The Great Depression

The Great Depression forms a crucial but largely offstage chapter in the Overlook Hotel's long history of financial failure and scandal. The hotel, built between 1907 and 1909 by Robert Townley Watson, proved too costly for its original owner and was sold multiple times before the Depression. It stood vacant from 1936 until the end of World War II, a period that included the Depression years, when it was purchased and completely renovated by millionaire Horace Derwent. This decade of closure left the hotel in a state of decay, with its grand ambitions reduced to a relic awaiting revival.

The Depression's Impact on the Overlook's History

The Depression deepened the Overlook's pattern of financial loss. The hotel had changed hands in 1915, 1922, 1929, and 1936, with each successive owner failing to make it profitable. The Depression-era vacancy meant that the hotel's records from 1937 to 1945 are missing from the basement archives, creating a gap in the historical record that Jack Torrance later discovers. This period of abandonment allowed the hotel to accumulate the physical decay and mysterious artifacts—such as a bloody strip of sheeting, a dismembered teddy bear, and an unfinished love letter dated June 27, 1934—that Jack finds among the old invoices and receipts. The Depression also contributed to the hotel's reputation for scandal, as Watson notes that many people died there during its early years, often from heart attacks or strokes, and that the hotel's management was not always as effective as Ullman at keeping such incidents out of the papers.

The Depression and Horace Derwent's Acquisition

Horace Derwent, who had built his fortune through a series of shrewd investments during the Depression, purchased the Overlook after World War II. Derwent's wealth had been accumulated by buying controlling interests in bankrupt companies at abysmally low prices during the Depression, when his holdings were worth little more than a three-year-old Chevrolet. He funneled over a million dollars into the Overlook, transforming it into a showplace, but even his Midas touch could not make the hotel profitable. The Depression thus set the stage for Derwent's eventual failure with the Overlook, as the hotel's history of financial loss continued despite his lavish renovations. The Depression-era closure also meant that the hotel's archives contain no records from that period, leaving a void that Jack Torrance finds both frustrating and fascinating as he sifts through the basement papers.

The Depression's Legacy in the Overlook's Archives

The Depression's absence from the Overlook's paper trail is itself a significant detail. Jack discovers that the hotel's records have gaps from 1937 to 1945, periods when the hotel was closed. These gaps mirror the larger pattern of the Overlook's history: periods of operation followed by abandonment, each new owner trying to revive a property that seems cursed by financial failure. The Depression-era closure also allowed the hotel to accumulate the physical decay and mysterious artifacts that Jack later discovers, such as the bloody strip of sheeting and the dismembered teddy bear. These objects, tucked among the invoices and receipts, suggest that the Depression was a time when the hotel's darker history began to accumulate, even if no official records survive. The Depression thus serves as a silent backdrop to the Overlook's tragic trajectory, a period of neglect that allowed the hotel's malevolent presence to fester and grow.