The Goldfield Hotel is currently being renovated, and is expected to be finished sometime in Summer 2019; However, there is no set finish/open date as of right now. Designed by architect George E. Holesworth, the Goldfield Hotel was constructed is 1907, and opened its doors to the public in 1908. Boasting 154 rooms with telephones and electric lighting, a mahogany paneled lobby furnished in black leather, gold-leaf ceilings, crystal chandeliers, and a price tag of over $300,000 (over $8 million in 2018); the Goldfield Hotel was considered to be the most luxurious hotel between Chicago and San Francisco.
IMG_1225 by
Shad Sorenson, on Flickr
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Shad Sorenson, on Flickr
Shortly after the hotel was built, it was sold to mining magnate George Wingfield, primary owner of the Goldfield Consolidated Mines Company, and hotel entrepreneur Casey McDannell, who created a new hotel corporation called Bonanza Hotel Company. Though George Wingfield owned a majority interest in the Bonanza Hotel Company, his principle partner, Casey McDannell, managed and operated the hotel.
In 1923, the Goldfield Hotel was sold to Newton Crumley, another hotel entrepreneur who owned the Commercial Hotel in Elko, Nevada. Crumley, who evidently also aspired to profit from the gold in the area, dug two mine shafts beneath the hotel in 1925. However, both resulted in “dry holes.”
When Goldfield was in its heyday, the hotel entertained all manner of affluent guests. However, as the gold began to play out and Goldfield’s population diminished, the Goldfield Hotel began a gradual decline. By the 1930s, when the town supported fewer than 1,000 souls, it had become little more than a flop house for cowboys and undiscriminating travelers. During World War II, it housed Army Air Corp. personnel assigned to the Tonopah Air Base, 25 miles north of Goldfield. After the soldiers checked out of the hotel in 1945, the hotel closed its doors forever.
Pictured below is the entirely original Otis elevator, spanning 5 floors (from the basement all the way to the 4th floor) and moving at approximately 300 feet per minute in its heyday. This elevator was the first of its kind on the west side of the Mississippi. Pictured first is the original elevator hoist and controls, followed by the original elevator doors in the lobby and finally the elevator car itself (which, during my explore, was stopped on the third floor.)
IMG_1252 by
Shad Sorenson, on Flickr
IMG_1254 by
Shad Sorenson, on Flickr
IMG_1235 by
Shad Sorenson, on Flickr
IMG_1269 by
Shad Sorenson, on Flickr
This part of the original stone structure is located in, what would have been, the women’s entrance to the dining room. The men would enter the dining room through the saloon, however, women were not allowed in the saloon.
IMG_1244 by
Shad Sorenson, on Flickr
This Staircase remains home to the last remaining original carpeting in the building (that means this carpet is over 100 years old!)
IMG_1263 by
Shad Sorenson, on Flickr
Lastly, this was the original sign from when the hotel was first built. The sign now sits patiently in the basement.
IMG_1260 by
Shad Sorenson, on Flickr
The Goldfield Hotel has been featured in a fall 2001 episode of Fox Family TV’s
World’s Scariest Places. It has also been the subject of a couple of paranormal investigation television series including
Ghost Adventures in 2004, 2011 and 2013, as well as
Ghost Hunters in 2008.