Tag: Golf courses

Art at Gearhart

Dear Liza,

While we were on the Oregon Coast, we stayed at McMenamin’s Gearhart hotel. We have visited it before, but now we got to really explore.

As with all McMenamin’s venues, the art and ambiance are wonderful. They have a sizable art department that creates wonderful “surreal histories”, as well as preserving actual historic posters. The blurring of factual and mythical history is delicious.

Since Gearhart is a golf course, all the artwork is golf themed. I don’t care much for golf, and it is one of Auntie Bridgett’s LEAST favorite sports, but the art was fun, anyway.

It told of the agony of missed shots and the joy of fresh air and competition. There were so many styles on display, we seemed to travel from religious relics to 1920 flappers to Disney-esque woodland creatures by turning a corner.

There was even a ‘secret room’ painted in wonderfully eerie black-light paints.

We spent a LOT of time looking at art, as well as people watching, fire pit sitting, and beach walking.

And then, after a few days, we were back home, refreshed and cool.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Yet Another McMenamin’s

Dear Liza,

Heading home from Long Beach, we stopped at a new-to-us McMenamin’s location. Like most of the McMenamin’s venues, it has an interesting history.



The original Gearhart Hotel opened in 1890, as a golf club and get away for well-to-do Portlanders. It was the first golf course west of the Mississippi River and was very popular.

A second hotel opened in 1910, but by 1915 both hotels had burned down.

The third hotel that was also connected to the golf club was constructed in the 1920s. This grand Oregon coast landmark was torn down and replaced by condos in the early 1970s. The current building was built in the same Cape Cod style in 2012. So the building is not historic, but that doesn’t stop McMenamin’s. They take a story and run with it!

Original paintings by McMenamins’ team of artists are typically colorful and quirky, and here, they mostly have themes of golf. This painting in the restaurant tells a fanciful story of St. Rule making a pilgrimage to take St. Andrew’s ashes to Scotland and this being the basis for the development of St. Andrew’s Golf course there.

As with all McMenamin’s properties, the food was good, the ambience delightful, and the service friendly.

Still, when lunch was over and we made the last leg of our trip, we were happy to be home. And Mousie was glad, too.

Love,

Grandma Judy