Tuesday, March 6, 2012

America's Resort Since 1778...

There are few places in the world today where you can step back into the age of the elegant resort hotel.

Yes, there are resort hotels around the world, but most of these are modern late 20th and early 21st century creations which bear little or no resemblance to those resort hotels which dotted the shores and mountains of America in the late 19th and early 20th century.

Circa 1914 Advertisement for The Greenbrier from "The History of The Greenbrier"

The Greenbrier, which dates to 1778, is located just inside West Virginia on the border with Virginia.

The current main hotel, designed by British architect Frederick Junius Sterner, was built to replace the earlier "Old White," and opened in 1913. This is not the oldest part of the resort complex, as rooms in Paradise Row, originally called Brick Row, offer cottage rooms which were originally built in the 1820s and have been modernized to keep up with the times.

I first became aware of the resort, when each year, I would receive notices of the annual share holders meetings of, first the Chessie System, and later CSX, the railroads which were the descendants of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, which bought the resort in 1910. But every year, I would pass on the chance to visit the resort.

The North Parlor

When it came time to select a destination for my honeymoon, I wanted to find a place where I would not hear any apologies for anything going wrong during our visit. I wanted a resort which had a long history of taking care of their guests in the finest manner possible. It was at this time that The Greenbrier immediately sprang to mind.

Since that first trip, we have been back three times, once again while still under railroad ownership, and twice under the ownership of West Virginian, Jim Justice.

With the change in ownership have come changes to the resort, including the addition of a new underground shopping, dining and casino area. The dining options at the resort have increased and new life has been breathed into the resort. Aside from the relocation of one restaurant and the conversion of the "Old White" lounge into a steakhouse, most of the changes are quite imperceptible.

There is no doubt we were quite spoiled in our first visit to the resort which lasted for a week and began and ended with a train ride from our home to the train station across the street from the front door of the hotel. We stayed in the Spring Row Cottages and for a good portion of the trip had the resort to ourselves.

Since then we have stayed in the main hotel and limited ourselves to a long weekend in White Sulphur Springs. Our visits have been in November, January and February, and despite the fact that these are not the main season for the resort, we have found that there has been more than enough activities to keep us occupied, from the golf course when the weather permits, to the spa, bowling alley, movie theater, and indoor swimming pool built in 1911 and described in 1914 as "a bathing-pool which might have been the pride of Rome." They also have an off road driving school, falconry, skeet, trap and sporting clays, and the list goes on...

The Cameo Ballroom

During World War II, the resort was used as a military hospital, and when the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad bought it back from the US Government in 1946, they hired Dorothy Draper to redecorate and remodel the hotel. It took her 16 months, 30 miles of carpeting, 45,000 yards of fabric, 15,000 rolls of wallpaper, 34,567 individual decorative and furniture items and 40,000 gallons of paint to complete the job. 

A Room in the Main Hotel Decorated in Typical Dorothy Draper Style

When the resort reopened in 1948, her "Romance and Rhododendrons" themed hotel hosted 300 of the "biggest wigs" C&O Railroad President Robert Young could find. This extraordinary party marked a new era in the resorts history, one which has been maintained by Draper herself, and her successor Carleton Varney to this day.

The Lobby Bar

The Greenbrier is an incredible vacation spot, be it for a long weekend or a week, and one which will always hold a special place in my heart.

The Trellis Lobby

With so much to see and do at The Greenbrier, I cannot do it justice by writing about it in one single blog entry, so this will be the first in a series of entries I will be writing on the resort based on my most recent visit last month. I hope you will return to see what I have to write about the spa, casino and dining options available at The Greenbrier.

More information about The Greenbrier can be found at The Greenbrier

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