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 Almira Hotel - Almira, WA Posted by:  T0SHEA
N 47° 42.673 W 118° 56.460
11T E 354406 N 5286028
The little town of Almira has a single National Register property, the Almira Hotel. Like many a hotel of its vintage, it is said to share a trait common to many of them.
Waymark Code: WMYKB7
Location: Washington, United States
Date Posted: 06/24/2018
Views: 3
To begin, it should be mentioned that the Almira Hotel is reputed to be haunted. Apparently, workmen who had stayed at the hotel during construction of the Grand Coulee Dam liked the place so much that they returned after they passed away. Ghostly men in workman’s clothes have purportedly been seen in the basement and on the main staircase, while knocks and other strange sounds and voices have been heard during the night.
HOTEL ALMIRA
This historic hotel burned to the ground in 1888, and was rebuilt in around 1917 as both a hotel and headquarters for a nearby dam project. Workers for the project stayed in the hotel for an extended period of time, and it appears that some of them enjoyed the accommodation so much that they stayed behind when they passed away. Visitors and guests claim to have seen the apparition of a man in workman’s clothes in the basement, while a spectral figure has been seen standing on the main staircase. In Room #021, which is currently in a state of disuse, there are claims of knocks, ghostly voices and disembodied footsteps during the night, even when the room is not being rented out.
From Haunted Places
Completed in 1918 at a cost of $60,000, the Almira Hotel has undergone few alterations since its construction, retaining good architectural integrity inside and out. A fairly plain brick building, the most noticeable decorations on the exterior are Greek Revival pedimented window hoods over each of the upper storey windows. The 3rd Street side was obviously meant as the main entrance as over the double doors, surrounded with copious amounts of glass and woodwork, is a 33 foot by 9 foot, flat canopy supported by hand-forged chains affixed to the masonry above. At the roof is a prominent galvanized metal parapet and wide overhanging eaves which extend four feet from the brick surface. As late as 2006 a neon sign reading "HOTEL" hung from the southeast corner, but it is now gone. The hotel was built with commercial/retail bays on the ground floor,
housing a variety of eating and retail establishments over the years, and even the post office and the telephone office for a time.
The adjoining two-story brick building at the north end of the hotel was erected in 1917 at the same time as the Almira Hotel and is not part of the hotel. The hotel itself appears to be vacant at present and undergoing renovation.
The first boarding house in Almira was opened about 1885 by Charles C. Davis and his wife, Almira Ridgeway Davis, after whom the town of Almira was named. This building was actually the third Almira Hotel to grace the town:
People came, buildings and homes were built, business flourished, and by 1902 the town had grown to 289. The first hotel built on the present site of the Almira Hotel was the Northwestern Hotel. Samuel Hyde bought it in 1897, and re-opened it with a new name: the "Hotel Almira."
In May 1902, Frank Heffenish bought Hotel Almira for $4,500. One year later his investment went up in smoke. A fire that started in the kitchen destroyed the hotel and surrounding buildings...
In 1905, a newspaper article reported that "Boone Thompson and Willis Schrock have commenced the erection of a $14,000 hotel on the corner of Third and Main... The building is to be a two-story brick. They expect to have the same completed before spring."
The success of the second Almira Hotel, however, was short-lived. On December 8, 1916, fire again destroyed the building:
Last Friday evening the Thompson & Schrock building, [which was] occupied by the
Hotel Almira, the Union Supply Store, R. L. Drinkard [Clothing], and the Pastime Billiard
Parlor, was destroyed by fire, resulting in an estimated loss of $70,000. The fire started in
the basement... The alarm was turned in but all that could be done was to protect the buildings
on the east side of the street and prevent the fire from spreading. By 9 o'clock the interior of
the building was destroyed. Thompson & Schrock will rebuild as soon as possible. It is
understood that the new building will be larger than the old one and that the hotel portion
will contain three times the number of rooms.
The Almira Hotel
Although they sustained a loss which was eventually listed at $88,000, Boone Thompson and Willis Schrock made good on their word. They cleared the ground and began construction of an unreinforced brick masonry single room occupancy hotel building in 1917. The March 23rd edition of The Big Bend Outlook reported that " work commenced on the new Hotel Almira the first of the week. The new building will be three stories high and will contain 45 rooms. In addition provisions will be made for a store for R.L. Drinkard [Clothier] and for the post office and the telephone office." Two months later, a newspaper article reported that "work on the new three-story hotel building" was "delayed on account of inability to get material." This predicament was probably due to the need for construction materials for World War I which was being fought at that time in Europe.
Even with the abiding scarcity, materials were found, the building was erected, and by December 1917, the Almira Ladies Auxiliary publicly thanked the hotel's property owners for hosting their fund-raiser dinner event. They published their thanks in the local newspaper and said, "We feel that we are much indebted to Mr. Schrock for his generosity and kindly considerations in allowing us the use of the dining room of the new hotel...
From the NRHP Registration Form
Public access?:
Possibly, unknown at present
Website about the location and/or story: [Web Link]
Visting hours: Not listed
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