Rosario is the former estate of
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
mayor and shipbuilder
Robert Moran
Robert Moran (born January 8, 1937) is an American composer of operas and ballets as well as numerous orchestral, vocal, chamber and dance works.
Life
A native of Denver, Moran studied twelve-tone music privately with Hans Apostel in Vienna an ...
.
History
Due to poor health, Moran moved to Orcas Island and between 1906 and 1909 built his estate.
Wood and stone material found on the island were used to construct the estate's houses and buildings. In 1921, Moran gave a large portion of his property to the state of Washington for the creation of
Moran State Park
Moran State Park is a public recreation area on Orcas Island in Puget Sound's San Juan Islands in the state of Washington, United States. The state park encompasses over 5,000 acres of various terrain including forests, wetlands, bogs, hills, and ...
.
[ Moran sold the resort in 1938 and the mansion and its grounds have been sold several times since, but remained in private hands. It began operating as the Rosario Resort and Spa in 1960.] The Rosario Resort was listed for sale in 2023 and the following year, the resort was temporarily closed after the sale was completed with plans to renovate the building, with particular attention to the Moran Mansion. During the closure, the marina and grounds were to remain open for use.
Rosario was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 1978.
Architecture and design
Constructed in an Arts & Crafts style, the 5-story resort was named after the Rosario Strait and contains a music room that features a 1913 two-story 34-rank German-style Aeolian organ consisting of over 1,900 pipes and a 1900 Steinway
Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway (), is a German-American piano company, founded in 1853 in Manhattan by German piano builder Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg (later known as Henry E. Steinway). The company's growth led to the opening of a ...
grand piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...
. The hotel was also designed in a nautical style, containing stained glass windows, a Tiffany chandelier, and two libraries. The grounds were designed with paths and water features. The Rosario mansion features a museum honoring Robert Moran, complete with original furnishings.
References
{{National Register of Historic Places
Houses in San Juan County, Washington
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Washington (state)
National Register of Historic Places in San Juan County, Washington