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History

The Crystal Hotel is directly adjacent to the well-known event venue, the Crystal Ballroom. The building that was originally constructed in 1911 called the Hotel Alma, was mainly utilized for an auto parts shop in the lower level, with apartment-style residences above that. In 1946 it was renamed the Majestic and was run by a Japanese family named the Zokojis. The Zokojis had recently spent the past several years in Japanese Internment Camps, during the aftermath of Pearl Harbor and WWII. The Zokojis are known to have developed a familial atmosphere that transformed parts of the hotel into long-term residences.

The portion of the hotel that was previously used for auto supply, however, was a stark contrast to the homeyness of the upstairs. It became one of the most notorious nightclubs Portland has ever known. Originally called Club Mecca, and then the Desert Room, Nate Zusman, one of Portland’s most notorious gangsters and pimps, ran the whole downstairs portion of the hotel, allowing for an ‘anything goes’ atmosphere. He took over after Al Winter, who was originally dubbed ‘The Vice Overlord of Portland’ fled for Las Vegas to open the Sahara, The Lucky Strike and the Mint casinos and collude with the mobsters of Nevada. The Desert Room was the sort of place you could go to get anything you wanted. It was in fact, the notoriety of the Desert Room as a crime hub that attracted the federal government to Portland to conduct a city-wide investigation into racketeering in 1957. This is commonly referred to as the peak of the Crystal Hotel involvement in crime.  The most famous incident during this Robert F. Kennedy investigation was when Nate Zusman was summoned to Washington to testify, and made a mockery of the entire proceedings, talking circles around Robert F. Kennedy publicly on live, nationally aired television.

Portland Pride Parade

The Desert Room transformed part of its operation into a head shop called the Free People’s Touching Company in the 1970s and then eventually changed entirely into a place called the ‘Pied Piper’ as the rest of the block became known as Portland’s Gay district. This area of Portland was then known for several decades as the ‘Pink Triangle’ and included many gay bars and nightclubs. The Crystal Hotel was instrumental in Portland’s Gay movement, and the regular crowds that frequented the bath houses, the hotel and the bar, worked with the manager, 'Flossie' of the club to establish Portland’s first ever Gay Pride Parade in the early 1970s. The Silverado was the final iteration of the gay bars that were housed in the Crystal Hotel.

It is now owned by the McMenamins brothers, who have worked to preserve the history of the hotel through its art, photos, stories, and music memorabilia in each of the rooms.

References

1. "Crystal Hotel Hotel - McMenamins". www.mcmenamins.com. Retrieved 2018-11-12.
2. "Downtown Portland landmark, once a notorious scene from the city's wide-open days, becomes a boutique hotel tied to the Crystal Ballroom". OregonLive.com. Retrieved 2018-11-12.
3. "Zagat". www.zagat.com. Retrieved 2018-11-12.
4. Stanford, Phil,. Portland confidential : sex, crime, and corruption in the rose city / by Phil Stanford. ISBN 1627310630. OCLC 1051223647.
5. "McMenamins: The Crystal Hotel / Portland, OR | Ankrom Moisan Architects, Inc". www.ankrommoisan.com. Retrieved 2018-11-12.