By William “Skip” Deegans
Two grand American hotels, The Greenbrier and the Mount Washington Hotel, were built, in large measure, with revenue from the coal industry. In 1910, the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O), profitable from hauling West Virginia and Kentucky coal to east coast sea terminals, river ports, and Midwest steel mills, purchased The Greenbrier. At the time of the purchase, the hotel had declined and the C&O made substantial investments to make the resort into what we see today. After sliding into bankruptcy, Jim Justice, a West Virginia coal operator, and his family bought the resort from the railway in 2009.
Similarly, New Hampshire’s Mount Washington Hotel was built by Joseph Stickney who made a fortune as a coal broker in Pennsylvania’s anthracite coal fields. Construction began in 1901 when Stickney brought 250 Italian craftsmen to build his hotel that opened in 1902. Stickney died unexpectedly a year after the hotel was completed. Much like The Greenbrier, the Mount Washington Hotel attracted the rich and famous from throughout the world. It gained particular notoriety in July 1944 when it hosted the Bretton Woods Conference when 730 delegates from many countries convened to establish the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank of Reconstruction (World Bank). U.S. Treasure Secretary Henry Morgenthau, Jr., organized the conference, and the hotel was selected in part because of its climate and in part because they accommodated Jewish guest whereas many resorts would not.
In 2009, Omni Hotels and Resorts (Omni) began managing the Mount Washington Hotel for CNL Lifestyle at which time the resort underwent a $90 million expansion and renovation. Omni purchased the hotel in 2015. In 2021, 69 rooms were added. This year, Omni announced an additional multimillion dollar renovation. In 1985, the hotel was designated as a National Historical Landmark and is included in the National Trust for Historic Places’ portfolio of historic American hotels.
Photo courtesy of The Library of Congress.
Sources: Boston Globe, Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, Business NH Magazine, The History of The Greenbrier America’s Resort by Robert S. Conte.
