The Hotel Cornelius is a historic building in Portland, Oregon that was designed by John V. Bennes's firm and constructed in 1907-1908.[1] The seven-story building is categorized as being 20th Century Baroque architecture[2][3] and contains 66 hotel rooms. It was operated by Charles W. Cornelius,[4] who named the hotel for his family and his brother Colonel Thomas R. Cornelius. Their father founded the town of Cornelius to Portland’s west after emigrating to Oregon with Joseph Meek, "famed fur trader, lawman and politician, in a day when you could be all three."[3]
The building has a "dramatic coffered ceiling in the lobby" and a French sheetmetal mansard, cornice, entablature, exterior masonry, and terracotta. It included a ground-floor wood storefront that was once a "Ladies Reception Hall"[5] and an "opulent" basement cafe. "Ornate wood paneling and trim" was included throughout the building.[4]
The Cornelius served as a bathhouse for gays in the 1960s and 1970s and was then empty for years. There were plans to renovate the building, owned by Portland developer Tom Moyer, as a business hotel in recent years[3] following a period where it was home to vagrants for many years after the 1980s.[3][6]