Over a century after it was constructed by the family of photographer Ansel Adams, the site of the former Classen Chemical Company’s Alcohol Plant in Port Hadlock has become a refuge for the down and out, with a special focus on the arts.

“I think we wanted to make this a welcoming place for the community,” said Gary Keister, managing partner of the property. “Art and music kind of lends itself to people enjoying themselves and being a part of the experience.”

The property hosts art primarily from area artists, but also has artists in residence from out of the area, Keister said.

“We have some very high end art. That kind of art that is outside of the mainstream is what we are looking for, art that prompts people’s imagination and creativity.”

Music has become a big factor at the facility, Keister said.

The focus on the arts is a natural fit for the legacy of the Adams family, Keister said, which includes famous photographer Ansel Easton Adams.

Adams was a young boy when his father began building the plant in 1909, and visited the site throughout his youth, said his son Michael Adams during a phone interview from his home in Fresno, California.

“I don’t know when his last trip was but it was probably in his teen years.”

In the late 1800’s, Samuel Hadlock helped develop a site in Port Hadlock to be known as the Washington Mill Company, which was owned by William J. Adams, who was the grandfather of Ansel Adams, according to the Old Alcohol Plant website. The former mill site is now occupied by the Wooden Boat School on S. Water Street in Port Hadlock.

In 1907, the Washington Mill Company closed, laying off numerous workers. This happened after plans to build a railroad connecting the North Olympic Peninsula to the rest of Washington were scrapped.

Facing a financial crisis, Charles H. Adams in 1909 began construction of the Classen Chemical Company’s Alcohol Plant.

Adams said his grandfather, while a student at the University of California, Berkeley, discovered and patented a process to make industrial alcohol from sawdust, which was in great supply from the local timber mills.

“They had this asset, the sawdust, so they took his patented process and built the plant and produced the alcohol,” Michael Adams said. “We’ve got a bottle of the alcohol from it.”

The Alcohol Plant shipped all of its product to San Francisco, but ran into intense competition beginning in 1913 when Western Distilleries (C&H Sugar) bought up all the available stock options, taking control of the company.

This caused The Alcohol Plant to close permanently in 1913.

“The thing had fallen apart and Ansel’s father was the responsible person for paying off all the bills after everything failed,” Michael Adams said.

The plant stood vacant for decades and fell into disrepair.

In about 1947 or 1948, Ansel and Michael visited the property.

“We had gone to Alaska together, then on the way back we drove through that area,” Michael Adams said. “It was all overgrown at the time but we climbed around and saw all the cement ruins which were solid and could be utilized later.”

By that point, the family had zero interest in the property, Michael Adams said.

“I have no idea who owned it then. Probably a bank, but I don’t have any knowledge of that. It was an interesting piece of history.”

The abandoned site would remain a skeletal concrete structure for another three decades before being acquired by retired Buick dealer John Ray Hanson in April 1979.

Throughout the 1980s, Hanson spent about $4 million transforming the former Alcohol Plant into a hotel and marina.

Hanson sold the property to Paul Christensen, who continued the transformation and opened the Inn at Port Hadlock in 2006.

The business did not do well and was foreclosed. It was later purchased by Inn Properties, LLC in December 2014, renovated and reopened on July 1, 2016.

“We are really pleased that it is functioning and that somebody can find some use for it,” Michael Adams said. “I saw it a couple of times after my dad showed it to me and it was just an overgrown, great big cement relic.”

Returning decades later, he found it had become a hotel with a functional marina.

“It was absolutely a total surprise to us,” Michael Adams said.

Hotel with a mission

In addition to a tourist destination, the Tower Building of the hotel provides temporary housing to community members in need as they improve their quality of life and transition into permanent living situations, Keister said.

This standalone nonprofit entity is called Bayside Housing and Services. All the current owners are involved with Bayside’s mission and are committed to supporting those in need.

The nonprofit is independent of the for-profit side of the Old Alcohol Plant Hotel and Restaurant.

The for-profit and nonprofit have separate boards and are independent entities.

“We hope at some point to merge it all into Bayside so that we have some perpetuity in that,” Keister said.

If they were alive, his father and grandfather would likely be proud of what the old plant has been turned into, Michael Adams said.

“I think they would be very excited and very pleased that something they had their hands on at one time became successful,” Michael Adams said. “My father was never involved with that plant at all, but my grandfather I think would have been very happy and pleased to see that some good use has come from it.”

And, as a tribute to the history of the Adams family, the hotel has dedicated a wall to the works of Ansel Adams.

“We have tried to help them get some material related to Ansel,” Michael Adams said. “We were happy to support them in that respect.”