to be a prolific conman wanted in several states for theft and fraud and when it was discovered that the checks he had cashed with the Dexter Horton Bank were fraudulent, the hotel was surrendered to the bank to pay off the debt. By this time Harding had disappeared, having fled the country under the guise of a business meeting in Vancouver. He was eventually captured in Regina, Saskatchewan. After a succession of shady owners, the hotel was re branded around 1899 as the Grand Pacific Hotel, named after the recently remodeled hostelry in Chicago, which it is best known as today. Later Owners and Restoration In 1913 the Starr estate sold the building to real estate investor A. Rodgers for $125,000. In March 1914 the body of a young man was discovered in room 48, dead from an apparent suicide by ingesting Carbolic acid. A.J. Johnson, the proprietor of the hotel at the time would commit suicide just over a year later. In 1931 the building was nearly gutted by an early morning fire originating from one of the basement floors, then occupied by a wholesale fish company, that vented through the hotel's central court, where flames were said to shoot 75 feet into the air. All 67 guests were either able to escape or were rescued by firefighters. The hotel continued to serve long-term guests up until October 1966, when Seattle slum clearing policies forced the now run-down hotel into Nuisance abatement. Citing prohibitive repair costs, the building's then owner, Kerry Timber Co., evicted all the residents and closed off the building's top floors indefinitely. Beginning in the late 70s, The Grand Pacific and other historic buildings in the area were restored and redeveloped by Cornerstone Development Co, a subsidiary of Weyerhaeuser as part of the Waterfront Center project, which combined new construction with older buildings restored for housing. During restoration, The Grand Central Hotel was interconnected with the Colonial Hotel to the north. The Grand Pacific Hotel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 13, 1982. See also National Register of Historic Places listings in Seattle References External links Grand Pacific Hotel, Seattle, ca. 1907 - from the Museum of History and Industry photo archives. 1890s architecture in the United States Defunct hotels in Washington (state) Downtown Seattle Hotel buildings completed in 1890 Hotel buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in