The Hoyt Hotel was a 175-room hotel located in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the list of cities in Oregon, largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, Columbia rivers, Portland is ...

. Harvey Dick purchased the hotel in 1941. In 1962, he renovated the hotel and added the Barbary Coast Lounge and Roaring 20s Room, a

nightclub A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music. Nightclubs gener ...

that attracted celebrities such as Johnny Carson, Duke Ellington, and Anne Francis. Dick closed the hotel in 1972 due to declining business.

History

The hotel was built in 1912 at the southwest corner of Hoyt and 6th Street, directly facing Portland's Union Station. Harvey Dick, part-owner of Columbia Steel, purchased the Hoyt Hotel in 1941 primarily as housing for war-time steel workers. In 1962, he renovated the hotel and added the Barbary Coast Lounge and Roaring 20s Room, a

that attracted celebrities such as Johnny Carson, Duke Ellington, and Anne Francis. Dick closed the hotel on August 2, 1972, after several years of declining business; the Roaring 20s Room closed three weeks earlier. The building was demolished in 1977, the same year as Harvey Dick's death. As of 2014 the block which the hotel occupied is a fenced, gravel-covered empty lot sometimes used for construction staging, and is contaminated.

Description

Walter Cole, the Portland resident and

female impersonator A drag queen is a person, usually male, who uses drag clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate female gender signifiers and gender roles for entertainment purposes. Historically, drag queens have usually been gay men, and part of ...

better known as

Darcelle XV Darcelle XV (November 16, 1930 – March 23, 2023) was the stage name of Walter Willard Cole, an American drag queen, entertainer, and cabaret owner and operator in Portland, Oregon. Guinness World Records had certified him as the oldest drag q ...

, recalled the Roaring 20s Room in Sharon Knorr's book, ''Just Call Me Darcelle''. According to Darcelle, the ladies' restroom had a full-time harpist; the men's restroom included a long trough

urinal A urinal (, ) is a sanitary plumbing fixture for urination only. Urinals are often provided in public toilets for male users in Western countries (less so in Muslim countries). They are usually used in a standing position. Urinals can be ...

decorated like a rock grotto, featuring miniature forest animals that served as targets. Darcelle recalled, " here was also alife-sized replica of Fidel Castro... If a gentleman could hit that open mouth, lights would flash, sirens would go off and a huge waterfall would flush the entire urinal."

In popular culture

Harvey Dick bought a replica of a locomotive from the movie studio

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

and used it for the décor of the Barbary Coast Lounge. The replica was later used to film scenes in and around the locomotive in the television series ''

Petticoat Junction ''Petticoat Junction'' is an American television sitcom that originally aired on CBS from September 1963 to April 1970. The series takes place at the Shady Rest Hotel, which is run by Kate Bradley; her three daughters Billie Jo, Bobbie Jo, and ...

'' in exchange for a prominent screen credit at the end of each episode: "Train furnished by Barbary Coast, Hoyt Hotel, Portland, Oregon."

References

External links

"The Barbary Coast at the Hoyt Hotel"
Lost Oregon (John Chilson, 2008)

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