Alexandre Gilbert was born in LaRochelle, France on April 16, 1843. As a young man he served seven years in the French Army.  He rose to the rank of sergeant during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71.  One of nine children, he emigrated to Montreal, Quebec after the war.  He left Canada and moved to San Francisco, California in 1872. There, for eight years, he built and operated The Gilbert House Hotel. In 1881 he moved north to Astoria, Oregon.  He operated a saloon and retail liquor business, which had "rooms for single women" on the second floor.  Gilbert befriended many of the sea captains who called upon Astoria.  There were rumors, indeed only mutterings, that he may have played some part in Astoria's Shanghaiing operations, which supplied unwilling sailors to more than a few ocean going skippers.  He sold the liquor business in 1898 and retired with his wife, the former Emma Longol, also from France, to real estate ventures in Seaside, Oregon.  He lived in the summer house, the Gilbert House,  which had begun as a beach cottage built in the 1880's (today's Gilbert Inn "1880's Suite").  Gilbert kept in touch with many of his captain friends over the years.  Often he would entertain them in the house that is now the Gilbert Inn.  For many years one of his prize collections contained pieces of steamship company China his seagoing friends gave him.

In Seaside, Gilbert owned the six hundred lot Hermosa Park Development, and the land where the Seaside City Park and Sunset Hills are now located.  He also owned the Gilbert Block at Broadway and Holladay which he built after the 1912 Seaside fire.  Most of the buildings and houses he constructed in Clatsop County are still standing.  He was the defacto French Consul in the early 1900's and the Mayor of Seaside for one term (1910). He was first to import live French escargot to Oregon.  Some of the snails escaped before Alexandre could offer them at table to his guests.  Their offspring may still be found in Seaside. He made his own wine from imported French grapes and mineral water (several bottles of his homemade wine were still in the cellar of the Gilbert House, now the Gilbert Inn, in 1971).

Alexandre Gilbert died at home in Seaside, Oregon on April 26, 1935.  He is buried in the Gilbert tier at the Abbey View Mausoleum at the Ocean View Cemetery in Warrenton, Oregon.