McMenamins is bringing another piece of Portland history back to life. The Oregon hospitality institution is transforming the former Taft Home at 1321 SW Washington Street in downtown Portland’s West End into the Taft Home Hotel, a 63-room boutique hotel with three bars and restaurants, a gift shop, a small performance stage, and a private skybridge that will give hotel guests early secret access directly into the Crystal Ballroom next door. An opening is targeted for September 2028.
The building has a complicated but fascinating past. Designed by Portland architect Edgar M. Lazarus, the same mind behind the Vista House at Crown Point in the Columbia River Gorge, the four-story Chicago School structure was originally built in 1906 and opened as a hotel. It later operated as the Hotel Ramapo, then became the Taft Hotel in 1955, and eventually transitioned into assisted housing for low-income and disabled seniors under REACH from 1984 until 2021, when state regulators cited safety and care violations and the building closed, displacing more than 70 elderly residents. It sat vacant until McMenamins purchased it in 2024 for $1.5 million.
Some rooms will have private bathrooms while others will share facilities, staying true to the historic McMenamins formula. Existing ground-floor tenants Cassidy’s and Scooter’s will remain open throughout the renovation and after the hotel opens, preserving a layer of neighborhood continuity that matters on a block that has been a community anchor for decades.
