History of The Greenbrier
The story of The Greenbrier begins at the spring of Sulphur water that remains at the center of the resort property. It issues forth below the green dome of the white-columned Springhouse that has been the symbol of The Greenbrier for generations. Since 1778, people have come to “take the waters” to restore their health. In its first 125 years the resort was known by the name White Sulphur Springs.
Due to the isolated location, development proceeded slowly until a stagecoach route was carved through the forested mountains. By the 1830s, the resort attained its first period of prominence as planters, judges, lawyers, and merchants from the southern states congregated in the mountain village.
The resort originally consisted of rows of cottages, many of which still stand today, including Paradise Row, Alabama Row and Baltimore Row. The cottages of Baltimore Row were designed by John H.B. Latrobe, a Baltimore lawyer and son of famed architect Benjamin Latrobe. His style extended later to the Tansas, South Carolina and Florida Rows and became the basis for the design of the new Copeland Hill cottages.
The Civil War Era
By the eve of the Civil War, White Sulphur Springs’ reputation as the most fashionable social resort in the Southern states was well-established. This led to the 1858 addition of the first large hotel on the property, officially named the Grand Central Hotel, but known to long-time patrons as The Old White Hotel. The hotel boasted three stories of porches to catch summer breezes and ample space to promenade displaying one's fashionable attire.
The resort was closed during the Civil War. Over the course of the conflict, both sides occupied the grounds, using the hotel either as a military headquarters or hospital. Shortly after the war’s end, the resort reopened. Its prospects were incalculably enhanced with the arrival of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway. For the next 100 years, White Sulphur Springs was one of the classic railroad resorts of the country. Trains brought visitors from New York, Washington, Richmond, Atlanta, Louisville, Chicago, Cleveland and scores of points in between.
In 1910, the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway purchased the historic resort property and embarked upon a major expansion. By 1913, additions included The Greenbrier Hotel (the central portion of today's hotel), a new mineral bath department (the building that includes the Indoor Pool) and an 18-hole golf course (now called The Old White Course) designed by the most prominent golf architect of the day, Charles Blair MacDonald. In 1914, for the first time, the resort was opened year round. That year, President and Mrs. Woodrow Wilson spent their Easter holiday at The Greenbrier, and Joseph and Rose Kennedy traveled from Boston for their October honeymoon.
The Roaring 20's
Business was booming in the 1920s. The Greenbrier took its place on the fashionable society resort circuit that stretched from Palm Beach, Florida to Newport, Rhode Island. The Old White Hotel, a summer-only hotel, was torn down in 1922. This led to substantial expansion and rebuilding of The Greenbrier Hotel at the end of the decade. Cleveland architect Philip Small redesigned the hotel’s Main Entrance, and added both the Virginia Wing to the south (with porch lines echoing Mount Vernon) and what is now the signature North Entrance façade. Mr. Small was mixing elements from the resort’s Southern historical roots and motifs from The Old White Hotel.
World War II Era
During World War II, The Greenbrier was put to two quite different uses by the U.S. government. The State Department leased the hotel for seven months after the U.S. entry into the war and used it to intern German, Japanese and Italian diplomatic personnel, along with their families, until they could be exchanged for American diplomats stranded overseas. In September 1942, the U.S. Army purchased The Greenbrier, converted it into a two thousand-bed hospital and renamed it Ashford General Hospital. For four years the resort served as a surgical and rehabilitation center, and 24,148 soldiers were admitted and treated at the facility.
The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway reacquired the property in 1946 and initiated a comprehensive redecoration of the hotel interior by noted decorator Dorothy Draper. The origin of The Greenbrier's distinctive décor goes back to Draper's legendary post-war redecoration, when she was at the peak of her fame. Architectural Digest described Draper as “a true artist of the design world [who] became a celebrity in the modern sense of the word, virtually creating the image of the decorator in the popular mind.” When she retired in the 1960s, Carleton Varney took over her firm. He has decorated The Greenbrier for over three decades.
When The Greenbrier reopened in 1948, after the war, Sam Snead returned to where his career had begun in 1936. For many years, he was the Golf Pro Emeritus, until his death in May 2002. More than any other individual, Snead established The Greenbrier's reputation as one of the foremost golf resorts in the world.
1950's to Current
In the late 1950s, the U.S. government approached The Greenbrier for assistance once again. It wished to construct an Emergency Relocation Center-that is, a bunker or bomb shelter-for use by the U.S. Congress in case of war. Between 1959 and 1962, the classified, underground facility was built in conjunction with an above ground addition to the hotel, the West Virginia Wing. For 30 years, the owners of The Greenbrier—the railroad that eventually evolved into today's CSX Corporation-and the federal government agreed that, in the case of an international crisis, the entire resort property would be conveyed to government use, specifically as the emergency location for the legislative branch of Congress.
Above ground, life proceeded normally as The Greenbrier upgraded the historic cottages, rebuilt The Greenbrier Course under the direction of Jack Nicklaus, added extensive conference facilities, hosted international golf matches (the Ryder Cup and the Solheim Cup) and, in short, did all the things necessary to stay competitive in the increasingly crowded luxury resort market of the 1980s and 1990s. But, because of the agreement with the government, most of the property was closed to residential development until the final closing down of the underground bunker in 1995.
