Photos taken in June 2004.
Due to the heavy forest around the Chateau it is very difficult to get a picture of the entire building.
Oregon Caves Chateau - Page 2
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Photos taken in June 2004.
Due to the heavy forest around the Chateau it is very difficult to get a picture of the entire building.
This view of the front of the building allows you to see more of the building. Notice the use of dormers, both gable and shed styles, on the building. As you can see, the roof lines on the Chateau are very complex. (Don't know what a gable or shed dormer is? See this Wikipedia article.) Notice the stacked shed style roofs on the 2nd and 3rd floors (in the center of the building between the two large gables.) The same stacked shed roofs are used on the back of the building.
Photos taken in June 2004.
Due to the heavy forest around the Chateau it is very difficult to get a picture of the entire building.
Oregon Caves Chateau - Page 3
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Photos taken in June 2004.
This photo was taken from a guest room window on the 1st floor, looking across the back of the building at the lobby windows. Note the rainwater cascading from the roof.
Photos taken in June 2004.
Oregon Caves Chateau - Page 4
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Photos taken in June 2004
The photo above is the Oregon Caves Chateau lobby centered on the registration desk. The double doors on the far right are the main entrance from the road and parking lot. The fireplace is to your right out of the picture. You can see part of the grand staircase to the left. The ceiling supports are 30 inch diameter pine or fir logs with a polished finish, the ceiling beams are rough finish pine/fir about 18 inch by 24 inch in size. The gray color of the beams was created by coating them with a thin layer of cement dust. The lobby walls are paneled with redwood.
Directly across from the registration desk, this free-standing, double-sided marble fireplace is the central feature of the lobby. The rock removed from the site when the foundation was excavated was used to build the fireplace. The photo hanging on the chimney between the snowshoes is of Elijah Davidson, who discovered the Oregon Caves in 1874.
This is the back side of the lobby fireplace. The bust over the fireplace is also of Elijah Davidson.
Turning around from the photo above, this photo shows the plate glass "picture windows" that fill two sides of the lobby. The dark wood of the lobby contrasts with the bright forest outside and draws your eye away from the room decor to the view. Most of the furniture is antique and has been here since the day the Chateau opened.
The lobby from the grand staircase. The lobby's height gives you a "tree house" feel, you
look out these huge picture windows into the tops of the trees. While this level is called the 1st floor, there are actually 3 floors
below you. So while you entered the lobby from ground level on one
side, due to the steep slope of the canyon the other side of the lobby, where the windows are, is
50 feet above the ground!
The grand staircase. Note the registration desk at the right.
The grand staircase treads and rails are oak, support stringers are 24" diameter pine/fir logs notched for the treads, and the balustrades are Madrone with the red bark left on. Madrone branches don't tend to be straight, it must have been a real chore finding enough reasonably straight ones to make the balustrades!
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Photos taken in June 2004
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Oregon Caves Chateau - Page 5
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Photos taken in June 2004.
Leaving the Oregon Caves Chateau's lobby, we head down the grand staircase to a large landing with a bench and picture window. From the window at the stair landing you can see the waterfall and Trout Pond in the courtyard below. From the landing three separate stairs lead to various parts of the building. To the right a short flight of stairs leads down to the Caves Diner Coffee Shop. To the left another staircase goes down to the gift shop. Finally the grand staircase continues down to the Dining Room.
The coffee shop is on the courtyard level of the Chateau. It was added in 1937 and retains it's original look. The waiter talking with Julie is Paul, one of the friendly employees at the Chateau (at least he worked there back in 2004 when this photo was taken.) He's probably asking why her nutty husband is taking so many photos!
This photo shows the large mirror behind the counter in the Coffee Shop. The walls are paneled with knotty pine, the counter tops are birch and maple.
The coffee shop windows look out on the courtyard and Trout Pond.
Coffee shop chair detail.
The dining room windows look out over the canyon below the Chateau. The windows are 3 floors above the creek bed.
A small portion of the creek water is routed through a rock channel in the floor of the dining room.
The courtyard level of the hotel is where the kitchen, coffee shop and dining room are located. Below it there are 2 levels of "basements". The upper basement level contains an employee dining area, 3 rooms for employee housing, and storage space. The lower basement level is much smaller in size than the other floors and contains mechanical equipment. Both basements are not fully underground, 3 sides of them are below ground but the 4th side facing the creek downstream is above ground. I don't have any pictures of either basement, they are not open to the public.
