5.29.2009

Seaside, Oregon: Making and Re-making a Coastal Resort Town


[This is a paper I wrote for a college course in 2009]

In the 1870’s, developer and railroad tycoon Ben Holladay built a luxury hotel called Seaside House on the Oregon coast, in the style of an Italian villa. The hotel had a stable and a racetrack—since many of the wealthy visitors arrived by stagecoach. The elegant atmosphere attracted elite tourists from Portland and San Francisco. This hotel that would eventually give Seaside, Oregon its name, was once called “the oldest fashionable resort” on the coast .