Our History

Built in 1891 as the Tourist Hotel, Bird Rock is today one of the oldest hotels on the island and enjoys historic status. If you look closely, you can still see the original name inlaid in the bricks on the very top of the building on the First Street side.

The Tourist Hotel was the first hotel with indoor plumbing on the isle, a rare luxury at the time. It had a restaurant, bar, pool hall and a reception room for the ladies, who were not allowed in the bar. A dentist periodically provided his services in the lobby, most likely with anesthesia dispensed from said bar.

Since then the hotel has undergone many transformations, from hostel, private residence, house of ill-repute to famous pizzeria with a hot tub rental place in the basement and back to being a hotel.

For the last 24 years, the hotel has been lovingly attended to by Laura Saccio and her family. One quiet evening in Portland, Oregon, sometime after the birth of her second daughter, Laura and her family fantasized about finding a way to make a living without having to choose between raising children and having a career, something that would combine her Masters in International Management, her love for outdoor adventures and the outstanding customer service Laura provides with such ease with enough time to see her daughters grow up. The idea of buying a small hotel somewhere in paradise was born and the hunt was on. In 2001, after eight months of searching (it had to be in the Pacific Northwest), number crunching, negotiating and planning, Laura and her family bought the historic Inn on beautiful San Juan Island.

After several years of renovating and establishing it as one of the most sought after boutique accommodations on San Juan Island, Laura renamed the place the Bird Rock Hotel. And the rest, as they say, is history.

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