As recorded in the National Register of Historic Places By the United States Department of the Interior
The common name is Temple Hotel and the historic names are the Hotel St. George and Hotel Dorion. The building was developed in four distinct episodes between 1900 and 1937:
- 1900 – Floors 1-2, main building
- 1903 – Floor 3, main building and Floor 1, East addition
- 1927 – Floors 2-4, East addition
- 1937 – Floors 4-6, main building
The building best conveys the district’s secondary historic period and consists of three volumes, including a six-story Art Deco style building on the corner of Main Street and Emigrant Avenue; a four story Italianate style addition fronting Emigrant Avenue. The building contributed significantly to the district since its initial construction in 1900, but its penultimate configuration is a striking reflection of the fashionable modernity of the automobile age. By far the tallest building in the district, it nonetheless continues traditional building patterns of the historic period in its formal façade organization with strip pilasters, corbelled belt cornice and parapet-wall articulated as a blind arcade. The Art Deco elements are the principal ground story façade and colossal, rusticated corner pilasters.
The original Hotel St. George was a two-story Italianate building with rounded corner bay, corner of Main Street and Emigrant Avenue, built in 1900. In 1903 a third story, identical to the existing second story, was constructed and the interior room arrangement was modified, making the Hotel St. George the first hotel in the city to have all exterior rooms each with a private toilet room. The latest remodel, of the twentieth century, transformed the hotel to the present six story, Art Deco style building, a rarity in Eastern Oregon. The original brick structure established the structural bay system which was continued in the additional stories. Arcuated openings in the ground story face on Emigrant Avenue have not been altered, though all the rest of the stilted segmental-arched openings of the lower stories were modified in the 1937 remodeling, which also included stuccoing exterior face brick.
A single story Italianate addition to the rear wall of the hotel, added in 1903, was made four stories in 1927 and is intact today as it was ultimately enlarged. The original corbelled brick cornice of the one story addition is still visible in the existing façade and ground story strip pilasters were extended to the cornice of the fourth story of the addition. The addition also has segmentally arched window openings with one-over-one double hung sashes, brick string courses, and a sheet – metal cornice with modillion blocks and swag-decorated frieze. Exterior walls are brick. The Italianate style of this part of the hotel was intended to complement, if not precisely match, the main hotel building, which face Main Street. The hotel’s East addition was the latest distinctly Italianate style building to be constructed in the District or anywhere else in the city.
In 2007, the building was purchased by Albert and Gail Plute and a restoration and renovation process began. The building has been renamed as the St. George Plaza. The renovation includes returning the building’s exterior to its Italianate design. All new double hung windows with sashes were installed and the arched window openings exposed as originally intended. Last year, the entire building was reroofed and repainted. Newly designed and installed iron and glass awnings are attached at the ground floor. In addition, balcony railings are present at upper floor windows. A new electrical system was designed and installed and now the building includes wiring for wifi and internet uses. The ground floor is slated for a restaurant and floors two through six are redesigned as upscale one and two bedroom apartments. The apartment entrance has been redesigned on Emigrant Avenue. Two 10 foot iron and glass doors accentuate the entrance and there is an electronically secured entry system for the residents’ protection. Just inside is the lobby, which is well lit with Italian sconces and a massive Italian style chandelier and an elevator, to transport residents to all six floors.