WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, WV (WOAY) – The former White Sulphur Springs High School opened its doors for the first time in 1912.
After a successful 56 years of operation, the school had to close down in 1968 due to not having enough space to accommodate the student influx. However, it would continue to function as a school and a community center for a few more decades following that.
In 2019, it was announced that the school had been bought by the Disability Opportunity Fund (DOF). A year later towards the end of 2020, construction began to turn the building into The Schoolhouse Hotel.
“This was a journey, and this was the moment for us to stop and appreciate a lot of hard work over the last two and a half years to get to this point,” President and CEO of DOF and owner of The Schoolhouse Hotel, Charlie Hammerman says.
On Friday, June 17, 2022, the new Schoolhouse Hotel held an official re-dedication ceremony.
It’s a modern boutique hotel that offers complete handicapped accessibility. It also caters to lower-income families. While it has only been open for about 6 weeks, it’s now fully ready to provide its guests with the revolutionary new benefits that it’s bringing to the community.
Senator Shelley Moore Capito was a special guest at the dedication ceremony. She along with other dignitaries delivered remarks on the hotel’s progress and took a tour of the transformed schoolhouse.
Capito first visited the hotel in June of last year when it was still very much a work in progress. This year, Capito said such developments have truly paid off.
“When I was here a year ago Charlie was telling me his vision for The Schoolhouse hotel, and you could see it, but now that it’s complete, the furnishings and all of the amenities, the rooftop bar, the Varsity Club Restaurant, the gym that’s just been transformed, it’s amazing to me,” Capito says.
The hotel’s conception began after the devasting floods that hit White Sulphur back in 2016.
Several of the people at Friday’s ceremony were former students and alumni of White Sulphur Springs High School, a schoolhouse that is now over 100 years old.
