Howell Hotel — 1910
The Shady Lady
[PLAQUE: HOWELL HOTEL — 1910 | 216 N TOWER AVE]
Tower Ave c.1930. Courtesy Lewis County Historical Museum.
Built in 1910, the Howell Hotel rose along North Tower Avenue at a time when Centralia was becoming a busier, more permanent city. The railroad brought travelers, timber and trade brought workers, and downtown buildings began to fill with the kinds of services that made a growing town function day after day. At street level, Moore Bros. Café welcomed customers into the building’s public life, while upstairs, the Howell Hotel offered rooms under the proprietorship of Marion Howell. The arrangement reflected the rhythm of early downtown Centralia: food, lodging, commerce, and conversation all stacked within the same building.
Tower Ave c.1940-50s. Courtesy Lewis County Historical Museum.
Over the decades, the Howell Hotel adapted as the city around it changed. Its storefronts became home to a wide variety of businesses, each leaving a different trace on the building’s identity. Harriet Goff’s Lingerie Shop brought a more refined retail era to the space, followed by businesses such as Bartels Men’s Wear, Brister’s Stationary, Central Office Products, the Wheel Café, Calico Goose, Simply Collectibles, and eventually The Shady Lady Boutique. In this way, the building became a kind of downtown scrapbook, preserving the memory of shifting tastes, changing economies, and the everyday habits of generations of Centralia residents.
One of its most striking interior features is the grand curved staircase, installed around 1955 during Harriet Goff’s occupancy. Owner-provided history attributes the staircase design to noted Seattle architect Paul Hayden Kirk, a major figure in Pacific Northwest modern architecture. Kirk’s career was rooted in the Puget Sound region, and he became known for work that reflected regional materials, climate, and design sensibilities; the Pacific Coast Architecture Database identifies him as a Seattle architect active in the mid-20th century and a Fellow of the AIA.
Howell Hotel Building in commercial use. 1987. Courtesy Lewis County Historical Museum.
The building also carries a more complicated chapter of local history. In the upstairs rooms, The Shady Lady Bordello Museum interprets Centralia’s former red-light district and the women whose labor formed part of the town’s hidden economy. Public visitor listings place the museum above The Shady Lady boutique at 216 N. Tower, and Discover Lewis County describes it as a museum devoted to Centralia’s lively past and former red-light district.
Since 2012, Holly Ryan has owned the building and continued its long tradition of reinvention. Today, the Howell Hotel is home not only to The Shady Lady and its museum, but also to Grist Urban Stone Mill & Grainery, bringing flour milling and local grain culture into one of downtown’s most layered historic spaces. More than a century after its opening, the Howell Hotel still does what it has always done: gathers people, holds stories, and adapts with Centralia while keeping the past close at hand.
