DEL.ICIO.USFROM ATLANTA TO ... BEND, ORE.
Quirky Oregon hotel a trippy take on local history
The Old St. Francis School Inn finds inspiration in catholic school past
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Friday, November 21, 2008
Bend, Ore. – The spirits of Jerry Garcia and Father Dominic O’Connor peacefully coexist inside the Old Saint 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.
Liz Devine/McMenamins
Guests at the Old St. Francis School inn in Bend, Ore., can enjoy a large soaking pool.
Liz Devine/McMenamins
The bar at the Old St. Francis School inn is decorated with artwork and odd items collected by the owners.
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“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 fiancé and I checked into the Old Saint 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 whitewater 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 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, an old 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 “Iron Man,” 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 terrycloth 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 Saint 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 whisky. Many buildings are rehabbed and decorated with elements that tell the building’s history.
The Saint 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 guestrooms. 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 Saint 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 Father Dominic 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 Saint 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.”
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