Tygart Hotel: Elkins, WV

Returning from an afternoon walk around downtown Elkins, WV–well-covered in 20 minutes–I was surprised to find at the foot of the Tygart Hotel’s front steps no less than six uniformed hotel staff hustling a small avalanche of guest luggage into repurposed laundry carts. A tour bus had just deposited what looked like a full load of travelers and it turns out that the Tygart is a full-service operation.

There was something charming about this tumult taking place on the otherwise sleepy main street of Elkins. Having spent recent West Virginia trips touring Grafton and Mullens–each with their own abandoned landmark hotel–it was also hopeful. Word at the front desk was that my Sunday stay was part of a full house.

Like Grafton and Mullens, Elkins was a railroad boomtown. It’s a common story in West Virginia. The country needs coal for power and heat; coal needs trains; trains need shops, yards, and administration. Thus, a town is born. The story continues: coal demand plummets; highways are built; work is automated; trains stop running, or run way less. The town collapses. The pivot is usually around 1960.

The Tygart made it as a hotel until sometime in the 1970s, when it was converted to apartments. It steadily decayed through the ensuing years, and, by 2017 when it was purchased by a redeveloper for $700,000, it had become “horrible housing.” That’s according to Dave Clark of Woodlands Development and Lending, the nonprofit that led the hotel effort. Seven years and $18 million later, the Tygart reopened in grand restored form, swanky lobby bar and all.

It’s a nice place–and would be in any city. Travel across the rural US interior and the truth is you’re going to wind up in a lot of Hampton Inns etc., probably located in the hotel equivalent of an office park somewhere far from the heart of whatever town you’re in. Every one of those rooms is going to look extremely the same. Every continental breakfast nook will be serving the same waffles and flappy turkey sausage.

Here, however, a traveler can marvel at restored pressed tin ceilings more than a century old. Or they can look at local art displays, one on each floor with each commenting on a different West Virginia ghost town. If it’s not on a Sunday (#$@!), one can dine in a pretty cool looking reservations-suggested restaurant called the Oxley House. And they can do all of this for roughly the same amount of money.

The Tygart Hotel is just one part of Elkins’ big revitalization plans, but the town is in relatively good shape already. Downtown, while sleepy, is mostly occupied. I found a solid bar, Jasper’s, a block over from the hotel that was bustling on a Sunday evening. A restaurant across the street seemed to be doing brisk business as well. And, of course, there’s a scenic railroad here too. Consider the surrounding mountains and public lands–and relative proximity to Washington, DC, and Baltimore–and you start to imagine an Appalachian Durango. Hopefully, one people can still afford.

-- michael byrne

• west virginia
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• elkins
• tygart hotel