Area less than one acre NRHP Reference # 86000286 Architect John Virginius Bennes | Built 1907–08 Added to NRHP 27 February 1986 | |
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Location 525 SW Park Ave
Portland, Oregon Architectural style Baroque Revival architecture Similar Woodlark Building, Calumet Hotel, Hotel Ramapo, Campbell Court Hotel, Broadway Hotel | ||
The Cornelius Hotel is a former hotel building in downtown Portland, Oregon, United States that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was designed by John V. Bennes's firm, and constructed in 1907–08.
The seven-story building is categorized as being 20th-century Baroque Revival architecture, and contains 66 hotel rooms. Until 1920, it was operated by Charles W. Cornelius (1856–1923), who named the hotel for his family and his brother, Colonel Thomas R. Cornelius. Their father founded the town of Cornelius west of Portland after emigrating to Oregon with Joseph Meek.
The building has a "dramatic coffered ceiling in the lobby" and a French sheet metal mansard roof with cornice and entablature, and exterior masonry and terra-cotta. It included a ground-floor wood storefront that was once a "Ladies Reception Hall" and an "opulent" basement cafe. "Ornate wood paneling and trim" was included throughout the building.
By at least the 1950s, the hotel had transitioned from being a conventional hotel to an apartment hotel. The Cornelius housed the Club Continental, a gay bathhouse, in the 1960s and 1970s, while still being used mostly as a residential hotel. It was still serving as the latter in the 1980s, but a fire in 1985 left the top three floors uninhabitable, and only residents of the second, third, and fourth floors were permitted to return to the building after the fire.
By at least 1992, the building's residential use had ceased completely, and it became vacant on all but the ground floor. In 2002, TMT Development, developer Tom Moyer's real estate company, purchased the property for $2.4 million with plans to renovate the building. The renovated business-class hotel was to be reopened by June 2009 with the name "Alder Park Hotel", following a period where it was home to trespassers for many years after the 1980s. The 2008 financial crisis, however, halted work on the project, as well as Moyer's Park Avenue West Tower.
In 2013, TMT applied to the city to tear down the structure, but those plans were canceled when the building was sold again in 2014, to Arthur Mutal LLC.
In January 2015, it was announced that the building is to be joined to the adjacent Woodlark Building, renovated and returned to use as a hotel. The Woodlark Building, which will be converted from its current use as an office building, is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The planned renovation and conversion is expected to cost $30 million, funded by NBP Capital, Provenance Hotels and Arthur Mutal. The hotel created from the combined buildings is to be named The Woodlark and is slated to have 151 rooms and two restaurants or bars. Construction began in September 2016, and the new hotel is projected to open by the end of 2017.