As McMenamins marks anniversary, Hotel Oregon focuses on UFOs, poltergeists and community
Visitors come to McMenamin’s Hotel Oregon for its otherworldly attractions, as well as its vintage rooms, restaurants, bars and entertainment options.
The McMinnville pub, hotel and event venue, located in a historic downtown building at Third and Evans streets, is best known as the center of the UFO Festival. But it also has a reputation for its resident poltergeists, reputed to sometimes rearrange objects or make them fly across rooms.
Manager Em Thomas joked that she’s considering making use of the mischievous spirits. If they can move things, why not give them a broom and ask them to sweep up?” she asked.
The poltergeists, like the aliens discussed at the annual festival, do make themselves useful. They attract attention, lodgers and, occasionally, a film crew.
And they are among the quirks that make the Hotel Oregon stand out in the McMenamins regional chain, a family owned company celebrating 40 years this summer.
Hotel Oregon is 24, having opened as a McMenamins property in 1999. But its building is far older: it was called the Hotel Elberton when its first two stories were built in 1905. Two more stories were added a few years later when McMinnville was expecting its first flush of tourism – which never came, so the top floors were occupied by the Elberton family, rather than guests, Thomas said.
Later, with the hotel closed, the lower floor was used as a bus station and a series of retail stores, including a fabric store and clothing store at various times.
Nowadays, the Hotel Oregon offers lodging, mostly in rooms with shared bathrooms. It has a full-service restaurant, with a dining room that overlooks Third Street as well as seating on the roof five stories up.
McMenamins offers breakfast standards and some items that can be found at any of the chain’s restaurants, including the popular Capt. Neon, Communication Breakdown and JR’s Jumbo Deluxe burgers, the latter named for one of the company’s original brewers.
The rooftop and cellar bars served beverages daily, and the Carter the Great craft cocktail bar is open on Fridays and Saturdays. The rooftop has an indoor space and four separate outdoor decks, including the “crow’s nest” that was recently refurbished and reopened.
“Great views even on bad-weather days,” Thomas said, adding that the rooftop is “the place to go” for local teens.
The space is open to all ages — including those poltergeists who date from a century ago or more.
John the Ghost, who is said to make himself known frequently, supposedly is the spirit of a man who staffed the front desk of the hotel for decades. Two hotel employees have reported seeing him, but usually he manifests himself by moving things, according to Thomas.
Guests have also reported seeing the image of a small child on the upper floors or entering the elevator, she said. Like John, the child is a friendly ghost.
Hauntings are common in McMenamins properties, especially at the Edgefield, the former Troutdale poor farm that was one of the first in the chain, Thomas said.
Perhaps it’s because, in the search for vintage buildings, owners “know the potential for the paranormal,” she said.
They know, too, that people like spooky shivers, she said. Whether guests may come to Hotel Oregon in hopes of seeing ghosts, to learn about UFOs or to have a base for touring wine country, “they know they can have a fun family experience,” she said.
The hotel has had its ghosts and its UFO-centric appeal since the beginning, when it opened with a focus on local history.
Its walls are covered with paintings and other references to the never-disproven Trent UFO sighting in 1950. Since 2000, it has hosted the annual UFO Festival with music, an alien party and serious ufology speakers; the McMinnville Downtown Association oversees the more lighthearted part of the event, with a UFO parade, fun run and pet costume contest.
The hotel is always booked up for the UFO Festival, and UFO enthusiasts visit all year round, Thomas said. Wine tasting tourists and business travelers fill its room much of the rest of the year.
Summer is generally busier than colder parts of the year, but the holidays are also usually fully booked. So are the weekends of the McMinnville Food & Wine Classic and Cruising McMinnville.
“We’re lucky,” Thomas said. “We’ve been pretty consistent through the year, which is good, since it helps us retain employees.”
About 60 people staff the McMinnville site.
Locals are regulars for breakfast and other meals in the restaurant. They dine on the rooftop and frequent the bars, as well. Hotel guests can order room service.
Jam session music nights on Thursdays are big draws, as well. The hotel also hosts other entertainment and events, such as retirement parties.
Thomas, an eight-year veteran of the McMenamins company, became general manager of the Hotel Oregon in 2019. She took over for Dani Chisholm, who became a district manager for McMenamins, overseeing sites in Salem, Sherwood and Corvallis, as well as McMinnville.
The McMenamin brothers, Mike and Brian, started their business in 1983 to brew beers. They were among microbrewers who lobbied the state Legislature to pass the brewpub bill, which allowed brewers to sell beer on their own premises.
That led them to open a series of European-style pubs, which would serve food and be open to people of all ages. In addition to beer, they now make their own wine, cider, whiskey, ice cream, coffee, Hammerhead barbecue sauce and jam – products available on the menu, for taking home or online.
All told, the family-owned chain has nearly 3,200 employees who help operate 56 properties, including brew pubs, restaurants, theaters and hotels, in Oregon and Washington.
All but one of the lodging sites are in historic buildings, such as the Hotel Oregon, the Edgefield, and the Grand Lodge, a former Masonic home in Forest Grove, the old St. Francis School in Bend and the Bagdad Theater & Pub in Portland. The Kalama Harbor Lodge in Kalama, Washington, is newly constructed, but patterned after a vintage building.
Thomas said one of her favorite aspects of working for McMenamins is the emphasis the company places on community involvement.
“We want to give back” to the communities in which the properties are located, she said.
In addition to hosting the UFO Festival, for instance, the Hotel Oregon runs “Friends and Family” nights in which 50% of proceeds go to local charities. Any organization can apply for the fundraisers.
The hotel usually has four such nights a year, raising $1,500 to $3,000 each time, Thomas said. This year employees chose to host six, one for every organization that applied — Provoking Hope, Henderson House, Memorial Elementary School, Duniway Middle School, Outdoor Education Adventures and Habitat for Humanity’s Women Build project.
The Hotel Oregon also often donates to charitable auctions and raffles, Thomas said, or provides space for events, such as donating the stage for the upcoming McMinnville Music Festival.
“We’re in a unique situation to be able to offer the aid, so we do it for the greater good,” she said. “The company is compassionate, ethical and engaged. It’s nice to know you’re doing something bigger than burgers.”
“McMenamins is part of the community,” she said. “Our employees live here, have kids in the schools and have a stake in this being a good community.”
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