One Night in a Historic Department Store Turned Luxury Hotel—With a Toddler

Welcome to One Night In, a series about staying in the most unparalleled places available to rest your head.

In recent years, I’ve developed a bit of a philosophy about traveling. Airbnbs are for groups and/or longer trips where you’d benefit from a kitchen, or traveling to a place where the hotels are for whatever reason exorbitantly expensive. Hotels are for everything else. This approach has served me well in planning trips—that is, until I had a child, an experience that, you might have heard, means that most everything you know about how to approach planning most everything has to be reassessed (or even if it doesn’t have to be, inevitably is, however briefly).

My traveling-with-a-child approach was tested on my first family vacation, which I documented for Dwell, glamping at Snow Peak’s first campsite in the U.S. on the coast of Washington. The timing of the flights for that trip meant we’d have one night before going home that, for our sanity, we’d want to spend in Portland, Oregon, proper before flying out quite early the next day. Having never been to Portland, or glamped, I thought this seemed like a great idea—a night in an actual hotel, safe from the elements. But I was also wary about that evening; at the campsite, my partner and I spent a couple of our evenings chilling outside by the fire, and being stuck whispering in a hotel room while a 20-month-old slept next to us seemed…unpleasant. On the flip side, staying at a luxury hotel that would provide more space and comfort seemed like asking for trouble—would children even be welcome there?

After mulling it over—rich people also have children! was one thought I had—and doing some research, I decided we’d try to go the high-end route, and zeroed in on The Nines, a hotel in downtown Portland regularly on best-of lists that would be only a 20-minute drive to the airport at 4:30 in the morning, but also had a cool backstory. The publicist I conversed with about a press stay knows I have a child, but I didn’t go as far as to request anything more than enough space to have her in a Pack ‘N Play. So we’re going into this fancy night blind, and wondering where it will take us.

Wednesday

12:30 p.m.: The day before arriving, I’d called the hotel to see if we could get early check in, because, as every parent with a young child knows, your day is structured around nap time, and we were going to be in a bit of a strange slot checking in at four. Plus, we had piles of stuff with us I’d rather have put in a room and not in the rental car or with the concierge. I was told someone would be checking out of the suite (! exciting news to me) we were assigned to, so we probably couldn’t get in until two. No matter—our plan would be to slowly make our way from the Washington coast to Portland, which is about a two to two-and-a-half-hour drive. The hope was that she might fall asleep in the car, leaving us unconcerned for the rest of the day.

Well, that hope is dashed, though she is fairly chill. After stopping in Astoria, Oregon, to pick up some salmon jerky at Josephson’s Fish House, as one does, we enjoy a somewhat overcast drive to Portland. And once we arrive at the hotel, we find we can check in immediately, no problem, the best omen you can get on a trip, no matter its length.

The luxe living clicks in immediately. The Nines Portland is located right in the middle of downtown, and straddles the line between old and new, the relaxed energies of this region of the world and the high-end expectations of this level of hospitality. Part of the Luxury Collection of Marriott, a subsidiary of properties the brand calls "the world’s most exciting and desirable destinations," it’s located in an adaptive reuse property: the renovated Meier & Frank Building, built in 1909 on a full square city block to house the department store of the same name. It was originally designed by A.E. Doyle, and the top nine floors were reworked in 2008; it’s also on the National Register of Historic Places. The bottom floors were briefly a Macy’s, and now hold a Muji, among other tenants. According to a press release, "The concept of being ‘dressed to the nines’ serves as a guiding narrative, connecting the building’s fashion-retail history to its present-day identity as a refined and expressive hospitality environment." The exterior still looks and feels exactly like the classic department stores of the 1900s, but as I notice immediately, the hotel decor has been funked up quite a bit.

A valet takes our car while a bellhop gathers our belongings to be brought up to our room. Check in for the hotel requires getting in the elevator, which reminds me of a 21c Museum hotel I stayed at once; the property similarly has a bevy of artworks integrated into it, all curated by Portland-based photographer Paige Powell. Behind the concierge is the lounge and Urban Farmer Steakhouse, which sit in a massive, light-filled seven-story atrium at the center of the building.

Once in the room, we see this is certainly a suite, one that, I see later, could put you out a few hundred dollars for a night, season depending. With an entryway, living room, large bathroom, bar area, and massive bedroom with great views of the city all around, there’s more than enough space for the three of us. I also find that the ask about whether we had any dietary restrictions had a purpose—we’ve been left with the most thoughtful care package, which ranges from a diaper pail to stuffed animals and homemade purees for our daughter to wine for us. If this is how a VIP travels—and from what I’ve seen on reality television, it is—I’m sold.