Historic Hood River
Mystery Photo
2-28-2022
Notes
Here’s a rerun of one of the first HHR posts. As you can see, it took four years but the mystery was finally solved.
[Post Originally Published April 6, 2011]
We have very little information on this image. It is described in the museum database as “Hotel with gathering of people, ca. 1900,” and attributed to W. F. Shanafelt. It doesn’t resemble any other hotel in our photo archives. Perhaps it was outside Hood River County. Can you provide any information to help unlock this mystery?
l.e.
W.F. Shanafelt was a Portland, Oregon photographer.
l.e.
William Shanafelt or Shanfelt besides his Portland studio, had a studio in Arlington. His career is documented in the book “Early Oregon Photographers”. 52,000 of his glass plates are on file at the U. of Oregon archives. Later he had a studio in Cottage Grove. He passed away in 1913.
Possibility the sand is along the Columbia River and not the coast.
l.e.
Except for the top dormers, the style of this hotel is very similar to the Mt Hood Hotel.
russ fish
I wonder if this is the fabled Kingsley Hotel I've heard so many stories about. It was supposed to be 4 stories high and very grand early on, before it fell into disrepute. I've heard it had it's own generator, to power an elevator, one of the first in the area. Just stories. Apparently it got such a bad reputation in it's later days, few people will admit to knowing anything about it. If this isn't it, it should be.
Judy Judd
Amazing that the whole thing didn't collapse with so many “bodies” on it!
Laurel Shanafelt Powell
William Fuller Shanafelt was my grandfather. As mentioned in the “Comments” his glass plates were sold by his widow Emma Welsh Shanafelt and eventually ended up in the U. of Oregon archives attributed to other early Oregon photographers. He was about 53 years of age when he died after a stroke in 1913 while living with his Shanafelt family members in Lawrence, Kansas, and is buried in the cemetery in Lawrence with his mother, father John Randolph Shanafelt and six brothers and one sister.
l.e.
As mysterious as W F Shanafelt and his photos appear to be, it is wonderful to hear from an actual member of the family. I have been searching through some of the U. of O digital archives, but I am coming to the conclusion that they have not scanned very many of your grandfather's collection.
Laurel Shanafelt Powell
It would be good if my grandfather William Fuller Shanafelt had lived just a while longer after having died @ 53 yrs. He would have been able to keep his photo collection (most on glass slides) intact and not sold as did his widow Emma Welsh Shanafelt. They lived in Portland for about 22 years, and upon his death in 1913, she sold the collection and via a circumvention it went to the Powell bookstore ended up in the U of Oregon archives. I am sure the collection was voluminous and individually documented, but a mysterious brother was quietly trying to retrieve them from his father for his own gain. I have what would probably be a very valuable photo of Chief Joseph the younger's nephew with wife and child. (Dressed in same clothing and haircuts the same etc.). My father William Adrian Shanafelt loved to roam these areas where he had lived with his birth family: father William F. the news and studio photographer, his mother and sisters through those early years until his marriage to Laura Emma Prink in about 1913 when they settled down in Portland where they lived until his death at 78, birth was in 1891 in Portland.
Graham
I just purchased this same photo from an estate sale in North Portland. My photo is stamped W. F. Shanafelt. I was thinking it looks more like the coast than Hood River.
l.e.
Graham, out of all the Historic Hood River photos, this one has intrigued me the most, trying to solve where it was taken.
I have searched old hotel photos of Washington, Oregon and even down to the Gulf Coast.
One of these days, someone will come across the answer.
Laurel Shanafelt Powell
Just an idea. My grandfather William Fuller Shanafelt born in 1860 began work as a photographer near the Pennsylvania/Ohio border with a cousin named Sheets in the mid or late 1880's. Could this picture have been taken in that area before he moved to Oregon (my father William Adrian Shanafelt was born in Portland, Oregon in 1891).
Laurel Shanafelt Powell
Or maybe: The Shanafelt family from Pennsylvania/Ohio and Lawrence, Kansas: William Fuller, Emma, his wife, their children Ethel born 1890 in Portland, William Adrian, and younger sister Edith born about 1893, the children all born in Portland, all lived in the 1890's in Portland, Arlington and in or near The Dalles where he opened photography studios and worked for Portland newspapers.
Graham
The Oregon historical society is trying to identify the same photo. It is a different angle with fewer people on the decks.
Graham
This link will get you to the image. Click search by image
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc1/485574_10151563938829629_727464978_n.jpg
l.e.
The photo is from the same time period isn't it? Same wood pile and board walk.
Arthur
Finally, after 4 years, an answer courtesy of Google image search:
It's the Oddfellows eldercare home in Portland:
Photo Credit: COURTESY OF ODD FELLOWS LODGE, PORTLAND – The opening day celebration of one of Oregon's oldest elder-care homes, the Odd Fellows Home, at 32nd Avenue and S.E. Holgate. Hundreds gathered for this celebration on April 26th, 1902.
http://portlandtribune.com/sb/75-features/244022-111308-odd-fellows-of-portland-a-heritage-of-caring
L.E.
I wasted a lot of time searching for photos up and down the Washington and Oregon cast that would match this building.
L.E.
Coast
Arlen L Sheldrake
thank you very much Laurel for posting your family history….sounds like book material. many things get lumped into “the good old days” but I cannot imagine the difficulties in taking photos with glass plates, storing them, carting them from home to home, or storing them. now scheduling a 32nd/Holgate drive by.
ArthurB
So did I, LE!
Jeff Bryant
On Google Earth I don’t see any similar buildings
nels
Just points out what a great number of smart and determined historians we have on here. Glad you all tracked that down. What's the next burning site?