For all you wordsmiths in our midst, a Portland hotel hopes to make your wildest fantasies a reality. That is, if you dream about lodging somewhere with a cataloged lending library.
In December, the Italian Renaissance-style Heathman Hotel, built in 1927 and located in the downtown cultural district, unveiled its 4,000-title library—and a coinciding package, called “Books by your Bedside.” The $229-per-night package promises perks like a free hardcover book written by an author who has also slept at the Heathman (past guests include Tom Wolfe, Wallace Stegner, John Updike, and Alice Walker), a travel reading light, a tour of the library, and some enticing swag from local independent bookstore behemoth (and Rolf Potts favorite) Powell’s. Plus, Heathman vows to make a donation in each guest’s name to SMART (Start Making a Reader Today), an Oregon nonprofit that promotes literacy for children.
Heathman’s library boasts signed editions from seven Nobel Prize winners, 14 Pulitzer Prize winners, five U.S. poets laureate, and 2,000 books from the collection are on display in the Mezzanine Library’s custom-designed bookcases. It’s one of the largest hotel libraries in the country and received distinction by AAA this year as the country’s only independent hotel with a library of its scale.
And—yes, it does just keep getting better—rather than typical dime-a-dozen hotel art, Heathman’s 150 luxury rooms all feature works by regional artists, and, of course, the hotel’s efforts to earn an EnergyStar certification tug at our eco-loving heartstrings.
Whether you book a room at the Heathman or not, be sure to peruse our travel library for some of Traveler's handpicked reads.
Photo: John Valls
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