HISTORIC / HERITAGE SPECIAL SECTION: OLD HAUNTS & NEW SPIRITS

Bend, Ore. —- The spirits of Jerry Garcia and the Rev. Dominic O’Connor peacefully coexist inside the Old St. Francis School.

This quirky boutique hotel created from an old Catholic school blends seemingly contradictory cultural and decorative elements into a comfortable whole. But not even Mike McMenamin, one of the brothers who owns the hotel, can explain exactly why it works.

“We try to keep it simple and have fun doing it,” McMenamin said. “The whole thing is people sitting around and just shooting the breeze.”

For a guest like me, a night in the hotel was like staying in a very comfortable museum that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

My fiancee and I checked into the Old St. Francis School during a visit to Bend, a town of 78,000 in the high desert of central Oregon. It’s a magnet for people who love outdoorsy activities.

We spent two days white-water rafting on the Deschetes River and hiking at Lava Butte and nearby Mount Bachelor, but I’m glad we took time for a walking tour of the premises, guided by hotel manager Free Star Yost.

Yost is typical of the hotel workers, not because her arm is speckled with falling star tattoos, but because she moved from the Midwest to Oregon for outdoors action, in her case snowboarding. She stuck around after starting a family and has worked for years for McMenamins.

Yost showed us the spots to eat and drink: the main restaurant with a skylight and copper-topped bar; the Fireside Bar with pool tables and four panels of traditional Indonesian art; and O’Kanes, a former garage turned into a haven of dark wood booths and stained-glass windows. Then she took us downstairs to see where McMenamins-brand Hammerhead Stout and other beers are brewed.

It was daytime, so we couldn’t take in “Ironman,” one of the second-run movies shown in the big, antique-filled living room of a theater. Guests sit on comfortable sofas and stuffed chairs while waiters bring them beer and sandwiches.

We did find time one night to enjoy a dip in the soaking pool, located in an adjacent building. None of the pedestrians on Bond Street seemed to notice as we walked down the sidewalk wearing the white terry cloth robes provided by the hotel. The pool itself is a marvel, especially at night when underwater lighting and a bubbling fountain create a dreamlike feel. During the daylight you can better admire the sun and moon stained-glass windows and the massive murals, done in Byzantine style with Celtic touches that honor St. Francis and his love of animals.

The hotel is loaded with memorabilia from the school, such as a four-spigot water fountain once used by the students, framed letter jackets and black-and-white photos of Catholic ceremonies from the 1950s.

Numerous original oil paintings adorn the walls, but the artists use the school’s history as a jumping off point into some sort of trippy commentary. One painting, for instance, shows flying nuns filling the sky like a flock of birds.

Concert posters for the Grateful Dead and other rock bands are sprinkled throughout the building. McMenamin said the Dead’s improvisational, collaborative music and the community it spawned inspired him and his business partner, brother Brian McMenamin.

“The Dead never played a song the same way twice,” he said. “We try to do the same thing with our pubs.”

McMenamins has grown into a brand name in Oregon and Washington state with seven hotels, 47 standalone pubs and several musical venues, not to mention McMenamins beer, wine and whiskey. Many buildings are rehabbed and decorated with elements that tell the building’s history.

The St. Francis School opened in 1936 as the first parochial school in central Oregon. In 2000, the parish built a modern facility and the McMenamin brothers bought the old, one-story brick building with a decidedly institutional feel. Renovation took four years. Classrooms were divided into guest rooms. Outbuildings, such as the former nun’s residence, became guesthouses. Staff historians and artists went to work.

The company takes a building’s history into account when decorating. At the St. Francis School, McMenamin said, that meant “a bunch of crazy Irish priests getting kicked out of Ireland and coming to Bend.”

He referred to the bearded and bespectacled O’Connor, remembered in archival photos. O’Connor became a national hero in his native Ireland for supporting the Irish Republican Army, was imprisoned, then came to Bend in 1922 to help operate the school. He died in 1935 in Oregon, but his remains were disinterred, transported to Ireland in 1958 and reburied with great ceremony in County Cork.

Everything at the St. Francis School has a back story, even the heart-of-pine paneling in the main building. The McMenamins bought an old Jim Beam warehouse in Kentucky, disassembled the building, moved the pieces 2,200 miles across the country and used the wood to panel the hallway and 19 guest rooms at the hotel in Bend.

Cool. But why?

Years ago a master distiller from the Jim Beam bourbon distillery visited another McMenamin property, the Edgefield Inn, and bonded with the staff. When the McMenamins saw the warehouse on a list of lumber for salvage, they jumped. It was something they had to do.

Explained McMenamin: “I like those kinds of connections.”

SOMETHING FOR EVERY TASTE

There are 58 McMenamins sites —- microbreweries, music venues, historic hotels and theater pubs —- in Oregon and Washington state. Many are rehabilitated properties, and nine are on the National Register of Historic Places. Details can be found at www.mcmenamins.com.

Notable spots in Oregon are:

The Barley Mill Pub: This tie-dyed shrine to the Grateful Dead was the McMenamin brothers’ first jointly owned pub, opening in 1983 in Portland.

Hillsdale Brewery and Public House: Oregon’s first brew pub since Prohibition. McMenamins started making beer here in 1985 to take advantage of a 1984 law allowing small breweries to sell their product onsite.

Cornelius Pass Roadhouse: This group of farm buildings in suburban Portland, dating to the 1850s, was the company’s first historic property.

The Edgefield Manor: Formerly the Multnomah County Poor Farm, this 100-room hotel is located at the mouth of the Columbia River Gorge. The complex opened in 1991 and includes a golf course, four bars, a distillery, a winery and an amphitheater —- but no telephones or televisions in the rooms.

The White Eagle Rock ‘N’ Roll Hotel: Built as a civic club for Portland’s Polish immigrants, this building is now a venue for nightly rock shows. Upstairs are 11 guest rooms, each named for a song by the Holy Modal Rounders.

Crystal Ballroom: Rock acts such as the Drive-By Truckers perform in this 1914 Portland landmark. McMenamins restored the 7,500-square-foot dance floor, which is built on ball bearings and gives dancers the feeling of “floating.”

Bagdad Theater and Pub: The interior is a little like the Fox Theatre in Atlanta, with Moorish arches, fountains and tilework. Universal Pictures built the Bagdad in 1927 as Portland’s “movie palace.”

Hotel Oregon: A UFO festival is held yearly at this 42-room, 103-year-old hotel in Oregon’s wine country.