Re: AHR(H) buys Grand Imperial Hotel

There are a number of historic pictures of the GI but I don't see any posted on our historical societies web site. The Silverton Standard printed one this past week. What is currently on our web site under the historic preservation tag is a series of the 1992 Town Hall fire--I'll ask the web master, who is out of town for a while, to post some of the pictures we have of the GI on our web site.

Dance hall girls were on Blair Street and the typical Victorian dress for the period was rather severe for women working in restaurants and the like. The dress seen at the Strater's Diamond Bell saloon is a figment of someone's imagination. Well researched costumes will be a disappointment if done properly, but then there's always revisionist thinking that could prevail if the goal is to entertain rather than be authentic. In the 1880s, there was no hotel lobby on the first floor. What is now the lobby was at one time the newspaper office and printing plant. Other first floor spaces included a saloon and 2 other commercial spaces. The hotel was reached by 2 stairways, now blocked off, that lead directly from the street to the second floor.

Plus I've had dinner with Russo and it was a quiet, dignified evening with no singing.