Hoyt Hotel

The Hoyt Hotel was a 175-room hotel located in Portland, Oregon. Harvey Dick purchased the hotel in 1941. In 1962, he renovated the hotel and added the Barbary Coast Lounge and Roaring 20s Room, a nightclub that attracted celebrities such as Johnny Carson, Duke Ellington, and Anne Francis. Dick closed the hotel in 1972 due to declining business.

Hoyt Hotel
Hoyt Hotel circa 1970
Location within Portland, Oregon
General information
LocationPortland, Oregon
Opening1912
ClosedAugust 2, 1972
OwnerHarvey Dick (1941–1972)
Other information
Number of rooms175
Number of restaurants1
Barbary Coast Lounge
Number of bars1
Roaring 20s Room

History

The hotel was built in 1912 at the southwest corner of Hoyt and 6th Street, directly facing Portland's Union Station.

Harvey Dick, part-owner of Columbia Steel, purchased the Hoyt Hotel in 1941 primarily as housing for war-time steel workers. In 1962, he renovated the hotel and added the Barbary Coast Lounge and Roaring 20s Room, a nightclub that attracted celebrities such as Johnny Carson, Duke Ellington,[1] and Anne Francis.[2][3]

Dick closed the hotel on August 2, 1972 due to declining business in recent years; the Roaring 20s Room was closed three weeks earlier.[2] The building was demolished in 1977, the same year as Harvey Dick's death.

As of 2014 the block which the hotel occupied is a fenced, gravel-covered empty lot sometimes used for construction staging, and is contaminated.[4]

Description

Walter Cole, the Portland resident and female impersonator better known as Darcelle XV, recalled the Roaring 20s Room in Sharon Knorr's book, Just Call Me Darcelle. According to Darcelle, the ladies' restroom had a full-time harpist; the men's restroom included a 12-foot (3.7 m) long trough urinal decorated like a rock grotto, featuring miniature forest animals that served as targets. Darcelle recalled, "[There was also a] life-sized replica of Fidel Castro... If a gentleman could hit that open mouth, lights would flash, sirens would go off and a huge waterfall would flush the entire urinal."[5]

Harvey Dick bought a replica of a locomotive from the movie studio 20th Century Fox and used it for the décor of the Barbary Coast Lounge. [6] The replica was later used to film scenes in and around the locomotive in the television series Petticoat Junction in exchange for a prominent screen credit at the end of each episode: "Train furnished by Barbary Coast, Hoyt Hotel, Portland, Oregon."[7][8]

References
  1. Vail, Ken (2002). Duke's Diary: The Life of Duke Ellington. Scarecrow Press. p. 413. Retrieved June 3, 2013.
  2. "Hoyt Hotel closes". Eugene Register-Guard. 105 (285). Eugene, Oregon: Guard Publishing. August 3, 1972. p. 3A. ISSN 0739-8557. OCLC 9836354. Retrieved June 3, 2013.
  3. Marshall, Cathy (May 3, 2012). "'Gracie Hansen' musical honors Portland legend". Portland, Oregon: KGW. Archived from the original on June 29, 2013. Retrieved June 3, 2013.
  4. "Environmental Cleanup Site Information (ECSI) Database Site Summary Report - Details for Site ID 3103, PDC Block R". State of Oregon: Department of Environmental Quality.
  5. Clarke, Kelly (February 16, 2011). "Walter Cole Just Call Me Darcelle". Willamette Week. Portland, Oregon: City of Roses Newspapers. Archived from the original on October 2, 2013. Retrieved June 3, 2013.
  6. LaMarche, Bill (May 30, 2009), "Petticoat Junction" star Linda Kaye Henning to Attend Oregon Zoo's Train Party", retrieved October 8, 2015
  7. Krell, David (September 23, 2013), "All Aboard the Hooterville Cannonball! Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of 'Petticoat Junction' (Part 2 of 5)", retrieved October 8, 2015
  8. ""Emma Sweeny History"". Durango Railroad Historical Society. Retrieved October 8, 2015.

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