SPOKANE, Wash – If the walls of the historic Davenport Hotel could talk, it might be Melville Holmes’ voice that you hear.
Holmes, a traditional fine artist, led the artistic renovation of one of Spokane’s most beloved properties.
He’s seen this hotel at its worst.
“It was in pretty rough shape,” Holmes said.
The Davenport Hotel opened in 1914 and was not just Spokane’s grandest hotel, but one of the finest in the western United States.
Visitors experience some of that original grandeur today, from original artwork to chandeliers that have been hanging since the hotel opened.
For years, though, it looked like the Davenport would not survive.
It sat empty for decades until Walt and Karen Worthy decided it was worth saving. Holmes, who was new to Spokane in the late 1990s, immediately agreed.
“I wrote a letter to the editor that was published, that the restoration of the Davenport Hotel is a thing intrinsically worth doing,” Holmes said.
The work, however, was painstaking.
Much of the hotel was taken down to the studs and rebuilt, while other parts were preserved entirely.
The Worthys hired Holmes as the aesthetic director of the renovation. His background in fine art and technique made him uniquely qualified for the project.
The famed Hall of Doges, for example, required creativity and guts to preserve Spokane’s first grand ballroom.
Because the lower portion that held it up was going to be destroyed and rebuilt, construction workers actually lifted out the Hall of Doges and kept it tucked away until it was ready to be put back on.
The ceiling, a work of art in itself, had to be repainted entirely. Holmes and his team climbed through a balcony, stood on some scaffolding and got to work.
Downstairs, the original hotel dining room is now the Isabella Ballroom. Marble, elegant and a popular site for weddings, it came together because of Holmes’ wife Janice.
“Janice gave me the idea to use the color of the floor and we built off that,” Holmes said.
On the back wall of the Isabella hangs a portrait that has been in the room since the beginning. Holmes says it’s not clear who painted her, but he believes it depicts the goddess, Flora.
When Holmes got here, Flora needed some work.
Someone had tried to paint over part of the portrait. It was marred by dirt, dust and the decadent celebrations of this hotel in its heyday.
“When I was cleaning it, I filled holes,” Holmes said. “Holes purportedly from [people] aiming champagne corks at it.”
Directly upstairs from the Isabella, Holmes and Janice faced their biggest design challenge in what is now the Marie Antoinette Ballroom.
The grand room has original floors and chandeliers, but the color was wrong, and the walls needed Holmes’ touch.
“Everything was painted white with salmon-red ceilings,” he recalled. “It was terrible. It had to be completely repainted and it’s a very complicated finish that only I know how to do.”
Holmes said Janice had the vision for what it would take to transform the ballroom into the pure elegance visitors see today.
But, the day after Christmas – the day work on the ballroom was getting underway – Holmes came home from the Davenport on a lunch break and found Janice struggling to call for help.
She suffered a brain hemorrhage from which she would not recover. She never saw her vision completed.
Still, Janice is here – in a portrait Holmes painted of her that hangs in the corner of the ballroom.
There’s another painting of Janice downstairs, right near the new lobby bar.
It’s a mix of old and new that defines what The Davenport has become: a way of blending history and modern conveniences in a way Louis Davenport would have likely appreciated.
Holmes and his wife Kathryn are preserving that legacy in a book they’re writing about this property and the art found inside.
It’s not about Holmes’ work, but the symbolism and iconography that has covered the walls since the hotel first opened.
While most people walk through the Davenport and see the grandness, Holmes has been digging into the intricate.
They hope to finish the book next year, as a testament to the bold idea that built this place and the bold risk and care to keep it alive.
“The feats that were accomplished are marvelous,” Holmes said.
You can read more about Holmes and his work at this link.
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