Our Community at Work--Downtown Hotel/Cornerhouse Restaurant

Before and After rendering for the Downtown Hotel and Cornerhouse Restaurant.

Built in 1896 as the Hotel Pershing, its commercial tenants at street level have included DR B&S & Clo., Leader Department Store, the offices of William W. Garvin (real estate), Morris Block and a Piggly Wiggly grocery store.  This wood frame hotel dates from the earliest development of the Port Angeles Downtown.  It is one of only two 19th century buildings still at their original locations.

Front Street had not yet been raised on solid ground and the process of extending and raising First Street was slow and laborious.  commercial and merchant establishments crowded along Front Street, east and west of Laurel Street, giving those to the north direct water access where business literally breached land and sea.  This building was one of those orginally built on piers and piles, raising it above the tidelands.  Through its size, form, scale and materials, as well as its relationship to its neighbors and the street, this building was one of the first to establish a downtown's historical pattern to development.  It provides an imporant historical contribution to understanding the overall integrity of the downtown.

Prep work and painting being done by Jacob Oppelt and crew from Liquid Painting.  The project began on May 4 with pressure washing and preparing the building for paint and was completed on May 16, 2009.

A new life once again for one of the cornerstones of downtown.