The Greenbrier Hotel
Under Massive Renovation 🙂
The majority of my trips to West Virginia have always been outdoor focused, so visiting the Greenbrier was a big exception! If you’ve seen most of my other pages you’ve probably figured I’ve learned to suffer and I’m not one for fancy places. But as it turns out, the Greenbrier once had a big secret, that only a handful of government employees knew about. All of this is now declassified, but the story and experience made this one of my most interesting trips to West Virginia!
Before I get into what makes this place special, I’ll start with a quick history lesson. The hotel is a huge complex that was originally built in 1778. Of course its had a lot of changes since then, and the current building was built in 1910. Just walking around the hotel is pretty impressive. The massive building is built on an incredibly large piece of land that spans 17 square miles (45 square kilometers). This size is actually 20 times larger than the area of Monaco to put some things into perspective!
The Greenbrier is much more than just a luxury hotel. It actually offers lots of activities, their website actually boats 55 to be exact! If you figured one of these is a massive golf course then you’re absolutely right. In addition there is a bowling alley, several swimming pools, and even a small casino. I was surprised to find out that there are dozens of cottages available for rent as well, some of them are so large they have up to seven bedrooms. The photo above was from the main building where I first entered the lobby. Below you can see one of the elegant ballrooms.
I likely only explored a small percentage of the hotel. These photos show some interior shots of an indoor swimming pool and a spa. Since I was just visiting I didn’t actually get to stay in a room or swim in their pools. I regret not at least having dinner or lunch here. The resort has over 20 restaurants and lounges, so I have no excuse for not spending time at one of them. Luckily this is a place that’s just hours from my house so I’m sure to revisit one day.
This picture shows one of my favorite places in the Greenbrier. As someone who prefers modern decor, I found that I really liked the old fashioned style here. I imagine the inside hallways and set up doesn’t look too different now than it did 100 years ago.
These two photos above and below are the hotel’s big secret. These rooms aren’t officially part of the hotel, and were hidden away in the guts of the Greenbrier so that only a handful of people supposedly knew about. I’m not sure how such an involved construction project could ever reliably be kept secret by the locals! During the 1950s when the Greenbrier hotel expanding its walls anyway, the US government created an agreement to own their own secret bunker within the hotel. This secret was kept for decades, and was known as Project Greek Island.
The goal of the bunker was a back up location to run the government in case of a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. If Washington DC ever suffered a nuclear strike, the US government planned to move all their essential personnel to the Greenbrier and operate from the secret bunker. The room above is where the legislative branches would have operated from. Notice one room has a capacity for 474, (House of Representatives) and the room on the right has a capacity of 124, (US Senate). Below is a photo of one of the blast doors that would have protected the government if the Soviets also decided to attack the Greenbrier.
