The Ghost Hotel on the Old School Lot
A legal dispute over a prime piece of downtown real estate reveals a broken promise to build a hotel, fueling rumors of a makeshift boarding house for Chinese laborers.
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.
An agreement that was made a long time ago was filed in the office of the County Clerk yesterday. William Church, Jr., School Clerk, brought it there and paid for its recording. There were two parts to it—one being a proposition to C. H. Prescott, vice president of the Northern Pacific Terminal Company, to pay $75,000 cash for the school block sold last year, and the other an agreement proper, also signed by Mr. Prescott, stating that in consideration of such sale the company he represented would, within a reasonable length of time, erect on said block a hotel. It is understood that this agreement has been recorded at the present time to prevent any other disposition of the block in question, or of the one-story stone edifice that now graces the site, it being rumored during the past week that some other and more profitable use would be made of the property than to let it remain idle. Another rumor is to the effect that the Terminal Company propose to keep the letter of their contract, though not the spirit; in other words, to roof over the structure as it now stands, and lease it for a hotel—to be occupied by Chinamen.
“Another rumor is to the effect that the Terminal Company propose to keep the letter of their contract, though not the spirit; in other words, to roof over the structure as it now stands, and lease it for a hotel—to be occupied by Chinamen.”
This dispute highlights the 19th-century obsession with 'improving' land value to attract white investment, using the specter of Chinese labor as a racist cudgel to enforce development contracts. Today, the site of the old school block remains a focal point for debates over what constitutes a 'productive' use of downtown urban space.
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