Byron Hotel or Hotel Byron

S.E. corner of 7th (now Broadway) and Salmon

Years: 1906-1959 (demolished December 1959).

Photo above Left Public Works Administration (Archival) - Public Works Administrator - Photographs - A2005-005.784.1 Hilton Hotel series Corner of SW 6th Ave and SW Taylor St looking southwest toward New Heath (1)

citations & references:

Hotel Byron | "Byron Hotel, S.E. corner of 7th (now Broadway… | Flickr The Byron had a controversial history, with two major fires, several robberies, and a drunken attack by a manager on passersby in front of the hotel. It also was noted in newspaper articles as the residence of a number of arrested criminals through the 1950s.  In 1952, a woman jumped nude from the third floor in a suicide attempt but survived.  Today, the Hilton Hotel stands on the site. Per STUMPTOWNBLOGGER: DG - ANY INFO ON THE HOTEL BYRON? “Classified ads placed by residents looking to selling something, or hire someone, like the man who wanted to hire 4 women to work as solicitor and paying them $4-$5 per day, or the man who kidnapped his estranged wife and held her hostage in the hotel.”

Posted on Hotel Byron | "Byron Hotel, S.E. corner of 7th (now Broadway… | Flickr and www.glapn.org/6045walkingtour.html “In late 1912, it was the home of Edwin “Sid” Ghirardelli, of the famous San Francisco chocolate and mustard family.  Ghirardelli, who was gay, had been banished to Portland by his parents (even though he was an adult) to keep him away from his male paramours. (The family black sheep, he is the only of its members never to have worked for the company.) His parents had arranged a job for him at the Kelley Clarke & Co., merchandise brokers.  Shockingly, they informed his boss of the reason for his banishment and asked him to keep an eye on him.  In December, just as the first Vice Clique trial began, Ghirardelli was fired from his job because he “lapsed” in his behavior.  He and his former employer both wrote home to San Francisco with that news.  In reply, Ghirardelli simultaneously received hostile letters from his father, his mother, and his brother, all expressing their shame and denying him the right to come home.  December 27 was his birthday, and he spent the last week of December in a state of despondency.  A few days later, Ghirardelli went to an unnamed Turkish bathhouse and spent nearly all of his remaining money on the other men inside (buying liquor?  buying sex?).  With his last coins, he took a cab back to the Byron Hotel and, in his room, Room 412, swallowed poison he had bought earlier.  His body was found on New Year’s Day by hotel employees aware of his despondency and concerned that they had not seen him.”

Here is the complete Oregon Journal January 2, 1913 article below.