The Proprietors will not be responsible for any Baggage or Valuables, unless a check is given therefor.

Meals 50 cents -- Lodgings 50 cents.

"On the evening of the 21st inst., Cap. J.C. Ainsworth, of Portland, received a telegram from The Dalles, dated May 21st, as follows:

A heavy fire is now raging at this place. Nearly all the business part of the town is consumed. The O.S.N. Co. lose the office here and engine house. Most all the rest of the property was saved. The railroad track through the town has been damaged. We will commence to repair the track at daylight in the morning.

Another dispatch furnishes additional particulars:

The town is almost burned down. The O.S.N. Co.'s office and engine house are totally destroyed. We think the fire is now under control. The fire commenced in the hotel, and swept everything before it on First street from Waldron's drug store and Moody's to the Umatilla House, including that, and burned one side of Second street clear, as far as French & McFarland's. The fire crossed over and burned everything from the corner opposite Fred Derber's old stand down as far as Michelbach's shop, including Humason's brick, occupied by Mr. Newman, and burned up to Condon's law office, on the corner of Third street. There is some danger yet."


Source:    "The Corvallis gazette", May 30, 1879, courtesy Historic Oregon Newspapers Archives, University of Oregon Libraries, 2019.

The office is 30x40 feet, and contains the handsomest counter and most elegant key-rack in the State. They are constructed of ash, maple and walnut, and are the work of the Oregon Furniture Manufacturing Company, of this city. A large Macneale & Urban safe furnishes a safe recptacle for the valuables of the guest. The lavatory is supplied with marble basins and beautiful large pier-glass. The billiard room is 50 feet wide and 40 feet in depth, contains four of Brunswick, Balke's & Co.'s tables, and thirty elegant settees, especially designed for this house by Mr. Samuel Loewenstein, President of the Oregon Furniture Manufacturing Company. The dining-room is 50x90 feet, and has a full corps of attentive waiters, headed by a competent steward. Two flights of easy stairs, one from the dining-room and one from the office, lead to the upper floors, and here we find 123 sleeping apartments, singly and in suites, with bath-rooms on second and third floors. The rooms are all thoroughly ventilated and well furnished, especially so is the elegant ladies' parlor, 24 feet square. All the furniture for this immense establishment was purchased of the Oregon Furniture Manufacturing Company.

The present firm first started this hotel in 1863, they afterwards enlarged and had the house nearly ready for occupancy, when the big fire destroyed the entire establishment. They immediately rebuilt and opened the present house on October 25, 1879.

Some idea of the business transacted by this house may be formed when we tell our readers that the Umatilla House uses nearly $600 worth of meat every monthy, and that it furnishes, on the average, 500 meals per day."

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ILLUSTRATION, 1880, "Umatilla House, The Dalles". "The WestShore" (Portland, Oregon)", July 1, 1880, courtesy Historic Oregon Newspapers Archives, University of Oregon Libraries, 2019.

"At 12 o'clock last Friday, the water was fifty feet above low water mark in the Columbia. At the Dalles it stood an inch or two deep upon the passenger platform in front of the Umatilla House -- a crowd of men and teams were employed clearing the ground floor of that house. The safe in the office was bolstered up 5 or 6 feet on the office floor."


Source:    "The Corvallis gazette", June 17, 1882, courtesy Historic Oregon Newspapers Archives, University of Oregon Libraries, 2019.

Free Omnibus to and from the Hotel. Fire-Proof Safe for the Safety of all Valuables.
Ticket and Baggage Office of the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company, and Office of the Western Union Telegraph Company, are in the Hotel.
Trains Depart From This House at 12:10 P.M. For Walla Walla., 2:40 P.M. Portland.

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ADVERTISING, 1889, "The New Umatilla House, The Dalles". "The Dalles Times-Mountaineer" (The Dalles, Oregon)", November 30, 1889, courtesy Historic Oregon Newspapers Archives, University of Oregon Libraries, 2019.