In the first decade of the 21st century, the historic resort experienced a decline in patronage. A Washington Post article in May 1992 exposing the classified operation led to the closing of the government facility. For 30 years the resort was one telephone call away from transformation into the site of the legislative branch of the federal government. Construction of the 112,000-square-foot underground facility was concealed by the simultaneous addition of a new hotel wing both were complete by mid-1962. government approached the C&O in 1956 with a proposal to build an ‘‘emergency relocation center’’ at the Greenbrier for the reassembly of Congress in case of nuclear war.
In the 1950s, the resort was known as one of the favorite haunts of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and as the home of golfing great Sam Snead. General Eisenhower vacationed at the resort hospital upon returning from Europe in 1945.Īfter an extensive post-war refurbishing by New York decorator Dorothy Draper, the Greenbrier reopened in April 1948. The hospital specialized in vascular and neurosurgery in four years 24,148 soldiers were admitted. Army took over the resort, renamed it Ashford General Hospital, converted the hotel into a 2000-bed hospital, and used the recreational facilities for rehabilitation. After seven months these ‘‘enemy alien diplomats’’ were exchanged for American diplomats interned overseas. State Department leased the Greenbrier and used it to intern Japanese, German, and Italian diplomats and their dependents who had been stranded in Washington. In the early months of World War II, the U.S. The name ‘‘Greenbrier’’ (after the county, river, and plant) became the preferred name over the 19th century’s ‘‘White Sulphur Springs.’’ The resort prospered in the 1920s both as a society rendezvous and as a meeting place for business owners and executives in the coal, rail, steel, insurance, banking, chemical, and automobile industries, as well as for members of the medical and legal professions. Both projects were completed in 1913, and the resort became a year-round operation. In 1910, the C&O purchased the resort and developed it into a major destination along its main line, building the central section of today’s hotel and adding the first golf course. Its status as a southern mecca was incalculably enhanced by Robert E. Closed during the Civil War, the resort’s survival was ensured by the 1869 arrival of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway. Henry Clay, Martin Van Buren, John Tyler, and many other political figures frequented White Sulphur. In the ensuing antebellum years the resort’s reputation was firmly established as the summer gathering place of wealthy and influential southerners. The area remained remote, however, until made accessible in the 1820s by the James River & Kanawha Turnpike. The Greenbrier, situated on the eastern edge of Greenbrier County in West Virginia, traces its origins to the late 18th century and the health-restoring use of the mineral water from the White Sulphur Spring.