Ukiah’s Palace Hotel was built 133 years ago and in its time became a symbol for Mendocino County’s seat.
Over a century later, the Palace’s luster is long gone. Scaffolding lines its sides and City of Ukiah officials are considering a complete demolition prompted by concerns of an impending collapse.
Karen Rifkin, a veteran Mendocino County reporter and former employee of the Palace Hotel, was given exclusive access to the interior of the Palace Hotel late last month.
In stark contrast to the optimistic plans of local preservationists to restore the once renowned hotel, the images Rifkin took show the once great Palace caving in on itself as wood rots, moisture seeps, and entropy takes hold.
The landmark came to life in 1891 originally called the Curtis Hotel. Just three years later, it became the Palace Hotel, an iconic Ukiah establishment since.
A document from the United States Department of the Interior, when the Palace was nominated to be included on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, described the building as the “finest example of brick construction of the period remaining in the City.”
The Palace was Ukiah’s first “plush” hotel, according to the nomination document, hosting California governor William Richardson and George Pardee, movie stars Elona Macey and Hoot Gibson, and infamous stagecoach robber Black Bart.
These glory days of the Palace Hotel passed into the history books and for the Ukiah residents of today, the former pinnacle of inland Mendo glitz appears as nothing more than boarded-up bricks along State Street.
Two years ago, venture capitalist Minal Shankar teamed up with architectural preservation team Page & Turnbull in San Francisco and dreamed a dream of restoring the Palace for the modern day (check out their gorgeous mockups of the new Palace Hotel here).
But, their efforts fell through, much like the floors and ceilings of the century-old building.
Whether any efforts to revitalize the Palace will be successful remains unknown, but the implications of Rifkin’s images are crystal clear.
The iconic Palace Hotel is losing its fight against gravity and time. From the looks of it, there’s not a trustworthy stud or joist in the place. Rifkin’s pictures capture buckled ceilings, a faded mural, an empty stage, a weathered bartop, an elevator not used for decades.
The photographs give the distinct impression that no matter how hard we might try and return to the days when the Palace reigned supreme, the Golden Age of Ukiah might be over.
I remember being in there 40 years ago. This was a time in Ukiah if you asked for Sour Dough on your sandwich half the people had never heard of it. The other half called you a yuppie and told you to get out of town. The biggest breakthrough in culture for the town was pepperjack cheese. But they even fought that hard. Cannabis was just starting to ramp up, Spare Time would not open for another year.
The conversation on the Palace from us outsiders was it was a treasure the city greatly needed. They city and county needed to support the owner with tax breaks and find restoration grants. We were aware of the changes brewing with building codes and we knew time was of the essence.
Fourty years later I would say it is too late even of the county and city got together and tried. State regulations make it unfeasible. Next question is who would stay there, especially after the court house moves. Citizens can’t even walk down the street without running into derelicts that have been bussed up here from East Bay cities. I rented my house in Little River on the coast. I asked for 1500 because of the inconvenience and short term nature of it being on the market. I got over 2 dozen section 8 applicants from Oakland to Vallejo. If I had to summarize all of them into one applicant I would choose the one with the large face tattoo that said Taco Bell. All the applicants offered 1800 and guaranteed payments. SF is starting to clean house. And they have been buying bus ticket to Mendocino for over 40 years for their discarded citizens.
Forget the days of the palace hotel. The cities are working on exporting their failed agenda and big corporations who specialize in social services are circling like vultures.
Who else is going to make a run on the courthouse building. Check out Fort Bragg and the Old Coast Hotel. Fort Bragg is like a zombie apocalypse at night.
Ukiah and mendocino county have no leaders only followers. We will be the dumping ground for the wealthy neighbors to the south. Just ad they have done to Clear Lake.
For organizational purposes I feel we should just rename Lake Mendocino Clear Lake North. Mendocino has a future plan. But the plan is being drafted by counties south of us.
Mendocino was run by inherited wealth which is a slow demise. When Mendocino pushed for a 25 plant limit in the early 2000 farmers left. To the 5 corridor. Sheriff confronted these farmers at the markets and hardware stores and gave them their cards and told them they are welcome and to tell their friends. How have the counties finances been since 2008. What happens to generational wealth. A local Fort Bragg family sold the large ranch to the Chinese. Mendocinos leaders are focused on someone dying to financially save them. So the county will follow suite and it will die and the state will save them.
The Palace Hotel can be restored. Many great buildings all over the world in worse shape have been restored. I had permission 2 years ago to examine the hotel for several weeks. I’ve done similar restoration work. I have the plans that were commissioned to begin the restoration. No one has said it would be easy but, it’s not as difficult as most people think. Of course there are many questions to be resolved, that’s way it needs a great cooperation between the owners, the City and most of all the Community. To the owners, stop looking at it and wondering how much money can be made and start looking at what you can put back into your community after all, it’s the community that keeps your other businesses alive. To the Community, project some optimism, get on board because time is running out. Tom Carter
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Tom Carter. What you and your crew did for the Tallman Hotel and Blue Wing Saloon speaks volumes.
