Hotel Ramapo
National Register of Historic Places

Hotel Ramapo

Portland, Multnomah County, Oregon
Listed
October 31, 1985
Type
Building
Period
Civil War
Ref No.
85003474

About this property

The Hotel Ramapo, now known as Taft Hotel, was previously known as Nortonia Hotel, Danmoore Hotel, and (erroneously) Franklin Hotel. It is a historic residential hotel in Portland, Oregon, United States. Built in 1906, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Designed as a residential hotel by Edgar M. Lazarus in 1906, the building was owned by Lazarus until his death in 1939. He first leased it to Mrs. A. B. Norton, and the hotel's first name was Nortonia Hotel. Mrs. Norton gave up her lease and used the name Nortonia for the next hotel she managed, now known as the Mark Spencer Hotel. In 1908, Lazarus leased the building to Dan Moore, who renamed the structure the Danmoore Hotel. Moore closed the hotel in 1909 when he could not make rent payments. Lazarus, refurnished the building and in June 1909 reopened it with the name Hotel Ramapo, with M. E. Foley as proprietor. In 1955, the Ramapo Hotel became the Taft Hotel, and the name Taft has been employed in the building's subsequent uses. The building then served as a facility for senior and disabled adults known as The Taft Home,, but closed in 2021 in response to numerous code violations that would have cost between $25 million and $30 million to address. The McMenamins hotel chain bought the property in 2024 and in 2026 announced their intention to rehabilitate it as a hotel Franklin Hotel was the erroneous historic name assigned to the building when it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. The actual Franklin Hotel, located at 515 SW 13th Avenue, was built in 1907. How the author of the National Register nomination confused, by name, the Franklin Hotel (1907) with the historic Hotel Ramapo designed by Lazarus is not clear. The original National Register nomination makes no reference to Hotel Ramapo, the name by which the building was known for almost fifty years. The historic name was corrected on the National Register in January 2013. National Register of Historic Places listings in Southwest Portland, Oregon

Location

1337 S.W. Washington St.
Portland, Multnomah County, Oregon
45.52246, -122.68507

Categories

COMMUNITY PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENTARCHITECTURE
National Register nomination ›
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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The Land
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Geology
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Conflict & War
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The Civil War
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The Soldiers
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Native Heritage
The Native nations who held this land, mapped across time from before European contact to today.
Settlement
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The Community
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Rivers & Rail
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Notable People
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Questions about this property

When was Hotel Ramapo listed on the National Register?

Hotel Ramapo was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 31, 1985.

What type of historic resource is Hotel Ramapo?

Hotel Ramapo is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Hotel Ramapo?

The period of significance for Hotel Ramapo is recorded as the civil_war era.

Can I research the history near Hotel Ramapo?

Yes. Aubrey Research reports search National Register listings, battlefield records, land patents, and other primary historical sources within any radius of a US address. A report for an address near Hotel Ramapo will include this listing and all other historical records in the area.

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