Arcade Hotel gets a facelift
By SAUL HUBBARD
Russ McMahon was looking for a summer volunteer project.
He found it at the three-story brick former Arcade Hotel, one of the more prominent buildings in the 1000 block of Main Street. The three-story brick construction has a large, protruding metal awning.
He approached the building's owner, Daniel Rey, about repainting the Arcade's awning, which over time had become dull and drab. Rey, who purchased the building from Jim Mueller about five years ago, thought it was a great idea.
"I always felt bad that I haven't had the time to do what I wanted to do with the building," he said. "So this was a good motivation for me."
Over the past five weeks, McMahon spent 146 hours cleaning, priming and painting the awning. He hoped to complete the project by the Fourth of July.
"I've never done any intricate painting or restoration work like this," he said. "It's been a challenge."
The Klamath Falls Downtown Urban Renewal Advisory Committee granted Rey and McMahon funds for the paint, and McMahon donated the labor to complete the project.
Building's History
The building previously housed the Arcade Hotel, which served Klamath for many years, and is still referred to as the Arcade by locals.
Sometime during the 1950s and 1960s, the hotel began to be neglected, Rey said.
"During that period, there was little to no economic or population growth in Klamath Falls," he said. "A building like that takes a lot of maintenance. If you're not making any money with it, it's understandable that you wouldn't spend the money to maintain it."
A bad roof led to a considerable amount of water damage, and the building fell into disrepair. Over the next few decades, it changed hands often between different owners and the city.
Several people had visions of what it might become. A married couple bought it in the 1960s with dreams of turning it into a ballroom, Rey said.
In the 1980s, it was considered as potential Section-8 housing. After the city repossessed it in the 1990s, it was briefly used as a police training facility until it was deemed unsafe.
In 1999, Jim Mueller bought the building from the city for a dollar with hopes of installing a café and community arts center on the ground floor.
However, the costs associated with renovating the building and a variety of other outside factors prevented any of these ideas from being realized.
Reaction
Linda Warner, who owns Periwinkle, a business down the street from the Arcade, thinks that McMahon's project is a valuable one for the entire downtown area.
"It's not good to have buildings falling into a state of disrepair," she says. "If people come downtown, you want them to have pretty buildings to look at."
"My aim is to dress up the block," McMahon said. "This is one of the first blocks visitors see when they come here and, at the moment, it doesn't give people a good impression of Klamath Falls."
Both McMahon and Rey acknowledged that repainting the awning is only a small step toward renovating the building. Nonetheless, they firmly believe that downtown Klamath Falls will ultimately bounce back.
"I'm just keeping things going (with this project) until the good times come back," McMahon said.
While Rey has no immediate plans for the Arcade's interior, he said, he would be open to a good suggestion for the building.
"Klamath's downtown has a lot of potential," he said. "Long-term, I'm not worried about it."
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