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LOCATION AND PROPERTY NAME
address:1201-1217 SW Stark St historic name:Hotel Alma
Portland, Multnomah County (97205) current/other names:Majestic Hotel; Hotel Tait; Hotel Georgian; Hotel Louie; Crystal Hotel
assoc addresses:
block/lot/tax lot:107 / 400
location descr: twnshp/rng/sect/qtr sect:1N 1E 33 SE/SE
PROPERTY CHARACTERISTICS
resource type:Building height (stories):4.0 total elig resources:1 total inelig resources:
elig evaluation: eligible/significant NR Status: Individually Listed
prim constr date:1911 second date: date indiv listed:09/09/2009
primary orig use: Hotel orig use comments:
second orig use: COMMERCIAL: General
primary style: Chicago School prim style comments:
secondary style: sec style comments:
primary siding: Brick:Other/Undefined siding comments:
secondary siding: Cast Stone
plan type: architect:Hanselman, H
builder:
comments/notes:
Additional Documentation approved by NPS on 5/20/2024
GROUPINGS / ASSOCIATIONS
Survey/Grouping Included In: Type of Grouping Date Listed Date Compiled
   Historic Resources in Downtown Portland, Oregon, MPD MPS 08/11/2004 2004
   Portland LGBTQ+ Historic Resources 2024 RLS Survey & Inventory Project 2024
SHPO INFORMATION FOR THIS PROPERTY
NR date listed: 09/09/2009
ILS survey date:
RLS survey date: 05/18/2023
Special Assessment
Status Term End Yr
Closed 1st  2025
Federal Tax Program
Status Start Compl
Complete 07/01/2008  2011
106 Project(s): None
ARCHITECTURAL / PROPERTY DESCRIPTION
(Includes expanded description of the building/property, setting, significant landscape features, outbuildings and alterations)
303 SW 12th Avenue is a four-story 20th Century Commercial Style hotel building designed by Hans Henselman. The top of the building has a cornice with decorative medallions around the roof line. The trapezoidal building has a full basement, a concrete foundation, and is finished mostly with buff-colored brick, with stucco-finish projecting bays on the exterior. There are regular storefront bays on all three street-fronting elevations, many of them restored, with individual metal canopies over the sidewalks. The entry door facing east on SW 12th Avenue has wood storefronts with transom windows above and a wood door. The elevations feature decorative brickwork, and wood double-hung windows are mostly original. Projecting neon signs are present on south and north elevations.
HISTORY
(Chronological, descriptive history of the property from its construction through at least the historic period - preferably to the present)
The Hotel Alma, currently McMenamins’ Crystal Hotel, housed multiple LGBTQ+ businesses between 1969 to at least 1987. Starting with the nightclub the Pied Piper, this location developed as a multi-use anchor for the surrounding gay district south of W Burnside Street and along SW Harvey Milk Street (formerly SW Stark Street). By 1971, the Majestic Hotel and Club Baths operated a men's bathhouse and hotel in the building with other LGBTQ+ businesses in the ground-floor commercial space. These additional businesses included Kachina Lounge, The Bushes, Stark Street Station, and Flossie’s. In 1987, Dick Lawson assumed ownership of the building and re-opened the bathhouse under Club Portland; the ground-floor commercial space became a men’s strip club, Silverado. Hotel Alma is listed on the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion A in the areas of Community Planning and Development, Commerce, and LGBTQ+ history.
RESEARCH INFORMATION
Title Records Census Records Property Tax Records Local Histories
Sanborn Maps Biographical Sources SHPO Files Interviews
Obituaries Newspapers State Archives Historic Photographs
City Directories Building Permits State Library
Local Library: University Library:
Historical Society:Oregon Queer History Collective Other Respository:Umbrella Project
Bibliography:
Borgen, Daniel. "Crystal Visions." Just Out, February 4, 2011, 21. Cook, Tom, and George Painter. “1999 Portland Gay History Walking Tour.” Gay and Lesbian Archives of the Pacific Northwest. https://www.glapn.org/6045walkingtour.html. Horn, Don. "Club Baths & The Majestic Hotel." Bathhouses. The Umbrella Project. https://www.umbrellaprojectoregon.com/club-baths-majestic-hotel. Kohl, David Grant. . A Curious and Peculiar People: A History of the Metropolitan Community Church of Portland, Oregon and the Sexual Minority Communities of the Pacific Northwest. Portland, OR: Spirit Press, 2006. Spencer, Aaron. "A Different Kind of Silver Anniversary." Just Out, February 4, 2011, 20,21. Minor, Kristen. "Hotel Alma." National Register of Historic Places Nomination Continuation Sheet. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of the Interior: National Park Service, May 20, 2024.