On the first weekend of 2025, the new owners of the Silvia Beach Hotel in Newport opened the doors for a furniture sale, making it the rarest of shopping opportunities. Shoppers from out of state and down the street arrived late Saturday morning. They came in search of souvenirs from previous visits and mementos of their favorite writers.
The great ancient oceanfront hotel in Nye Beach will now be closed for the foreseeable future due to renovations and the emptying of its rooms. It is anticipated to reopen in a few months with a new name and appearance, but with the same literary motif that made it famous throughout the world.
As they move forward and make sure the 112-year-old structure will last, the hotel’s new owners, the VIP Hospitality Group, aim to maintain the famous reputation that made it so popular. Last May, they paid $2.5 million to acquire the hotel from its previous owners, Goody Cable and Sally Ford. The hotel that bears Sylvia Beach’s name will continue to honor her history as the creator of Shakespeare and Company, a bookstore and lending library that published James Joyce’s Ulysses when no one else would.
John Lee, managing director of VIP Hospitality, stated, “We considered what made this hotel successful in the past, their connections to what we believe in, our values, and there’s a lot there.” We simply adored what Sylvia Beach stood for. She was a trailblazer, a woman who was far ahead of her time, who took many chances, and who was all about uplifting others, you know. Additionally, Sally and Goody served the writing and reading community in a similar manner. The main factor that contributed to this property’s success is its hospitality. We’re also about that.
Linda Briggs purchased the paper machi animal heads, two marble-topped side tables, and a tiny chest from the Hemingway Room on Saturday after walking the block from her house. The Model T grille and headlights from the Steinbeck room were brought home by her daughter Cynthia Linson, who drove down from Rochester, Washington. Silverton resident Robin Kuhn was unaware of the sale until she came to Newport for a weekend vacation.
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Carrying a collection of random items from several rooms, Kuhn remarked, “We love Colette and Hemingway and so many of the authors here.” We never got to remain here, even though we always wanted to. I’m simply searching for souvenirs of various authors.
In response to their requests for particular souvenirs, 14 previous visitors were granted admission to a private sale prior to the general sale.
According to Jenny Nelson, vice-president of VIP Hospitality operations, we welcomed individuals and previous visitors who had contacted us so they may have a chance to obtain the items they want. A woman and her spouse arrived, removed everything from the Fitzgerald room, and plans to duplicate it in their home. The bullets in the Agatha Christie room were removed from the wall by someone. All of the towels, linens, soap, and shampoos went to My Sister’s Place, a local women’s shelter, and the floor-to-ceiling photo in the doorway where all the authors signed the book spines is going to the Newport library.
The Newport Visual Arts Center received all of the $11,696 in sale proceeds.
The announcement of the upcoming adjustments was not well received by everyone. Portland communications manager Marie Gettel-Gilmartin established a petition asking the new owners to keep the building’s historical integrity, keep it devoid of technology, and only make necessary repairs.
As soon as the Sylvia Beach opened, my husband and I started visiting, according to Gettel-Gilmartin. Our favorite vacation spot is really valuable to us. The employees were telling me that the new business was about to take over and make a lot of big changes, which would affect the hotel’s flavor. It was causing me a great deal of sadness. I initiated the petition for that reason. I had to take action even though I had no idea where it would take me.
Despite her reservations, Gettel-Gilmartin has discovered that she enjoys the new online reservation option that was unavailable under Cable and Ford. She added that she has been thinking about the allure of other hotels located in historic buildings. She remarked, “I’m willing to be open-minded; in fact, I like change.”
Paul Tice, who has been traveling to the motel from his Bend home for at least 15 years, disagrees. “I really enjoyed it,” Tice stated. It served as a getaway spot for my wife and myself, where we could play board games, sip mulled wine, and enjoy the view of the beach from the observation room. It was enjoyable. It’s similar to an heirloom. It cannot be replaced. The charm is lost when it is commercialized, despite the fact that it was constructed with love and all these small customs. We’re not going back.
Ed Cameron, 93, who lived in the hotel in the 1980s, may be the only person who is familiar with it today. The only flophouse with an ocean view at the time was the Hotel Gilmore, which had a waiting list and rented out rooms on a monthly basis. When Cable and Ford purchased the Gilmore and changed its name to the Sylvia Beach Hotel, he remembers the opposition.
Friday, December 20, 2024, at the Sylvia Beach Hotel in Newport, Oregon.The Oregonian, or Elliot Njus
On Thursday, July 14, 2011, Ed Cameron, the creator of the comic novel “Gilmore by the Sea,” is seated in his former room at the Sylvia Beach Hotel in Newport. When the Gilmore Hotel was a well-known flophouse, Cameron, a former cartoonist, reporter, and proprietor of the Gilmore Gazette, stayed there.The Oregonian/Tyler Tjomsland (file)
Cameron, the author of the comic novel Gilmore by the Sea, recalls, “I wasn’t upset.” It was regrettable that some individuals had to find other housing because it had reached the end of its useful life, but the structure was spared. The building is once again being saved by the current improvements. It’s merely recognizing advancement.
The 22-room Hotel Sylvia will be the hotel when it reopens. As well as the current rooms honoring Jane Austen, Agatha Christie, Ernest Hemingway, William Shakespeare, and Alice Walker, seven of those will be devoted to particular authors, including two new authors, C.S. Lewis and Maya Angelou. Fantasy, literary nonfiction, and romance are some of the literary topics that will be reflected in the other rooms.
In addition to new furnishings and décor, the hotel will retain some of its original artwork and antiques from the former Sylvia Beach Hotel. There will be bookshelves all over the place, an expanded library on the fourth story, and a new gift shop and sitting room with a fireplace on the entry level. There won’t be any TVs, and Wi-Fi will only be allowed in designated locations.
According to Lee, the new owners have already spent over $200,000 fixing the cladding and windows, but there is still more work to be done.
We truly don’t know until we begin to dismantle things. We discovered that the structure is slanted, with an elevation differential of 6 inches from east to west. We were concerned that the structure might be sinking, but we were wrong.
Lee anticipates discovering problems with the heating, electrical, and plumbing as well. According to him, the group is willing to invest $2 million to renovate the property.
According to Lee, we were drawn to the property for two key reasons. We adore how the literary motif distinguishes it from the normal hotel—a quality we might maintain and enhance. Additionally, a large number of us at VIP and the ownership group have teens as well as sons and daughters in their early 20s, so we feel obligated to teach the future generation the value of reading and literature.
For The Oregonian/OregonLive, Lori Tobias
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