The St. Charles Hotel was one of the most recognized landmarks of the old town of Portland. Located on the southwestern corner of Ferry Street (today’s 36th Street) and Second. Just two blocks from the busy Portland Wharf, it served visitors and travelers for many years in relative splendor.
Directly across Second Street was the small pharmacy of T. P. Taylor, the first of a series of successful Louisville drug stores. On the southeastern corner of Second Street was the final home of Big Jim Porter, the Kentucky Giant. Porter lived there from 1846 until his death in 1849. It was built to accommodate his 7’9” height, with ten-foot doors for his convenience. The Porter house and tavern stood empty after his death.
News stories heralding the opening of the St. Charles became a major subject in the May 9,1856 edition of the Morning Courier. The hotel was owned by Paul Villier, a very successful French merchant and one of the leading citizens of Portland. His is the tallest memorial stone in the Portland Cemetery.
A Hotel in Portland
It has often been to us a source of wonderment that the neighboring town of Portland – now incorporated as part and parcel of our own city – had no first-class hotel for the accommodation of the great throng of passengers daily arriving at that place. That such an establishment would be profitable to the proprietors, and highly convenient to the traveling public, can admit of no doubt. Every day throughout the year, there are a large number of steamboat arrivals, crowed with travelers, many arriving in the nighttime, who in order to reach this city, must submit to many inconveniences. This pressing demand for hotel accommodations in Portland is now about being satisfied. Mr. Paul Villier, a wealthy and public-spirited citizen has erected a very fine and commodious building admirably adapted for a house of public entertainment. It is situated on Second street, within a few steps of the steamboat landing, and yet sufficiently removed from the bustle of the wharf to be quiet and secluded.
This Hotel, the St. Charles, is now about completed, and will soon be in readiness for occupancy. It is a beautiful specimen of architecture – five stories in height, and embracing some sixty spacious, well ventilated and convenient rooms. The parlors are large and handsome – the dining room a perfect model and the sleeping apartments snug, airy and light. We do not know of a public house combining greater advantages of location and construction than this. Mr. Villier has spared no pains to render it unexceptionable. Adjoining the hotel structure, are very large and handsome grounds, properly ornamented with shade and fruit trees, flowers, shrubbery and other embellishments for the gratification of the taste and the luxurious enjoyment of the body. So that the visitor while convenient to the whirl of business, can find a petite paradise of rural sweets, by stepping from his room. The basement of the St. Charles consists of several large, dry and light rooms, adapted for various hotel purposes. In the yard there is a fine well and force pump – furnished by Thos. Williams & Co., of this city – that can, with the labor of four men, throw streams of water all over the premises, thus preventing any danger from conflagration.
The view from the observatory upon the top of the hotel, is one of exceeding beauty. A most charming landscape – a perfect panorama of variegated scenes, spreads out before the eye. The Knobs of Indiana and the busy little city of New Albany in their shadows – the falls and islands of the Ohio – the green woods in the rear of Portland – and the church spires of Louisville – can all be embraced with one sweep of the vision.
It is the purpose of Mr. Villier to rent the establishment to a good landlord on the most reasonable terms. His main object in erecting it, has been to increase the trade and importance of Portland. That portion of our city needs just such a hotel. Its busy commerce – its large boarding school for young ladies, and the future promise of growth, all testify to the importance of this improvement. We trust that the energy and public spirit of Mr. Villier, may meet with due reward, and that Portland may soon boast of a first-class hotel in the St. Charles.
NOTE: Rick conducts historical tours at the waterfront. Join him at the next one on Saturday, September 20. It starts at the Belle of Louisville (4th and Wharf) and walk to the Lincoln Memorial (about 1.5 miles round trip). Tour begin at 10 a.m. The next day, Sunday, September 21, at 4 p.m. we meet at the Lincoln Memorial and walk over the Big Four Bridge. Tours are free and open to the public, rain or shine.
