Hotel
History
In the early
1900's
there were two houses on
the road front of the property the motel is built on. The two houses
were both
owned by doctors and shared a livery in the back yard. The livery had
an
apartment above it and was rented to John Devlin. John married Anna
Donovan and
the two lived there and started a family. On September 7, 1922 Arthur
Donavan
Devlin was born in the apartment that John & Anna lived in.
When Art was
born it was a luxury to give birth in a hospital and more times than
not people
gave birth at home. Anna worked as a nurse and contracted TB
for a second time and
died when Art was two. Sometime around 1925 the two Doctors both
purchased Model
T s and sold the livery to John Devlin.
In the early '50s Art met and married Helen
McCutcheon and the two continued living in the house that Art was born
in. In
December of 1953 Art and Helen moved from the second floor apartment to
the main
floor. They then converted the upstairs apartment into two
motel rooms.
The motel was named Devlin’s
Motel as Art
was still competing as a ski jumper and any mention of his name would
make him
ineligible as an amateur. In 1960 Art made the Olympic team but stepped
down due
to injuries and gave up his spot to the next in line.
By 1960 the motel had grown
to twenty rooms and was renamed Art
Devlin’s Olympic Motor Inn as Art was no longer competing and
his amateur
status was no longer an issue. On top of the new sign Art put the
Olympic rings
as a reminder of his Olympic years [1940-1960]. In 1962 the
International
Olympic Committee trademarked the Olympic rings making it illegal to
use the
rings without permission of the I.O.C. and because Art had the rings on
the sign prior
to 1962 he was grand fathered and the rings are still there to this day.
In 1966
Art was
finally able to acquire the
property on the north side that adjoined his property.
He added a building with 20 motel rooms and a restaurant for breakfast
only. This addition doubled the size of the motel and brought
it up
to 40 motel rooms.
In 1982 a house was constructed on top of the building on the left as
you
drive in the yard. Art Jr. and his wife Sue moved into this house when
they were
married. In 1987 Helen and Art
moved into the apartment, and Art & Sue moved over to the main
house and
took over the day-to-day operations of the motel.
In 1989 Art’s wife Helen passed away and Art remained in the
apartment
until he passed away in April 2004. When
Helen died a close family friend had a blue spruce planted for Helen,
as her
favorite color was blue. It sits on
the front lawn as you check in. After
Art’s passing, another friend had a blue spruce planted for
Art, as his
favorite color was also blue. This
is why in the wintertime these trees are always decorated with blue
lights.
On January 1, 1992 Art Jr. and Sue purchased the motel from Art Sr. and
started a complete restoration of the property.
During this process, Art Sr. was a wealth of information on ideas that
he
had when doing it the first time around but couldn’t due to
financial or
technological reasons. One example
would be the gardens that separate the parking area from the rooms. The
restoration project took 11 years and was completed on the
motel’s 50th
anniversary, December 2003. Art
passed away four months later on April 22, 2004.
Fortunately Art was able to see the property he started with two motel
rooms completely restored before his passing.
A few years after starting our
restoration
project Rolf Schulte came on board and our renovations took on a more
European
style with stucco walls and wood ceilings.
The euro style rooms were
well received by our guests and were
responsible for our going back to our original renovations and re-doing
the
first twenty rooms. Towards the completion of the re-renovations we
upped our
quality a notch and started making the wood ceilings out of cedar
instead of
pine. The trim, door, and window casings were also changed from pine to
oak. In
the bathrooms we have started replacing the original cultured marble
sinks with
granite and nicer tile.
From
the beginning of our renovations our neighbor and friend Bill from
across the street has encouraged us and helped us renovate the property
without
a general contractor. Where I was trying to re-do everything and make
it new,
Bill challenged me to bring in new ideas and keep up with the
ever-changing
times. Much of the appearance of the property today is a result of
Bill’s efforts.
Many of you who have stayed at our motel know Rebekah. She started as a
chambermaid and painter in the off-season and worked her way up to her
present
position of general manager. After Art Seniors passing, Rebekah moved
into the
house that Art had been in since 1987 on the south side of the
property. In the
spring of '05 Rebekah married our neighbor Bill and they both lived in
the south
building house until November '08 when reconstruction of the
house began.
In August 2010 when the house is scheduled to be completed Art Jr.
& Sue
will be moving into the new house.