Did you notice the "out of place" looking steel pole in the middle of the coffee shop? The
steel pole was added after the building was damaged in the floods of
1964.
No, this photo of a hallway on the 1st floor is not distorted. The top of the walls lean very noticeably to the right due to damage from the flood in 1964, when the building walls shifted due to the enormous weight of the water that filled much of the floor below this one. If you want to see this leaning corridor go to the Chateau's main lobby on the 1st floor. On the side of the lobby opposite where the fireplace is you will see a short flight of stairs leading to a hallway. Go up the short flight of stairs, walk to the end of the corridor, and that's where this photo was taken.
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Photos taken in June 2004.
The courtyard level of the hotel is where the kitchen, coffee shop and dining room are located. Below it there are 2 levels of "basements". The upper basement level contains an employee dining area, 3 rooms for employee housing, and storage space. The lower basement level is much smaller in size than the other floors and contains mechanical equipment. Both basements are not fully underground, 3 sides of them are below ground but the 4th side facing the creek downstream is above ground. I don't have any pictures of either basement, they are not open to the public.
The Flood of 64:
As previously mentioned, the Chateau building spans Cave Creek like a dam. Normally the flow of water in the creek is minimal, the water flows into a large pipe which carries it from upstream under the Chalet and Chateau buildings, releasing the water back into the creek just below the footings of the Chateau. During the winter of 1964 Southern Oregon was hit with a series of huge storms leaving a deep snow pack at Oregon Caves. On December 22 of that year a warm rain caused a sudden snow melt and a flash flood roared down Cave Creek. The pipes under the Chalet and Chateau buildings could not contain the water. Mud, rocks and debris surged through a breezeway of the Chalet, and poured down into the Chateau where it became trapped. The Chateau started filling with water. The building started to groan and shift as the floors began to give way under the weight of the water. Winter managers Bob Hines and Harry Christiansen were in the Chalet at the time, and saw the wall of water rush past them and flow straight into the Chateau. At the risk of their lives, they waded into the Chateau dining room, where they smashed out the plate glass windows, allowing the water to flow out, and saving the building. However major damage resulted to the building, some of it still apparent during our visit in 2004. (I'm not sure if the proposed 2018 remodel of the Chateau will "fix" the damage, so if you visit after 2018 all this may be repaired!)
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Oregon Caves Chateau - Page 6
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Photos taken in June 2004.
1st Floor. There are 5 guest rooms on the first floor, located up a hallway adjacent to the lobby. The wall paneling in the halls and rooms is the original fiberboard. Narrow halls like these are typical of many older hotels and lodges. These rooms will all be wheelchair accessible after the proposed remodel of the Chateau.
2nd floor. A small lobby is located at the top of the stairs on the second floor. The desk shown here is one of the more ornate pieces of antique Monterey Furniture in the Chateau. The Chateau houses the largest collection of authentic antique Monterey Furniture in the world, all of it is original furnishings. (If you own a piece of Monterey furniture the Friends of the Chateau group is always seeking pieces to replace furniture that has been lost for various reasons, or to just add to their collection.) The entire 2nd floor of the Chateau is guest rooms.
One of the hallways on the second floor. The pipes for the fire sprinklers were added in 1955. While ugly, a lot of these old buildings would not be here today without them. The door at the end of the hall is the fire escape, metal fire escapes were added to the exterior in 1962.
Phones are still present in many of the hallways. There are NO phones in the rooms.
3rd floor. The grand staircase stops at the second floor. To reach the third floor, this small narrow staircase located in a corner of the hotel is used.
The 3rd floor hallways are even narrower than the 2nd floor halls. These are essentially "attic" rooms, but many of them have very unique qualities. We will visit several of them in the next part of the tour. Obviously the 3rd floor was intended to be for the less financially well-off guests!
Oddity: This glass window is in the ceiling of the 3rd floor hallway. It lifts up to open (no hinges) and serves as the access door to the attic above. Which begs the question "why is a window used rather than a standard wood attic hatch?" The theory is that it was to make it look like a skylight, although it isn't. Although it looks frosted the window is clear glass, a piece of plywood painted gray is attached to the top side of the window, and is what you see. Natural light from a skylight would have been a welcome thing up here, as this top floor hallway is rather dark and confining. But it wouldn't be historically accurate to add one now.
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Photos taken in June 2004.
Guest Room Hallways:
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