August Niklasson Brand (1862-1950) and Anna Amelia (Erlandson) Brand (1869-1952), were Swedish immigrants who married in 1893 in Seattle. In 1903, August and Anna bought the Western Hotel (aka, The Michigan), which was built around 1880 and located at the corner of Sixth Avenue and James Street. They renamed it the Hotel Kalmar, after Anna's home town in Sweden, and catered mostly to working men, offering rooms by the day, week, and month. After August and Anna's deaths, their children Beata Viola Maria Brand (1895-1981) and Leonard August Gabriel Brand (1902-1969) (a third child, Garfield died young in 1903), continued to run the hotel until it was demolished in 1962 to clear space for Interstate 5.
This registration book for the Hotel Kalmar lists each guest's signature, place of residence, and date of arrival in their own penmanship. It also includes clippings of the history of the hotel as it approached its closure. The second sample page includes three members of the "Madame Butterfly Co.," who arrived on February 27, 1907, in preparation for a series of performances by the Henry W. Savage English Grand Opera Company at Seattle's Grand Opera House. None of the men who signed the Kalmar Hotel registration ledger were among the principal performers.
Both the fourth and fifth sample pages from the register contain signatures by "J. D. Rockefeller," but these not only differ from well-known industrialist John D. Rockefeller, Sr.'s, actual signature and from each other, they also misspell his name. Clearly these hotel guests wished to remain anonymous. Mr. Rockefeller did invest in mining and smelting concerns in Everett, Washington, in the 1890s, but he does not appear to have been in Seattle in 1908 or 1910, when the register was signed. At that time, he was heavily involved in the federal break-up of the Standard Oil Company.
Caption information source: The Seattle Daily Times: January 3, 1907, p. 5; February 20, 1907, p. 4; November 17, 1908, p. 1 Caption information source: "Everett — Thumbnail History," by Janet Oakley, HistoryLink.org Essay 7397 Caption information source: "Now & Then - Seattle's Kalmar Hotel," by Paul Dorpat, HistoryLink.org Essay 2571 Caption information source: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/116507718/anna_amelia-brand
ID Number: 1981.7328.176
Date: 1903-1914
Physical Description: 1 book (298 p.) : b&w ; 9.25 x 14.25 in.
Additional Information: Digital copy of this item available thanks to funding from a 2016 Institute for Museum and Library Services grant. Metadata updated as part of a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services administered by the Library Services and Technology Act, through the Washington State Library, a division of the Office of the Secretary of State. View the finding aid for this collection at https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv01947
