Wisconsin-born C.C. Calkins arrived in Seattle in 1887 and bought a homestead at the north end of Mercer Island. By 1890, he had laid out the town of East Seattle and built an elegant resort hotel. The hotel flourished for a few years but closed during the national depression of 1893. After serving as a school, a sanatorium and a boarding house, the building burned in 1908.

This photo, taken around 1890, shows the Calkins Hotel on Mercer Island, Washington. Visitors could stay in one of the hotel's 24 guest rooms, converse in the large parlors or go dancing in the ballroom. With its turrets, deep porches and fancy spindlework, the large wooden Queen Anne-style building was typical of its time.

SHS category: Hotels