Eastern Oregon Trip: Geiser Grand Hotel

Photo courtesy of Baker County Library

We were glad to get to Baker City.  We stayed at the Geiser Grand Hotel, shown here when it was the Hotel Warshauer.  


Whenever I visit a new place I like to check out the library.  We were too busy to do so during this mini-vacation, but I did visit the Baker County Library website.  They have a great database of historic photos.  In addition to the photos, there are accompanying historic articles.  This photo, for instance, has an 1898 review of the hotel. "On entering we find that the promise given of elegance in furnishings does not disappoint." It still doesn't.


It was dinner time when we arrived, and we got a glimpse of the dining room.  Soon we would return, me for the usual vegetarian option of pasta, but in this case with locally harvested wild mushrooms, and my sweetie for steak.  But first, our room.  At first I had reserved one of the cheaper rooms without some kind of view.  Even the cheaper rooms promised to be better than your usual chain hotel.  However, my sweetie had me call the hotel and upgrade to a cupola suite.  I had to reveal my ignorance and ask just how you say that.  It's an Italian term, so you say coop-oh-la.  We were on the second floor in that round corner.

We stayed there two nights...and each morning we ordered room service and sat at that table with the view all around us.  Room service is so fun...everybody should have a chance to experience that at least once in their life.  Another nice thing...this hotel has a noon checkout time.  Even though we didn't stay that long, it was so nice not to have that pressure to be packed up and out by 10 or 11 am, and still have time to have breakfast brought to us.

 Our view included the US Bank across the street, which housed the largest Oregon nugget still extant.  Sadly, we arrived too late to give that a visit.  Banks still stay closed on the weekend in Baker town.

More photos here, including a closer shot of that beautiful skylight.