The Palace Hotel, the iconic downtown Ukiah landmark focus of new cleanup and stabilization efforts, is one of five projects featured in the Spring edition of “Preservation,” the quarterly magazine of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
The magazine notes that the Palace for decades “sat vacant, deteriorating, and mired in uncertainty.”
“The Palace Hotel has hope in the form of a new steward,” the “Preservation” article states about local contractor Tom Carter.
Carter last October secured title to the venerable 60,000 square-foot building from former owner Jitu Ishwar. Months earlier, Ishwar had been granted a demolition permit by the City of Ukiah for the historic building after the collapse of a contentious deal he had made with a local restaurateur and local tribal representatives.
Local contractor Tom Carter pores over plans for the Palace Hotel. (Contributed)Carter and his crew have stabilized the weakened portion of the Palace, removing debris from the interior, and recycling doors, wood, and other material from a building that dates to 1891.
Carter’s efforts began after he secured a city permit to begin shoring up the Palace and temporarily sealing its roof to prevent further degradation.
Carter said Wednesday he had not seen the Preservation magazine article but he has hopes it will create “greater interest” in the project.
“We are currently navigating through the historical tax credit process,” said Carter. With national exposure on the level of Preservation magazine, “It might open up the door to a much larger group of investors that use those tax credits.”
“It could help expedite our project,” said Carter.
Architect Carolyn Kiernat is a principal at Page & Turnbull, the noted San Francisco firm specializing in historic preservation efforts statewide. The firm prepared preliminary plans for investor Minal Shankar’s proposed 2022 Palace restoration but her efforts were torpedoed when former owner Ishwar struck a side deal with a local investment group and the Guidiville Rancheria.
That effort, which included securing a $6 million special state grant targeting tribes and poor communities, failed when state regulators balked at using possible contamination issues to tear down a historic landmark.
Kiernat on Wednesday applauded the National Trust’s recognition of the Palace’s historical importance, and Carter’s efforts to stabilize the landmark and lure new investors.
“We are excited to see the National Trust’s coverage of the Palace Hotel,” said Kiernat.
Kiernat said, “the project still has a long way to go, but the building is in good hands with Tom Carter and his team. It’s a great time to look to the future and imagine how the Palace Hotel can be reactivated and reincorporated into the streetscape of downtown Ukiah.”
Preservation writer Malea Martin labeled the Palace “saved” in her article published under a headline of “Transitions: Places Restored, Threatened, Saved and Lost.”
The Preservation magazine article also cites a historic Masonic Temple Building in Charleston, South Carolina; the Joliet Steel Works Main Office Building in Illinois (destroyed by fire in 2024 and lost); a former rail station in Aberdeen, Maryland; and the 200-year-old Overfield Tavern in Troy, Ohio.
Here is the text of the Preservation magazine article as it relates to the Palace:
“For decades, the Palace Hotel sat vacant, deteriorating, and mired in uncertainty.
There were various proposals over the years to save or demolish the building but none came to fruition – until now.
The Palace Hotel has hope in the form of a new steward. Local general contractor Tom Carter purchased the hotel in October 2024, with plans to restore it and eventually reopen it to guests.
Carter secured a city permit in December to begin shoring up the building and sealing its roof to prevent further degradation. He’s looking for investors to join him in bringing the Palace back to prominence.
The hotel consists of four structures built between 1891 and 1929, with the earliest portion considered Ukiah’s finest example of brick construction from that period. In its heyday the Palace hosted a number of distinguished guests, including California governors and film stars, but it eventually shuttered in the 1980s and was left to deteriorate.
Carter previously undertook a successful restoration of the Tallman Hotel in nearby Upper Lake, California, and he’s bringing his lifetime of construction experience to saving the Palace.
“For me,” he says, “it’s the love of the building.”
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