The Hill Top House Hotel is located in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. It occupies a spectacular location, with panoramic views of the Potomac and Shenandoah valleys. The original hotel was built in 1888 and operated until shortly before his death by Thomas S. Lovett, an African-American graduate of Harpers Ferry's Storer College, at the time the only college in the state of West Virginia that accepted students of all skin colors. His policy at his hotel was to do the same, to accept guests of all skin colors. The hotel, the college, John Brown's Fort, and the Island Park Resort and Amusement Park combined to make Harpers Ferry a center of African-American tourism and a frequent excursion from Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
With two structures lost to fire, but insured and rebuilt, the hotel operated until 2007, when it had deteriorated beyond reasonable repair. The rebuilding and reopening of the hotel, on a more luxurious scale, became a local issue. As of June 2023, its reopening in 2025 is predicted.
The original hotel (1888–2007)
An African-American-owned hotel
See also: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia § African-American tourismThe hotel was opened in 1890 by owner Thomas S. Lovett, an African-American entrepreneur who had graduated from Storer College, at the time the only college in West Virginia that would accept students of any skin color.
As one of the few larger hotels in the U.S. owned by African Americans, located in a place of historic significance, where the end of slavery began, and a short train ride from Washington, D.C., the hotel experienced phenomenal success serving a White clientele.
Three iterations of the hotel
The original frame structure, described as "the one real new building" put up in Harpers Ferry since the Civil War, was destroyed by fire in 1912,
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It was replaced by a larger partly stone building. This hotel, described in the report as "well known", was destroyed by electrical fire in June 1919.
Many pieces of the 1912 structure were used in the rebuilding. In 2006 it was still an active favorite of travellers. However, the condition of the hotel had deteriorated, to the point that it was forced to close in 2007.
Guests at the hotel
The hotel has been a part of the Harpers Ferry landscape and contributed to the area's allure and history. Luminaries who visited the Hill Top House Hotel include former Presidents Woodrow Wilson, Calvin Coolidge and Bill Clinton, as well as Vice President Al Gore, Mark Twain, Carl Sandburg, Alexander Graham Bell, Pearl S. Buck, W. E. B. Du Bois, and many others.
The new hotel (Indefinitely Delayed)
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The condition of the hotel made its redevelopment using the existing buildings impossible, and they were taken down, saving and reusing the stones and tile from the original building. Rather than just a hotel, the project has become a conference center. It occupies the same footprint as the original hotel. The cost of the project has grown to $150,000,000. A cooking school is planned, with dining overseen by James Beard. As of 2023, it is projected to open in 2025.
According to Karen Schaufeld, “We’ll be putting it back up in approximately the same footprint of the original hotel and the dance pavilion that were there in 1914." As much as could be saved was preserved from the hotel site, which Karen Schaufeld said will be used in the new structure.
Due to cost overruns, an inability to secure additional funding, and a lackluster response to requests for taxpayer subsidization of the project, the project has been indefinitely postponed.
A fourth redesign of the project is being developed which seeks to design an economically cognizant alternative to the previous designs.
The reconstruction of the hotel became a divisive local issue and came to the attention of the West Virginia Legislature. Some locals oppose the hotel, conference center, and cooking school as overdevelopment for such a small village as is Harpers Ferry.
See also
- Island Park Resort and Amusement Park
- John Brown's Fort
- John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry
- Niagara Movement
References
- Pearson, Steve (April 2021). "A Vision for Hill Top House". WV Independent Observer.
- "The Week in Society," The Washington Bee, August 24, 1895, p. 5; "Harpers Ferry," The Washington Bee, June 16, 1888, p. 1; "Mr. Lovett has built a hill-top house in a lovely place. It is filled in the Summer time, while he has music for the boarders. ...it is one of the loveliest places that can be found on the B. & O. Railroad, and the white people go their from all parts." Drumgoold, Kate. A Slave Girl's Story. Being an Autobiography of Kate Drumgoold. Brooklyn, 1898, p. 56. https://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/drumgoold/menu.html
- "Traces of Travel". Brooklyn Times Union. Brooklyn, New York. Oct 26, 1919. p. 5.
- "Hilltop House Burned. Defective Wire Blamed for Ruin of Harpers Ferry Resort". The Washington Post. June 11, 1919.
- Sottili, Carol (23 May 1999). "O, Say Can You C&O?". The Washington Post. p. E01 – via ProQuest.
- "Salvaged items tell the history of the new Hill Top House Hotel in Harpers Ferry". The Journal. Martinsburg, West Virginia. Apr 22, 2022.
- ^ Chwalik, Marsha (June 12, 2022). "Hill Top House project moving forward in Harpers Ferry". WVMetroNews (WVRC (AM)).
- Jamison, Peter (27 Feb 2020). "Harpers Ferry hotel project gets jump-start". The Washington Post. p. B4.
- Jamison, Peter (Feb 17, 2020). "Death threats and illegal voting: The war over a luxury resort in Harpers Ferry". The Washington Post. ProQuest 2355775871.