We surveyed the Palace in 1979 for renovations. A hidden room was discovered full of items from the past. How much will be lost that hasn’t been uncovered as yet.
It’s so absolutely sad to see that it has practically disintegrated and appears to be catastrophic
Turn the courthouse into a hotel and make the palace lot housing and a parking garage for the hotel. Look how long the post office set with its door wedged, yet no one up until recently could envision anything their. The courthouse will move and it’ll take the state and county to support old and new grounds to keep the old haunt from turning into palace 2.0. the other option is for the county museum to occupy the old courthouse and be at the will of the county to open and close at will, as for the city of Willits land owned a museum occupied building, it would make a great city museum or allow the city to vacate old town hall and make a complete civic center minus of course the other building the state and county have done their best to undermine the Willits courthouse.
The city of Ukiah and the county are run by mimes and mimics and the palace has fallen because of it.
As a relative newcomer to Mendocino County, the biggest thing that stands out is the lack of anything fun to do. I don’t care what they do with the derelict hotel, just that someone does something. There’s half a dozen abandoned buildings that could be turned into something cool and fun to do.
Agreed with my whole heart.
Agreed.
Carrot down, demolition the thing it’s a waste of space it’s not an iconic anything. There’s only two people. I personally know when I left you Kia 25 years ago that has the skill set to save that an architect with the name of Ron Meaux and a general contractor, by the name of Dave,Rait people who think they’re great craftsman but I know for a fact those two are in fact, skilled craftsman. I personally have refurbished buildings like this, but I’m not ever coming back to Ukiah and I should waste my money on that pile of crap if I won the lottery saying I’m going to restore the old hotel and Ukiah now tear the piece of shit down it’s a rat trap and when I was a teenager it was just a hang out for gay dudes.
Oh my! Takes one to know one right? Hence the subliminal name The Back Door.
The Back Door had a diverse crowd with LGBT people. People were accepting and I didn’t hear lame jokes about the name.
So sad, this was a landmark as far as I’m concerned.. It’s hard to see it in that condition from what it was in my day there.
Crickey make it stop! I can’t take it anymore!…. I saw a dude without pants hanging off state street and there’s no affordable houses for sale. Groceries are expensive af. I can’t care less about the Palace’s existence. I’ve gotta make sure my kids leave this town for a better life!!
I also saw that man- he was rubbing his naked rear on the fence of the donut Shop the other day. The homeless/ addicts urinate all over the side of that building and the smell is so overwhelming.
as a long term mendocino county resident who’s parents and grandparents also lived here i feel i can truly say at this point in our town/county a new “hotel”/“palace” is not what we need.
This piece would be even more effective if you included historic photos of what the hotel looked like in all its glory
Is this supposed to be an article or an op-ed piece? Because it’s full of subjective conjecture. “From the looks of it, there’s not a trustworthy stud or joist in the place” isn’t exactly objective reporting.
Historic structures can and should be preserved. The Palace can and should be saved and turned into a money-making venture, including housing. There’s no “undo” command for demolition.
TO the rude, bigoted, racist idiots of the past and current community who come out to continue their negative rhetoric. I read everything including racist comments. Shame on you small town, small minded community folks who think you have the right to degrade PEOPLE! You have made this community a terrible place to live. Damn colonizers.
My carpenter friend says with enough money you can remodel any building. My Christian friend says with God all things are possible. Still I’d rather not put lipstick, a wig, and cute shoes on a pig and pretend it’s beautiful. I think if it was an empty lot there would be more interest from developers and investors for a new economically viable project that would be fitting for the county seat.
Oh my God, I’ve got to comment on that piece in the journal the other day by Mike Geniella. The hed was, ‘there are alternatives to demolition of the Palace’. After quoting Minal Shankar’s gold plated SF architectural rehab firm guy opining that it could be done (well what would you expect him to say?!), citing the successful rehab of another brick building in Merced, a city of 6 times Ukiah’s population, where I’ll bet the building was in much better shape to begin with than the Palace (most still-standing buildings are), he winds up the article with a Pollyannaish appeal to potential developers to not think about profits but, “how to give back to the community”. How silly is that?! Hello! No one is right mind is going spend many millions of dollars with no imaginable possibility of any significant return their investment, on a project that makes no economic sense whatsoever, no matter how altruistic their feelings are towards their community! How many decades will this insane dreaming go on, preventing any sensible use for that parcel in the heart of our town?
Invoke eminent domain (the price will be cheap thanks to all the owners’ neglect), fine the owners for perpetuating a pubic hazard/nuisance (Eyster, why are you sitting on your hands?), and restore the Palace Hotel into a first class hotel and historic landmark. It’s already federally and state landmarked, right?Redevelop the courthouse into a first rate convention/conference center and park instead of the current hole in the wall on School Street. Downtown businesses will thrive with this Palace restoration and courthouse redevelopment mere footsteps away. Put Ukiah on the map as a go to place instead of just haiku spelled backwards.
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