Two Women Who Called It Home

Dr. Marie Equi and Harriet Speckart’s former home
Mark Spencer Hotel (formerly the Nortonia Hotel)
Downtown Portland, Oregon
Saturday, June 20, 2026 | 9:25 a.m.

During a Saturday walk through downtown Portland, I stopped to photograph a building I’d often walked past without giving much thought until I learned more about its history: the Mark Spencer Hotel.

At first glance, it’s one of the city’s many historic brick buildings. But like much of Portland, its story extends beyond what you can see from the sidewalk.

Originally opened in 1907 as the Nortonia Hotel, it welcomed travelers and performers visiting Portland’s theater district. Over the years, entertainers including Louis Armstrong, Mel Tormé, Sammy Davis Jr., and others stayed here, becoming part of the building’s long history.

That history is often told through the famous names who passed through its doors. But another chapter is quieter—and the one that caught my attention.

Long before many of those performers, the building was also home to Dr. Marie Equi and her longtime partner, Harriet Speckart.

They weren’t visitors staying for a night.

They lived here together.

Equi was one of Oregon’s most prominent physicians, suffragists, labor activists, and advocates for social justice. Today, the building’s association with the couple is recognized as an important part of Portland’s LGBTQ+ history.

Historic buildings often become known for the people who visited them. Sometimes, though, the stories that stay with me are about the people who simply called them home. Walking past the Mark Spencer Hotel, I was reminded that a familiar façade can quietly preserve more than a century of Portland’s cultural history.