Tokeland Hotel

About this property

The Tokeland Hotel and Restaurant is Washington State’s oldest resort hotel located at 2964 Kindred Ave in Tokeland, Washington. In 1978, the hotel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Tokeland Hotel is situated on a peninsula with the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Willapa Bay to the south and east. George H. Brown (November 4, 1824 - July 5, 1883), a Philadelphian born California gold seeker turned Portland butcher, was one of the first to settle on Toke Point when he came with his wife Charlotte Norris (? - June 22, 1891) and their two sons, Albert and Leonidas, in 1858. Among the Shoalwater Bay tribe, the Browns homesteaded 1400 acres of land, kept livestock, raised crops, and traded with locals. Their first daughter, Elizabeth "Lizzie" Brown grew up on Toke Point speaking both English and Chinook Jargon. By November 24, 1880, Lizzie Brown married William Kindred and they purchased land from the Browns. In 1885 they completed the two-story wood frame farmhouse, with a gabled roof and brick fireplace built into the north wall, that would become the original structure of the Tokeland Hotel. === The Kindred Inn, Post Office, and General Store === On August 22, 1894 the Tokeland post office opened with a postmark bearing 'Tokeland', thus officially naming the town at Toke Point. In 1899, the Kindreds built a two-story addition which gave the structure an 'L' shape and opened to the public as the Kindred Inn. Shortly thereafter the name was changed to Tokeland Hotel, in honor of the Shoalwater Bay Tribe's Chief Toke, for whom Toke Point was also named. From 1899 to 1915, William and Lizzie Kindred operated the general store out of the hotel and on December 9, 1898, William Kindred became the third Tokeland Postmaster, a role in which he served until March 5, 1915. In 1910, an additional wing was constructed, effectively giving the Tokeland Hotel the 'C' shape that it has today. According to the National Register for Historic Places, around this time the Tokeland Hotel also received gas lighting and a second fireplace. More renovations were completed between 1920 and 1930, including new interiors and plumbing. The Kindreds also replaced gas with electricity and extended the central dining area on the east side of the building. The hotel's facilities grew over the years and included a golf club house (later to become Capt's Tavern), a gun club and a nine-hole golf course as well. "Golf was a natural development for Tokeland. Not only were the grounds ideal for links-style golf, but a ready-made clientele of merchants, bankers, lumber barons and professional people who had the leisure time to play formed the basis of a regular summer colony" - Victory "Chub" VaughnThe mid-1890s Northwest coast had an active golf scene. As early as 1910, there is evidence of visitors to the Tokeland Hotel bringing their own clubs and balls with them to play makeshift golf on the property.

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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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