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.
