The hotel was built in in the art deco style in 1929, with three storeys, just in time for the depression. It fell on hard times for quite a few years, but, by the 1950s things were improving and the hotel received its upper two floors. In 1996, during the filming of "The Postman", the movie company remodeled the upper two floors into apartments. Today it is a hotel and apartment, with a total of 57 studio, one bedroom and two bedroom units.
The 1950 addition was sympathetic with the art deco theme, including many multicoloured terra cotta panels on the exterior, matching the originals on the lower three floors. The art deco parapet above the entrance is especially nice, with pilasters mocked by coloured bricks, a central terra cotta panel and decorative terra cotta work on the bevelled pilasters and the top of the parapet.
In the 1950s/60s a fallout shelter was incorporated into the building, with (not certain of this number) potential capacity of 1065. By 1950 that would have been between two and three times the population of the town.The population peaked at just over 800 in 1930, but hard times forced the closing of the lead-zinc mines upon which the town partly depended for employment. Though the town was home to a large portland cement plant from 1911 to 1959, that, too, is now closed. Today the population has stabilized at just under 300.
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