Text: Per Erling Bakke

Adapted and translated into English by Ivar Teigum

Otta Hotel in 1898. 

Otta Hotel was completed in 1896 to meet the expected traffic from the railway. The founder, Sigurd Blekastad, just got to see his new establishment before he died in the summer of 1897.

After his death, farm and hotel were run by his widow Karoline with the help of two daughters and four servants. Two sons and a servant took care of the shop.

In 1905, the hotel had 15 beds. The owner could then boast that the hotel was the oldest and best at Otta:

First class cuisine, first class beds, shower bath for the guests only, local and national telephone service.

Sigurd Blekastad(1848-1897), the founder of the hotel.

With the railway service expanded to Dombås in 1913, the growth at Otta subsided until the soapstone industry created a boom during the 1 World War.

Then the Otta Hotel building was taken over as an administrative centre by Østlandske Stenexport, and with a flat for the director of the company.

In 1913 the room capacity had been expanded to 18.

The building had two stories and an attic, on the ground floor three guestrooms, on the first floor 15 rooms, and in the attic two rooms used by servants during summer.

Otta Hotel in 1915. 

In the 1920s and 1930s the building accomodated the local branch of a regional bank and a shop, until 1947 when a printing house moved in. Today Otta Aktiv, a fitness centre, has taken over the building.