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Ansorge Hotel
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
The Ansorge Hotel, September 2007
Location	River St. and Railroad Ave., Curlew, Washington
Nearest city	Republic, Washington
Coordinates	48°53′01.58″N 118°35′59.86″W
Area	less than one acre
Built	1907 (incorrectly 1903)
Architect	William Ansorge
NRHP reference No.	79002530
Added to NRHP	March 26, 1979

The Ansorge Hotel is a turn of the 20th-century two-story hotel located in Curlew, Washington. It was built in 1907 next to the Great Northern Railway and Republic and Kettle Valley Railway lines. Several patrons of historical note are thought to have accommodated at the hotel, including Henry Ford. The hotel went though several owners and finally shut down official operation in the 1970's. Soon after historical conservation review lead to the building being granted National Register of Historic Places status. Restoration efforts in the 1980's and then operation as a museum and historic landmark were undertaken by the Kettle River History club.

Railroad "boom town"

With the incorporation of the Republic and Kettle Valley Railway, a private railway based in Republic, Washington, Curlew was identified as a major stopping point on the proposed line between the gold mines in Republic and connection to the transcontinental railways at Grand Forks, British Columbia. Both the Republic and Kettle Valley Railway plus the competing Washington & Great Northern Railway, subsidiary of the Great Northern Railway arrived in Curlew in 1902, with lines running nearly parallel for north from Malo though Curlew to Grand Forks. The prediction of a "railroad boom" benefiting Curlew and its immediate vicinity prompted William Ansorge, who arrived the same year to start looking at construction of a hotel near the railroad depots proposed location. Its debated if Ansorge built first and bought the city lots later, or bought lots and then built his first structure. Local oral history states the first hotel was built and opened in 1903, however records of the county assessor show the city lots as purchased in 1904. The first building is described as a simple frame construction, and with the completion of the current building in 1907, it was moved to the back of the hotel property and named the "Ansorge Annex" where it housed a rotating series of businesses. The new larger building comprised a two story wood frame building with a rectangular footprint. Three sides of the roofline are mounted by an overhanging cornice which surrounds the roof parapet, itself enclosing the shed roof of the hotel. The siding of the new building was clad in tin sheet metal stamped to resemble rustic stone blocks. The original color of the tin was a dark gray, but the building was soon painted pale gray with white entablature between the first and second stories plus white trim. The unpainted tin is only present on the inside side of the parapet.

Both rail lines were late to the area however, and the height of the Republic gold boom was already over with the evaporation of a gold boom, Curlew never grew above around 300 people and its "whistle stop" days on the Great Northern Railway faded. In 1909 Ansorge was granted a state liquor license and converted the "Ansorge Annex" from its prior functions into a saloon for the hotel and town. The regular dinner service provided in the dining room was ended by 1922 due to diminishing patronage, and the saloon annex was eventually torn down to be replaced with a laundromat.

Ownership and management

The first change of management started in 1911 with William Ansorge being investigated and subsequently convicted for the violation of Washington state liquor law. Arrested on May 5, the charge of "selling liquor to an Indian" was given. Upon initial conviction by Judge Pendergast of Republic, Ansorge was released on bail pending appeal to the Washington supreme court. After the ruling, Ansorge turned over running of the hotel to his wife and her family the Keihls. In turn, they leased the hotel and its operations to Augusta and George Thomas starting June 1, 1911 for a period of three years. William Ansorge did not return to running the hotel, having given up the court appeal in December 1911, and surrendered to serve a sentence in the Walla Walla State Penitentiary.

When the lease to Augusta expired in 1914, control reverted to the Keihls, who managed it for the next several years before again turning management over to others. In 1917 Leo Strassburg and wife took over and ran the hotel until the late 1940's. After the return of management to the Keihl family, members sporadically operated and lived in the building through the 1950's Ownership of the hotel was sold to Louella Burns and Mr. and Mrs Richard Lembeke, all of Curlew in 1964 who kept the hotel open until 1977. After listing on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, ownership of the hotel was transferred in the 1980's to the Kettle River Historical Club.

Famous patrons

On July 31, 1917 the hotel possibly hosted one of its most prominent guests, with the register for that day having the signature of a "Henry Ford, Detroit Mich.", who was said to be in the region visiting relatives. Local history maintains this was industrialist Henry Ford and as such a photograph of the signature, which is slightly different from Fords typical style, was sent to the Ford Motor Company in the 1970's for verification. A definite answer was not able to be given by Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation confirming the signature, however he was traveling in the west during the timeframe in question and did have relatives in the Okanogan Highlands region.

Additional local lore suggests the patronage at some time early in the Ansorge Hotels history by James J. Hill, director of the Great Northern.

Notable happenings

Possibly in 1912 under the Thomas' management or just before her tenure, the first long distance telephone in the region was installed in the hotel lobby. This would be the only long distance telephone line in the region until the 1950's.

Just over a month after Augusta Thomas took proprietorship, the hotel suffered a near miss with fire on the night of July 11, 1911. A.J. Maxwells butchery and meat market across the street from the Ansorge was fully engulfed in flames stemming from a faulty flue. While the heat of the conflagration reached the hotel, the metal siding prevented significant damage or flames spreading. The window casings and siding of the hotel were all badly scorched and all the windows on the side of the fire were broken by the intense heat.

