Landmark Camlin Hotel to close

At an elevated restaurant-lounge once considered Seattle's own slice of heaven, a group of fly fishermen who have met there for lunch every Wednesday since 1968 take the bait.

What do they think about rumors that the historic Camlin Hotel and its 11th-story Cloud Room will be turned into a private vacation resort?

"You mean what do I think about them ruining it?" 78-year-old Perry Barth asked.

The rumors are true. Another Seattle institution is going -bye.

Months of speculation ended yesterday when Trendwest Resorts of Redmond announced it had purchased the landmark hotel from Camlin LLC for an undisclosed price. Trendwest plans to convert the hotel's rooms into 100 fully furnished suites, including four top-floor penthouses where the Cloud Room now dwells.

The Camlin thus will become the private province of approximately 181,000 households — including 39,000 from Washington state — that have spent a minimum $9,300 to be a member of Trendwest's vacation club, WorldMark.

"So this is progress," lamented Don Uppendahl, 67, a regular attendee of the fishermen's social. "I don't mind progress. It's change I don't like."

A closing date has not been announced, but Sonia Tolbert, Trendwest's public-relations manager, said her company hopes to reopen the restored Camlin — which will retain its name — early next summer.

The hotel's 85 employees — many of whom have been looking for new jobs — had a good idea the end was near. The hotel has been taking reservations only through early August.

Gallows humor has been a coping mechanism. The Cloud Room's chef-special omelet on Sunday morning was the S.O.S. (sausage, onion and Swiss).

But the distress call turned out to be too little, too late for a hangout that has attracted a mix of neighborhood regulars, downtown workers, conventioneers, young professionals, lounge lizards, bachelorette partygoers and older people who have fond memories of the place.

"Most hotel bars only bring in hotel guests," bartender John Baker said. "The Cloud Room brings in everybody."

The fly fishermen are one of a handful of social groups that use the Cloud Room as their headquarters. Gordy Young, elder statesman at age 92, said the group hosted baseball great Ted Williams and hotel magnate Charles Ritz, both avid fly fishermen, at Camlin lunches in the past.

The Camlin, on Ninth Avenue between Pine Street and Olive Way, opened in 1926 as a residential hotel. The Cloud Room debuted as a lounge and restaurant in 1949.

"The Cloud Room was once the room in Seattle," Barth said. "There's a long tradition here of good food and good fun."

Ron Dion, 65, treated his date to dinner at the Cloud Room before his O'Dea High School prom in 1955.

"When I was in high school, I was kind of intimidated by this place because it was so tall," said Dion, a member of the fishermen's group. "It was quite the big deal for a high-school senior like me to come up to a place like this that had such a tremendous view. We could see the water back then."

The Camlin's clear-shot view of Elliott Bay became blocked over the years by downtown development. The biggest obstruction is Bell Plaza, which went up across Eighth Avenue in the mid-1970s.

As the views from the Cloud Room disappeared, so did its reputation as one of Seattle's most sophisticated nightspots. The Cloud Room's lack of TLC over the years turned the lounge into a divey piano bar, its threadbare teal-and-pink floral carpet suggesting better days.

Management played the room's retro charm to the hilt.

On Sunday morning, the recorded music of Donovan, Chicago, Creedence Clearwater Revival and Sly & the Family Stone played through restaurant loudspeakers.

"None of us have any illusions about the Camlin," said Deanna Gimmi, the Camlin's controller. "We understand its charms but also understand that the place needs a lot of work."

The Cloud Room, bathed in dark-stained wood walls, actually is four distinct rooms and an open-air patio, with a fountain featuring a boy urinating.

The Camlin's proximity to the Paramount Theatre has given it a symbiotic relationship with the entertainment industry. Tom Hanks, Miles Davis, Bootsy Collins, Jackie Mason, Elvis Costello and Dave Grohl have all either stayed at the Camlin or downed a few at the Cloud Room, employees said.

The hotel often houses road crews and cast members from shows passing through town. Whenever the Godfather of Soul, James Brown, rolled into town, his band would stay at the hotel and jam the night away at the piano bar with Martin Ross, who has entertained there the past 14 years.

Business at the hotel — and the Cloud Room's crowd — fluctuated with who was appearing across the street at the Paramount.

When heavy-metal band Slayer played there last fall, an exuberant fan managed to climb on the neon "Camlin" sign and yell "Slayer rules!" Baker said.

The Camlin is a city landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Any alterations to the building's terra-cotta facade, lobby, sign and rooftop architectural elements must be approved by the city, but the city has no authority over how the building may be used.

Tolbert said Trendwest considered keeping the top floor a public space but the challenges of mixing private and public use were too significant to overcome.

Trendwest's 48 WorldMark properties in the U.S., British Columbia, Mexico and Fiji are almost all for the express use of its vacation-club members and their guests, she said.

"We have the utmost respect for the history of the Cloud Room and the affinity that Seattle has for it," Tolbert said. "We knew it was a sensitive issue and we really did try to include it within our plan."

Young said the fishermen have not decided where to move their weekly gathering, only that the lunches will continue. Every Wednesday. At noon.

Some things never change.

Stuart Eskenazi: 206-464-2293 or seskenazi@seattletimes.com