The Hotel del Monte of the Northwest
Tacoma Land Company plans a massive, luxury seaside hotel to rival California's best.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
After a long and unexpected delay, the Ledger is able to report something official, authoritative and definite in relation to the building of a fine hotel in this city by the Tacoma Land Company. The matter referred to appears in the following telegram: Philadelphia, June 3, 1883. Geo. J. W. Sprague, New Tacoma, W.T.—The Tacoma Land Company authorizes Wright and Sprague to erect the hotel as soon as possible. Have you secured a location? C. B. Wright. The authority indicated is a resolution of the Board of Directors of the Tacoma Land Company. The architect, who was recently here, said that of all the sites pointed out, none would answer so well as the ground in block 901, bounded by A, Cliff avenue, Ninth and Tenth streets. It is proposed to petition the City Council to vacate that portion of Cliff avenue in front of this block. It is further proposed to remove Mr. Otis Sprague's residence, which stands on the northern end of the block. The proposition is to build here a hotel 300 feet long and 80 feet wide, on the plan of the famous Hotel del Monte, built by the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, in Monterey, California. In this hotel there will be 142 outside rooms; and the furniture, which is to be procured from an establishment in Indiana, will far surpass that of any other hotel in the Northwest.
“The hotel will not only be a credit to this city, but will be all class in all respects... and by a wide difference better than any other hotel north of San Francisco.”
This article highlights the era of railroad-backed boosterism that shaped early Tacoma. The proposed 'Hotel del Monte' style reflected a desire to lure wealthy tourists, a precursor to the modern Pacific Northwest's struggle to balance rapid development with historical preservation.
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