Rosario Resort & Spa was originally the mansion of exhausted shipbuilder Robert Moran. When his business ruined his health he bought 7,000 acres on Orcas Island and crafted a retirement mansion.
We failed to go inside! But the rumor is that there’s a two-story pipe organ, two mezzanine libraries, and a Tiffany chandelier. Supposedly Moran had no pictures on the walls–you’re supposed to look out the windows.
Moran split off thousands of acres to become a state park (maybe he got the idea from hanging out with John Muir back in the day), but the mansion was sold to a manufacturer from San Francisco (legend says his wife still hangs around in ghost form) and then an oil man from Texas then a business man from Seattle who turned it into a resort overlooking Rosario Point.
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