During the years of prohibition, the hotel played a role in the regions rum-running. Barrels of Canadian liquor would be placed into the Kettle River upstream of town and allowed to float downstream across the Canada–United States border until they reached Curlew. On occasions when revenue agents were staying in the Ansorge, a red light would be placed in an upstairs bay window to signal the US rum-runners should not retrieve the liquor in town.

As a result of the 1918 senate election, a series of hearings was conducted in the 69th United States Congress by the United States Senate Select Committee on Senatorial Elections to investigate allegations of improper funding of election campaigns. During the hearing convened in Seattle on October 23, 1926, and presided over by Senator Charles L. McNary, testimony was taken from Sam R. Sumner regarding impropriety by democratic senate candidate A. Scott Bullitt. Sumner, of the Washington state Republican Committee included as evidence during the testimony as exhibit 13, a placard that was intended for the Ansorge Hotel where it would have been likely been displayed in a window. When displayed the placard would have indicated the Ansorge Hotels support for Bullitts position to repeal the Federal Sunday closing law with a copy of a Seattle Star article.

Historic registration and restoration

In January 1979 the Ansorge Hotel was one of six buildings or sites in Eastern Washington that had been submitted for consideration to the National Register of Historic Places. Official acceptance came the week of April 4, 1979 for both the Ansorge and another Ferry County site, the Nelson-Grunwell store in Danville, both submitted by the Washington State Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. Addition to the NRHP opened access to restoration funding and protected the building from alterations considered to be arbitrary.

In the 1980's the Ansorge Hotel became the target of the Kettle River History club for restoration and operation as a museum, a goal the group accomplished in part in time for the 1989 Washington State Centennial. June 7, 1993 After 20 years of restoration efforts, the hotel celebrated its centennial on May 17, 2003 with tours and refreshments offered by the KRHC plus Model T Fords parked in front of the hotel as part of the celebration. The centennial was timed in conjunction with the opening of the Malo Car & Truck Museum and the activities of both the Kettle Valley Songbird Festival and the Curlew Arts Summit.

Amenities and layout

The front of the building is oriented towards the location where the rail Great Northern depot was located, as the hotel was dependent on rail traffic for most of its business. Given the close vicinity to the former railroad lines, none of the walls inside the building were constructed with 90° angles, it being thought that narrower angles were more resistant to the vibrations of passing train traffic. The single second floor toilet and bath are located in a stand alone room in the center of the second floor, with a "day room" or parlor for conducting business, a closet, and eight guest rooms of irregular shape arranged around the exterior walls. The parlor is the only room on the floor with access to the balcony overlooking the front of the hotel. The square oriel bay windows for the front corner rooms have an internal set of doors that can be used to close off the bay area, and one of the corner rooms was designated the "honeymoon suit". The Ansorge was one of the few building in the region to have running indoor water and a flush toilet when first opened. Considered a "marvel of civilization" upon opening, the water for the hotel was supplied from a roof based cistern with gravity power providing water pressure. When needed, additional water could be hand pumped from ground level water supplies. Guests of the Ansorge could draw a bath in the only bathtub for the prince of $0.50 (equivalent to about $16.35 in 2023) Rooms on the second floor are still equipped with the rope ladders at the windows, and chamber pots for use when the one toilet was in use, and some dressers have been stocked with vintage clothing.

The First floor was also used for varied purposes. The kitchen in the northwest corner has been upgraded to appliances of 1960-1970s era, while the dining room in the southwest was eventually converted into a living room with little modification. The lobby in the southeast also served as the barber shop area, with much of the fixtures for both still in place, and now serves as the museum gift shop. A glass cigar case and display counter area which are first seen in a 1930's era photograph are still present in the lobby section. One of the original fixtures on the lobby, a nickel operated (nickelodeon), wax cylinder hexaphone phonograph is still in working condition and present. The northeastern corner room was a originally a bar that converted to soda fountain and pool room during prohibition, it houses the heating plant for the building and for a time was used for storage. The room was renovated into a restoration of the Helphrey Brothers Curlew Store, and the original store furnishings, counter, and cash register were used. A small toilet cubical is located in the center of the ground floor, under the second floor restroom, and accessible from both lobby and bar rooms.

A partially finished basement area with walls constructed of local stone is accessed via a trap door on one side of the building.

The original annex building turned saloon was torn down and replaced with a more modern building of shed roof design which most recently had housed the Curlew Laundromat. The ground floor door to the laundromat building was inoperable as of the 1970's, while the second floor access way granted entry to the attic space above the laundromat.

Modern Day

Much of the building is unchanged with only updates to added electricity plus updates to the heating plant and kitchen appliances identifiable in pictures from the early years. The structure has been mostly restored and contains many of the original fixtures and furniture in many of the rooms. As late as 2003 the museum was opened regularly on summer weekends, but as As of 2024 tours had been changed to by appointment only. The Ansorge is the last remaining old hotel in Ferry County.