse finiished the House at Bridal Veil he began building this Col Gorge Hotel for Simon Benson in the same Italianate style.
The House at Bridal Veil is now occupied by the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist…located a few hundred yards east of the Angel’s Rest trailhead.
There is an entire book about "The House at Bridal Veil", written by Anita Birt an available on Amazon for just a couple of bucks. The story of the house’s history is interesting, as well as all thee other historic info that goes along with the age.
Julie Phelps
Oh this is a WONDERFUL photo! PLEASE tell me there are more construction photos in your archives! This is an early Dinwiddie Construction Company sign– WS Dinwiddie, founder of the Dinwiddie Construction Company, was my great grandfather, and I am writing a book about him and I would dearly LOVE to see anything you may have of his early work!
http://www.itsabeautifultree.wordpress.com