Winter 2022
Hospitality is what I know
Anthony Anton navigates some tricky times as CEO of the Washington Hospitality Association. » More ...
Hotels
Fall 2014
Posts for Fall 2014
The scoop on Ferdinand’s
We enjoyed your article “The scoop on Ferdinand’s murals” in your Summer 2014 issue.
Our recollection is that the middle name of its original manager, Rune Ferdinand Goranson ’41 of Edmonds, determined the naming of the dairy department creamery’s ice cream shop. It is likely that his middle name also contributed to a decision to decorate the shop with Disney’s Ferdinand motif.
Having been off-campus married students during the early 1950s, living on a limited budget, we have fond memories of Troy Hall. The shop’s inexpensive scraps from Cougar Gold rounds enabled us often to subsist on cheese sandwiches.
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Summer 2014
Tim Hills ’93—Hotels and history
The bodyguards standing sentry outside James Brown’s dressing room were as tall as the ceiling—an impossible 20 feet or so, remembers Tim Hills ’93 MA. But maybe it was his nerves.
After a long wait, the door opened and the historian was granted entry. Reclining on a sofa in Portland’s Crystal Ballroom, decked out in a blue leather suit, surrounded by his large entourage, the Godfather of Soul was prepared to entertain Hills’ questions for the next hour.
How did an unassuming public historian who once worked for the Congressional Information Service before earning a graduate degree in history from WSU end up interviewing one … » More …
Summer 2013
Video: A Century at Alderbrook Resort
WSU hospitality alumnus Brian McGinnis '77 talks about the history and renovation of the 100-year-old Alderbrook Resort and Spa in western Washington.
» More ...Summer 2013
Something Old Something New—A history of hospitality
When Washington State College introduced its hospitality program in 1932, no one had yet imagined an airport hotel, a drive-through restaurant, a convention center, or the boom of international travel. Eighty years later, as the industry grows in new and unexpected ways, the School of Hospitality sends its graduates out to meet its evolving needs.
» More ...Winter 2003
Putting on the Ritz: American management methods meet European hotellerie
The child of Swiss peasants, no one would have expected Cesar Ritz to
become the hotelier of kings. But then, who would have expected WSU to
add American business management methods to the fine art of European
hotellerie in the town where Ritz got his start? » More ...
Winter 2002
Overseeing the Davenport Hotel with an appreciation for history
“It’s wonderful to be a part of an environment where all you have to do is make people happy and make them comfortable.”—Lynnelle Hull Caudill
Being part of something as elegant and historical as the Davenport Hotel in downtown Spokane adds extra excitement to Lynnelle Hull Caudill’s workplace. She joined the Davenport in October 2001 during the landmark hotel’s $30 million, two-year renovation. In April she became director of operations.
While overseeing the daily workings of the hotel, she enjoys the stories she hears from so many people with strong attachments to the building. For decades the Davenport served as a favorite Northwest site for … » More …
Spring 2009
Hotel at the Top
Pioneer James “Cashup” Davis dreamed big. At a time when most Washington settlers were carving farms out of the Palouse, he was so awed with the panoramic views of the Palouse from Steptoe Butte, he decided to build a hotel at the top.
Davis’s first career was as a well-to-do stonemason in England, but he left that life in search of adventure. In 1872, at the age of 57, he settled in Washington and built a bustling farm as well as a stage coach stop and dance hall.
While most Washington State University students only know of the butte as a landmark east of … » More …
Summer 2008
A home for hotel history
One day in the late 1920s, hoteliers Severt W. Thurston and Frank Dupar met by chance in a coffee shop in Yakima, Washington. Unbeknownst to one another, each had gone to Yakima to make separate hotel deals. But by the time they parted company that day, the two had decided to go into business together. In 1930 they joined with the Schmidt Brothers, who had hotels in Olympia, Seattle, and Bellingham, to form Western Hotels Inc., the foundation of what would become the Westin hotel chain.
That first year they had 17 properties, including the Roosevelt and Waldorf hotels in Seattle, the Marcus Whitman in … » More …