Greene Hotel

Greene Hotel, Cherry and Main Streets, Ronceverte, West Virginia

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Greene Hotel

Having looked at the rather run-down and closed Shanklin’s Grand Theater in Ronceverte in the last post, it is now time to focus our attention on something that has been restored to its former glory. The Greene Hotel is a 14-room hotel was built in 1907 by Mrs. Henrietta Greene. The building is a three-story vernacular wood-framed structure with prominent decks on the second and third floors. Its clientele were African-American travelers on the C&O Railroad to whom it provided both a restaurant and lodging. For those of you who have been following along with our walk through Ronceverte will remember, the station building was not built until 1915, so I am not sure if Mrs. Green was a visionary in opening her hotel 8 years before the depot was built or if her first customers were actually the people building the depot rather than using it as passengers. In more recent times the hotel served African-American entertainers who performed at the nearby Clifford Armory during the era of segregation.

The Greene Hotel is a contributing building to the Ronceverte Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places where it is listed as “Green’s Hotel” without the last “e”.