Wheelchair Jimmy Comments
The historic Copper Queen Hotel and Saloon has a total of 49 rooms including 2 “somewhat accessible” rooms. We stayed in Room 209 which is their only designated wheelchair accessible room. It’s located directly above the Saloon which plays music until about 9pm on weekdays. We heard the music but it wasn’t too loud.
The hotel has multiple steps at the entrance, however there is a somewhat accessible side entrance through the kitchen. You enter through a broken concrete walk way, and then take sharp right turn into the kitchen. A large red trash barrel partially blocked the kitchen entry but they moved it for me. The walk way entrance was somewhat narrow and I don’t believe a power wheelchair or wide manual chair would fit. Near the side hotel entrance (on a narrow one-way street), there is 1 designated accessible parking space in front which I used. I parked a block away our 2nd day.
WARNING: When we arrived the elevator to the 2nd floor and our room was out-of-service, and the only way to the room was either a narrow steep stairway or driving around to park in the back which we did. The route was steep and so complex the hotel desk clerk drove with me, then helped back my wheelchair down a reasonably steep gravel driveway with pot holes, around the pool and into the hotel.
Room 209 was relatively nice, small, with 2 queen beds and plenty of space around both sides of 1 bed. Bed height was 25 inches. The bathroom is long and somewhat narrow, but was accessible for a manual chair but probably not for a power chair. But I was able to enter and close the bathroom door, and had clear access to the sink and shower. Not anywhere near ADA compliant but it worked for me.
The roll in shower has an attached pull down bench seat but the shower controls are 3-4 ft.away and not reachable. The turn on/off control is high on the wall and not reachable for any wheelchair user. There were grab bars in the shower.
The hotel’s 1902 Restaurant was renovated in 2018 and is beautiful, spacious and all tables are accessible. We had breakfast and dinner there and the food, drinks and service were terrific. Highly recommended! BTW the old Saloon is located on the main floor is very wheelchair accessible.
The hotel lobby has a reasonably accessible restroom for an average width manual wheelchair but the restroom and stall are not ADA compliant, and you cannot turn 360 degrees in the stall.
Hurray, the front desk called at 8am our first morning and said the elevator was working. Our stay became significantly better.
I also visited room #312 which was larger with 2 queen beds with space between the beds for any size wheelchair. It had a larger accessible bathroom which was squarish and any size wheelchair can easily fit into the bathroom and turn around. There is a beautiful “old” tub shower but it’s not accessible. There was no roll-in shower. For me, I’ll ask for room 312 next time over room 209, although if the elevator doesn’t work there is no access to the 3rd floor.
NOTE: As usual, I called the front desk the day before I arrived to confirm my room 209 and let them again know I was in a wheelchair. The elevator was not working at that time but they failed to tell me. So if you’re planning to stay at the Copper Queen, you may want to call and check whether the elevator is working. It’s my belief that the Copper Queen is the nicest hotel in town and the most wheelchair accessible, but it’s also a challenge. On the WJAR index the Copper Queen gets a 2, it’s accessible but a challenge.
