Ballroom at Hotel el Paso de Robles built in 1891 Traditional Cache
Kosh Naranek: As there has been no action to remedy this situation, I am forced to archive this cache. If you wish to repair/replace the cache sometime in the immediate future, just contact one of your local reviewers and assuming that it meets the current guidelines, it can be unarchived.
Ballroom at Hotel el Paso de Robles built in 1891
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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The dining room/ballroom sits back from it all, hardly noticed
until you see it from the alley behind the Inn.
My first memories of this building was in 1984 when I worked as a
teller at Heritage Oaks Bank. They were on the south side of 12th
Street back then, the bank's building backed up to, what I remember
as, a tall, neglected brick building. Each morning I parked down a
little alley to the south and cut across a weed-filled lot to get
to work. Also in that lot were stacks of bricks, overgrown trees
and the old brick building - seemingly waiting for the
wrecking-ball. It was around this time that I left Paso Robles for
college. Years later when I married, we settled in my hometown down
the road. The old buildings of Paso Robles forgotten
memories.
Fast-forward to Thanksgiving 2008. Our family had decided to
partake of the Paso Robles Inn's faire in their dining
room/ballroom wing. Approaching the building from the entrance off
Spring Street, I was amazed such a lovely old-style building
existed. Upon entering the hall, I realized this was the old brick
building I had walked past morning and night for several years.
This hall is one and the same that was built 117 years
before.
The heyday of the Hotel was from 1891 to the 1920s. Thereafter, the
economic downturn of the country took its toll on this grand
beauty. This wing was the only part of the 1891 hotel to have been
survived a fire which broke out on the night on the 12th of
December in 1940 when the 125 room hotel was burned to the ground.
Because of the immenseness of the fire, firefighters were forced to
give up on saving the main hotel and concentrated on being able to
save what they could. Eventually, this dining room /ballroom wing
became a storage building for the newly built Inn - built in the
1940's style of cottages and motor courts.
In 1999, the Inn came under new ownership and this elegant,
historic dining room/ballroom was retrofitted, restored and
reopened to the public. While beautiful from the outside, if you
have the time, stepping inside this building for a look around is
highly recommended. You will need to enter from Spring Street to
tour inside.
I placed this cache in a lot off the alley where I used to park
back in the day. There is a wall now between the Inn and the lot.
Thankfully, things have changed quite a bit since '84. Thanks to
the Martin family, that tall old brick building got another lease
on life.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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