At this rustic inn near Grants Pass, Oregon, the Rogue River gets the best rooms at the Riverside Inn. The fast running river occupies the view from every guestroom, appears beyond every private balcony or patio, and gives this Grants Pass hotel its most compelling architectural feature: a reason to stop traveling and sit still.
At 986 SW Sixth Street, the three-story, 63-room inn stands near Caveman Bridge, where concrete arches sweep across the water. Trees soften the riverbank, and the bridge gives the scene a graceful piece of Oregon engineering. The composition is sufficiently important that the city’s scenic-resources study specifically recommends preserving views while maintaining the vegetation that screens the hotel from across the river.
Here, landscaping does useful work on both sides of the picture.
Travel Weekly dates the Riverside’s construction to 1965, placing its beginnings in the great age of Western automobile vacations. Its three-story form belongs to that practical lodging tradition, while the balconies make particularly good use of its waterfront address. The original architect remains unverified, but the building’s enduring advantage is easy to identify: every guest gets access to the view.
The property has changed considerably along the way. Its former lobby, Rafter’s restaurant and a section of guestrooms once occupied ground between Sixth and Seventh streets. According to a hotel management account published in September 2011, that portion was sold approximately six years earlier and subsequently demolished.
Taprock Northwest Grill rose in its place. Taprock opened in May 2009, bringing a substantial lodge-style log building to the riverfront. Former Oregon senator and banker Brady Adams and Evergreen Bank developed the project. Restaurateur Dave Thomason initially declined the invitation to operate it, then accepted when the intended operator dropped out.
Outside, Caveman Bridge deserves more than a passing glance. Designed by Conde B. McCullough and built by J. K. Holt of Salem in 1931, the 550-foot crossing has three principal concrete arches, each spanning 150 feet. Decorative railings, brackets and pylon lampposts show the care lavished on public works of the period. This was the fourth bridge at the site, following a succession that began with a timber crossing in 1886.
The Riverside helped mark the bridge’s renewed life in May 2019, when the inn and Taprock were named as the setting for its rededication following a $5.3 million rehabilitation. New railings and lights, seismic improvements and concrete restoration preserved the landmark that contributes so much to the hotel’s outlook.
There is movement in the scenery, too. Neighboring Hellgate Jetboat Excursions began in 1959, preceding the inn’s listed construction date. Its boats connect this downtown riverfront with the canyon country downstream.
Guests wanting a quieter encounter with the water can walk across Caveman Bridge to Riverside Park; the hotel itself has no direct river access.
A complimentary hot breakfast and evening popcorn lend the Riverside an agreeable, unceremonious character. But the balcony is the amenity that defines the place. It extends the guestroom outdoors and gives a traveler something increasingly valuable: a comfortable seat facing a changing sky and riverside scenes worth watching.
