The Greenbrier

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View of outside from inside

The Greenbrier is a five star resort located at 37.7854N / 80.3083W in the town of White Sulphur Springs in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. For most of its history it was owned by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway. It is now a wholly owned subsidiary of CSX Corporation. Every U.S. President since Dwight Eisenhower has stayed at the resort's Presidential Suite.

1 History
2 Secret Emergency Relocation Center
3 Gambling
4 Golf
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] History

A spring of sulphur water is 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. Beginning in 1778, people came to "take the waters" to restore their health. For the first one hundred and twenty-five years the resort was known by the name White Sulphur Springs.

In 1858, a hotel was built on the property. This original hotel, the Old White, burned down after the addition of the current building. In 1910, the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway purchased the resort property, building additional amenities and the Greenbrier Hotel in 1913. During World War II, the Greenbrier served as an army hospital and as the relocation center for some of the Axis diplomats still within the United States. After the war ended, C&O bought back the property from the government and reopened the resort. The hotel was redecorated by Dorothy Draper and its reopening was a social event of the season. In recent history the resort has hosted several presidents and vice-presidents, foreign dignataries, and the Iranian Hostage Crisis hostages.

[edit] Secret Emergency Relocation Center

In the late 1950s the U.S. government approached The Greenbrier for assistance in the creation of an Emergency Relocation Center to house Congress in the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust. The classified, underground facility was built in conjunction with an above ground addition to the hotel, the West Virginia Wing, between 1959 and 1962. For thirty years the owners of The Greenbrier maintained an agreement with the federal government that, in the case of an international crisis, the entire resort property would be conveyed to government use, specifically as the emergency location of the legislative branch. The underground facility contained a dormitory, kitchen, hospital and even a broadcast center for members of Congress. The broadcast center had backdrops to make it appear members of Congress were actually broadcasting from Washington DC by changing the backdrop for each season. The convention center, which was used by the Greenbrier guests for business meetings, was actually a disguised workstation area for members of Congress complete with hidden blast doors. The center was maintained by workers who were allegedly hotel audio visual employees and operated under a dummy company named Forsythe Associates. Many of these same workers are employed by the hotel today and until recently gave guided tours. The complex is still maintained today by the Greenbrier and the facility remains much like it was in 1992 when the secret was revealed. While almost all of the furnishings were removed following the decommissioning of the bunker, furnishings close to what would have been in it at the time have been placed back in to approximate what the bunker looked like while it was still in operation. Two of the original bunks in the dormitories remain, however.

AT&T provided phone service for both The Greenbrier Hotel and the Bunker. All calls placed from the bunker were routed through the hotel's switchboard to make it appear as if they originated from the hotel itself. The communications center in the bunker today contains representatives of three generations of telephone technology used.

The bunker's existence was not acknowledged until The Washington Post revealed it in a 1992 story; immediately after the Post story, the government decommissioned the bunker.

Recently, this facility was renovated and is also used as a data storage facility for the private sector. It is once again featured as an attraction in which visitors can tour the now declassified facilities.

This bit of trivia was the subject of a $1,000,000 question on the celebrity edition of the game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Although comedian Norm MacDonald was somewhat sure that he knew that Greenbrier was the resort that served as an emergency relocation center, he decided to walk away with $500,000.

[edit] Gambling

CSX has been lobbying the West Virginia Legislature for years to allow casino gambling at The Greenbrier, arguing that gaming would dramatically increase occupancy of the resort during the winter off-season. Under the plan, the bunker would be converted into a high-end casino, and only registered guests would be allowed to gamble there. The legislature has passed legislation that would allow gambling at the resort if approved by Greenbrier County voters. In 2000, the voters of the county turned down this option.

[edit] Golf

The resort also has a significant place in golf history. Golf legend Sam Snead was the resort's official pro for many years. Also, in 1979, The Greenbrier was the site of the first Ryder Cup contested under the current format of United States against Europe. More recently, The Greenbrier hosted the 1994 Solheim Cup, the women's equivalent to the Ryder Cup.