Grand Palace Hotel offers five themes

Visitors to Sisters can take a trip back in time to a Victorian-era Old West at the Grand Palace Hotel.

Proprietors Joe and Lesa Randall celebrated the grand opening of the new lodgings last weekend after a whirlwind of activity that transformed the upstairs section of the historic Sisters building on the corner of Cascade Avenue and Elm Street.

Joe Randall explained how he and his wife ended up in the hotel business.

“We fell into it,” he said. “Lesa had kind of thought of the idea. It was fate more than anything else.”

The couple pursued a spark of the idea with the owner of The Palace, who had previously rented the upstairs rooms as apartments.

The project grew into a major renovation that converted the building into lodgings reminiscent of the surprising touches of elegance and comfort found in many an Old west town in the 1880s and ’90s.

The halls are decorated with photos from the early days of Sisters and the many antiques that grace the rooms and common areas are for sale through Helen’s Antique Store downstairs.

The hotel offers five rooms of varying sizes and configurations. Each room is named after one of the Randall’s five children and is decorated with a theme — from rodeo to a Western saloon, from trains to music.

“We matched the themes to the kids and it really matched well,” Lesa said. “We really wanted to be a small family hotel.”

Lesa credits Joe’s hard work with turning her visions into reality.

And they both thanked countless friends who lent their labor.

“We had so many friends help us,” Lesa said. “We could never have done it (without them).”

For more information call 549-2211 or visit http://www.grandpalacehotelsisters.com.

The office for the hotel is located downstairs at Helen’s Antique Store.