Monday May 1, 2023
Slept great waking up to still cloudy skies but at least no
rain. We got ourselves situated trying
out a few more smart things! The toilet
washes and dries you if you wish – some of us did a little better trying out
the various buttons…. I heard laughter coming from the bathroom and Ben came
out to get some dry underwear – seems he washed more than he intended!
 |
| Toilet menu |
Jane took a short trip up to the rooftop for
a view. Would have been a perfect place
for breakfast or a snack or drink if weather had been a bit better. We went down to the lobby and picked up our
breakfast sandwiches ordered the night before.
The School House Hotel offers a breakfast buffet on the weekend but
during the week you can order several breakfast sandwiches “to-go”. Both sandwiches we ordered were very good and
the coffee and tea were great.
 |
| Sausage Egg Biscuit and Tea |
 |
| Would be really nice in good weather! |
A little before 10 we headed out towards the
Greenbriar. We parked near the train
depot in a large parking lot and a shuttle bus picked us up and delivered us to
the front door. We found our way to the
starting point for the Bunker Tour. We
had a while to wait so strolled around the lovely lobby and various seating
areas on the main floor. Lovely furniture,
flowers, decorative vases and lamps. The
colors are bright and cheerful.
Eventually our guide came for us – only 3 on our tour. There was a huge Garden Club Convention going
on and there was another tour group set aside for their members. We were lucky to be in a small group – the
other lady with us was from Monterey Mexico.
 |
| One of Numerous Sitting Areas |
 |
| View towards the "Bunker" |
 |
| One of many flower arrangements |
 |
| Photo of Wall closed. |
 |
| Photo of wall open with bunker door showing |
First, we looked out the windows to see what was above
ground - over what is known as ‘the bunker’.
In the 1950’s the Greenbriar was identified as a good location for a safe
location for the US congress to stay in event of a nuclear attack. The plan was top secret and would provide a
location for the government to live and function for up to 60 days. The location of the Greenbriar and it’s
closeness to DC made it a perfect spot. President Eisenhower negotiated the plan with
the president of the Greenbriar and work began on the West Virginia Wing of the
Greenbriar. Convention facilities and
additional hotel rooms for the above ground floors while underneath was the
secret part of the construction – “the bunker”.
When you looked out the windows you could see clearly the above ground
West Virginia wing which now functions as a data storage facility. No electronic items like cell phones,
cameras, etc. are allowed inside as they are avoiding any possibility of
contamination of the data. We began our
tour by locking away our phones and any bags we had in a locker. The Convention room was huge and would have
served as the trade show portion of the public facility. In time of activation it would have been a beehive
of activity with cubicles for congressional staffers etc. Now the more open floor plan of the 1950’s
has the large concrete columns needed to support the heavy concrete structure
and beams are encased and enclose wiring for trade show participants. The walls are decorative and unless you knew
where to look for the special wall that moved aside you would not know of the
huge steel doors that led into the bunker itself. Inside were sleeping facilities for all
members of congress and 1 staffer per member; offices for the leadership;
meeting rooms to facilitate meeting space for both the house of representatives
and the senate. The rooms are now enhanced
with TV screens and are used for conventions.
There was a huge cafeteria and storage space for food to enable feeding
the group for up to 60 days. They needed
to keep the fresh and nonperishable food fresh, so it was used by the
Greenbriar to feed their staff as it rotated through. A very few people knew of the project both
during the construction phase and all the years until it was exposed in the
early 1990’s. Members of congress did
not even know of the facility – only a few members of the leadership and the
president. The one time it was close to
being used was the Cuban Missile Crisis.
There were 3 of the huge blast
doors – the one from the conference room; another one from inside hotel, and one
to enter from the outside – now near the Greenbriar kitchen – it was for bringing
in the items for storage. Also housed in
“the bunker” was all the equipment needed for generating power, water supply,
air handling etc. The facility was
staffed 24/7 with engineers to keep everything in readiness. These engineers were known as the “go-to”
folks to repairing TV’s and other items within the Greenbriar itself. The staff
engineers did perform these functions as a cover for their real job of keeping
“the bunker” ready. All this
infrastructure still functions today keeping the data storage facility working.
In 2009 the Greenbriar was in danger of closing – owned from
the beginning by CSX Railroad – Jim Justis – now Governor of West VA purchased
it – for thought to be $20 million dollars – this included the hotel and the
West VA wing that became the data storage facility it is today. In 2010 they opened a casino in the hotel and
some facilities were upgraded. It is
today a flourishing up-scale hotel with over 700 rooms.
We have few photos since everything was locked up for the
major portion of the tour. When we
completed our tour we looked around the shops and restaurants – ate a sandwich
at a small bistro and headed back to our van parked near the train
station. The station is now a Christmas
Shop but it is an active AmTrack station with one train stop per day.
 |
| Lunch we shared at Greenbriar |
 |
| Train Depot now a Christmas Shop |
We headed back through White Sulphur Springs which is a
small thriving community after what must have been a significant flood event
last year. We hit I 64 and headed
through the mountains and pretty farmland to Lexington VA where we spent an
afternoon and evening catching up with our good friends Steve and Margaret
Cathcart. Margaret and Jane have been
friends since Margaret moved in next door to Jane in the 7th grade
in Kingsport. Ben and Steve have been friends
since high school as well. They have a beautiful new one-floor home with all
the bells and whistles to age in place.
After several hours of non-stop talking we went out to dinner at a
favorite Mexican Restaurant where Ben was recipient of a birthday dessert and
singing! Then lots more catching up and a great night’s
sleep. Wish I had taken some photos of Steve and Margaret. They were doing well.
 |
| Ben Celebrating his Birthday |
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment