The following verbiage is taken from the National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form to describe this hotel's history:
The Prospect Hotel, originally constructed as a private residence by A. H. Boothby in 1892 is a special example of early tourist hotels encouraged by the increasing use of the automobile. Particularly significant is the fact that the Prospect Hotel functioned first as a hotel before the turn of the century, and then was developed into an automobile tourist stop and vacationers retreat during the period 1912 to 1920. Both periods of the Hotel's existence are reflected in its architecture.
Mr. Boothby and his family lived in the building and opened it as a stopping place for wagon travelers on their way to Crater Lake. He called it the Boothby House, and he and his wife provided beds and delicious meals for the guests. After 1900 and the advent of automobile travel residents of Medford made summer week-end visits to the Hotel. Several prominent guests signed the register during those early years. Among them were William Jennings Bryan, Jack London and Zane Grey, and Joaquin Miller.
The Prospect Hotel retains sufficient design characteristics to reflect both periods of its existence with complete integrity. Basic design elements of the structure have not been changed; additions were made in the early years of the building's use as an automobile tourist hotel. Such additions include a wide rustic porch added about 1915, which replaced an earlier small porch, a screened-in office on the north elevation of the Hotel, sleeping porches on the south elevation, and tourist cabins, fishpond, aviary and planters. Very prominent at the core of the building is the simple gabled frame building which Mr. Boothby built in 1892.
The existing structure continues to have an identifiable relationship to its historical background. Located on the main street of Prospect, the Hotel is a short distance from Highway 62 which leads from Medford to Crater Lake. Prospect, always a small community, remains much as it originally was; it is nearly surrounded by federal land.
The area where Prospect now stands was first settled in the early 1870's when a sawmill was opened by two Jackson County residents named C. D. Slossen and John Beeson. They operated the mill on Mill Creek, and sold it in 1875 to the Deskins family. Harvey Deskins became the first postmaster in July, 1882 as the area grew to include a post office and named the little community after himself.
In 1883 Squire Stanford Aiken, and his brother, a physician in Jacksonville, purchased the sawmill from Mr. Deskins, and Squire Aiken moved up to run it.
Mr. Aiken opened the town's first small store in 1889 and at that time officially changed the name of the community to Prospect. His daughter, Frances Pearson, aged ninety-four, remembers that her father wanted to reflect the promise of the timber industry, the tourist travel and the beauty of the area in the new name.
Albion Howard Boothby and his family arrived in the community in 1883 and began work as a sawyer in Mr. Aiken's mill. For a short period of time the Boothbys were absent after a move down to Ashland. They returned to Prospect in 1889 to the present site of the Hotel. 3 In April, 1891, Albion and Jenny Boothby officially received title to their land, formerly the Mi 11 sap claim.
Mrs. Frances Pearson, who was born at Prospect in 1885, remembers that the town consisted of little individual sawmills, and a few settler homes. She was seven years old when Mr. Boothby, sawyer in her father's mill, decided to construct his large house by the road. The road on which their home was constructed had long been important to the county. It was called the Fort Road and led from Jacksonville, (its beginning) to Fort Klamath. Over the route moved troops and equipment travelling between the two areas. Settlers, of course, benefited from its existence and traveled the rugged route from Prospect to Jacksonville for supplies and business.
The Boothby's found that they had many visitors, particularly in the summer when valley residents and tourists traveled to Crater Lake.They began to consider their home a hotel, and made appropriate changes to accommodate the visitors. Obtaining lumber from Aiken's mill, Mr. Boothby soon had one of the popular stopping places the valley enjoyed.
By 1898 the anticipated lumber boom had not materialized. The Boothby House was sold to a group of men forming a new company. The leaders, named Ray, were wealthy individuals looking for forest timber to start a match factory. When they looked over Prospect they discovered the falls and rapids and decided to start a power company instead. Their organization was called the California and Oregon Power Company, or COPCO, COPCO bought the Boothby House and shortly after leased it for management to Martha Hollenbeak. In 1912 the management of the Hotel changed again.
Mr. and Mrs. James E. Grieve came to Prospect in 1912 to take over the Hotel and the store. The next year he tore down the original store building and built a new one. He and his wife operated the two businesses together until his death in 1932 and she continued alone for several years. Their son, James Heston Grieve owned the property for a period, and the final owner was his son , James W. Grieve who sold the property to the current owner.
James E. Grieve became postmaster at Prospect upon his arrival and remained in that position until his death. The hotel flourished under the Grieve's management. They repainted right away, and gradually added outbuildings which contributed to the visitors
enjoyment. The aviary, fishponds, screened porches and tourist cabins all were added during his tenure. The hotel reached its prime during the early 1930's as automobiles carrying tourists flocked to Crater Lake each season. Cars had long replaced the horse drawn wagons that brought travelers to the Boothby's door. The residents
of the valleys on the interior who wished respite from the summer heat brought their families and stayed week-ends at Grieve's Prospect Hotel. Particularly enjoyable were family-style meals served generously and with skill.
After Mrs. Grieve stopped running the hotel, it quickly fell into disrepair. Although continuously owned by the Grieve family, a variety of residents have occupied the space and its condition was neglected.
There is another hotel in the county which is comparable to the Prospect Hotel. The Rogue-Elk Hotel, also on Highway 62,was built after the turn of the century as a resort. The Prospect Hotel, however, is more decisively a tourist stop on the way to Crater Lake, for it is located much further along the road from town. The Prospect Hotel is different too, because it clearly represents the period of wagon travel before the turn of the century, and the development of the auto tourist industry during the 1920's and 1930's.