Silas Christofferson a local aviator agreed to help promote the 1912 Portland Rose Festival by taking off in his Curtiss Pusher Biplane from the roof of the newly built Multnomah Hotel (now the Embassy Suites). Christofferson built a 170-foot-long wooden runway on the roof of the nine-story hotel. On June 11, 1912, Christofferson had his biplane dismantled and hoisted up and reassembled on the hotel’s newly installed flight deck.
The Oregonian reported: “Aviators have made ascents from the decks of large battleships, but there is no record that any of the large army of intrepid birdmen has to date undertaken to fly from a building the elevation of the Multnomah, estimated at 120 feet.”
Christofferson successfully launched off the hotel’s roof with an estimated crowd of 50,000 people to witness the historic take off. He landed 12 minutes later at the Vancouver Army Barracks, nick-named “Aviator’s Field” which is now Pearson Field in Vancouver, Washington. This historic take off was replicated by Tom Murphy in 1995 (83 years later) off the same roof to celebrate the hotel's reopening.
