The Geiser Grand Hotel offers a certain elegance that may spoil you with fine crystal chandeliers, rich mahogany millwork and a spectacular stained glass atrium that collectively – take the breath away.
Thirty guest rooms invite you to linger longer, “We are big on comfort here,” said Sidway. “The scale of everything, including decorations and furnishings – you won’t see anything petite here.”
It is also comfort and elegance that traveled a long road to recovery. You see, the Geiser Grand Hotel’s story began in 1889 during the rough and tumble days of Oregon’s gold rush.
Albert Geiser made a “statement” when he built his namesake hotel that said Eastern Oregon could rival any of the big city offerings that travelers might encounter between Seattle and San Francisco.
The hotel thrived for nearly half a century before the gold played out and harder times arrived. In fact, the hotel was boarded up and abandoned when Barbara Sidway and her husband arrived in the early 1990’s.
They found a tremendous mess with damage throughout a building that didn’t have a roof: “Oh, it was horrible,” said Sidway. “Pigeons flying in and out of the open roof and the walls were so wet you could grab the plaster and feel the water.”
But Sidway also saw something remarkable in the building’s details and it’s bones: the promise for a new life!
“There was so much of the original millwork still intact and it was done with a lot of care and money and artisanship – it was all just extraordinary,” said Sidway.
So, an 8-million dollar restoration followed and the investment in the hotel and in Baker City’s future was completed when the hotel reopened in 1998.
Denny Grosse, the official tour guide at the Geiser Grand Hotel, (she is also Barbara Sidway’s mother) has a passion for history and noted that, “the hotel offers elegance – which is what Albert Geiser originally wanted to bring to town more than 120 years ago. This was elegance in the wilderness.”
Denny can tell you much about the hotel, its place in history and why the family thought it was all worth saving: “Because once it’s gone, history has disappeared – you can’t retrieve it if you tear it down.”
Barbara agreed and offered: “When you stay at the Geiser Grand Hotel you are really stepping back in time and connecting with what Eastern Oregon is about now. If you just show up we will get you pointed in the right direction for history and adventure.”
INFORMATION COURTESY OF
Grant’s Getaways May 17, 2014
http://www.kgw.com/lifestyle/grants-getaways/shows/Grants-Getaways-for-May-17-2014-259717831.html
GEISER GRAND HOTEL WEBSITE
http://www.geisergrand.com/index.html
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