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 Creaser Hotel - Republic, WA Posted by:  T0SHEA
N 48° 38.837 W 118° 44.103
11U E 372202 N 5389699
The second oldest building in the city of Republic, the Creaser Hotel is the oldest wood frame building in the city.
Waymark Code: WMRKJX
Location: Washington, United States
Date Posted: 07/04/2016
Views: 1
One of the first prospectors to settle in what was to become Republic was Phillip Creaser, who arrived on the scene in in the colder than cold winter of 1896. He became one of the most prominent figures in early Republic, first staking several of the more important claims,
including the Copper Bell, The Iron Mask, Lone Pine, Iron Clad, Last Chance and the particularly rich Jim Blaine and Republic claims. It was that last, the Republic Claim, which gave the town its name.
Having quickly become a man of means in the town, Creaser had the Creaser Hotel built in 1897, at a time when the town consisted almost entirely of canvas structures. It has been ascertained that the building, long a private residence, is the OLDEST frame building in the city of Republic. There is only one older building in Republic, the Harry Kaufman log cabin, built in 1896 and now part of the Ferry County Museum.
When built, the hotel's water supply came from a water tower on the property, at a time when the rest of the town was supplied by a water wagon. The building served as a hotel until sometime between 1905 and 1909, when Creaser sold the building to Mr. and Mrs. George Moody, local saloon owners, at which time it became a private residence. The boom years in Republic were pretty much over by 1902 as the mines played out and thereafter there was little need in the town for a hotel.
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Creaser Hotel
The significance of the building originally known as the Creaser Hotel is three-fold. It is the oldest frame building in the city of Republic and the second completely enclosed structure to be built in that town. Its association with prominent local families and
individuals has been long and intimate. Among these local notables were Phil Creaser, the original builder, and the Moody, Hall and Kenney families. Despite its age and continuous occupancy the building has retained much of its original visual aspect and is an excellent example of Republic's earliest permanent structures.
This building was built in 1897 for .Mr. Phillip Creaser. Construction took place barely a year after this area was opened for mineral entry and contemporary sources state that it was the town's second building... ... the structure was actually the second completely enclosed and roofed building in town. The first generation of structures in what was then called "Eureka Camp", consisted of tents and temporary, canvas-roofed "half buildings". The structure usually acknowledged to be the community's earliest complete
building is a log cabin. These facts give Phil Creaser's two-story building a clear claim to the status of Republic's oldest frame building...
...Mr. Greaser's hotel business was apparently short-lived. Some time during the first decade of the present century both the hotel building and Mr Greaser's neighboring single story cottage, which some long-time residents state was formerly attached to the hotel, became private homes, a use which has continued to the present.
Sometime between 1905 and 1909, Mr. Greaser sold the former hotel building to Mr. and Mrs. George Moody, owners of a popular local saloon. The building passed out of the Moody 's hands between 1913 and 1918 and became the property of W.J. Hall. Mr. Hall was a member of an influential local family which held large interests in a livery stable and, later, in automobile garages. The family produced a number of noteworthy figures, among them a County Sherrif and a County Treasurer.
In 1937 the property reverted to the county for non-payment of taxes, and was sold on contract to Mrs. Joseph Kenney, one of the area's many Irish pioneers, who had previously rented the former hotel from Halls. The Creaser hotel, with various minor modifications, has served as a residence for members of the Kenney family since the
1920s, a use which continues to this day.
From the NRHP Nomination Form![]()
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