MORGANTOWN, W. Va. – Hotel Morgan, under renovation for more than a year, will make its public debut later this month.
Details of the unveiling are still being finalized, its owner said.
“We are currently planning a Grand Opening celebration for March to give our team a chance to operate the hotel first,” said Walker Thrash, a partner in the Thrash Group of Hattiesburg, Miss., which purchased the High Street hotel in 2019 for $2.5 million. “Obviously, we’re not sure exactly what that will look like in the current environment, but we do intend to celebrate the grand reopening of Hotel Morgan.”
The eight-floor hotel –- built in 1925 — has a two-story ballroom that can accommodate more than 200 people, 81 refinished guest rooms and two suites, a conference room, a board room, rooftop event space and a state-of-the-art fitness center. It will also have a cocktail bar and restaurant called Anvil + Ax, described as a combination European coffee shop meets refined cocktail bar. It will be open at 6:30 a.m. daily and service dinner up until 10 p.m., also daily.
Thrash said its design team researched the Hotel Morgan’s history to try and keep the building’s original character.
“As guests cross over the ‘Hotel Morgan’ mosaic tile floor entrance, they immediately walk through the new Anvil + Ax bar to their left and a complimentary lounge to their right,” Thrash said in an email. “The historic charm of the hotel is displayed throughout the common spaces, from tasseled key fobs behind the front desk, to historic marble main stairs leading to the mezzanine level. But most impressive is the fully restored lower ballroom.”
Thrash said they’ve only just started marketing the venue, but regional response to Hotel Morgan’s re-opening has been strong. When the hotel – the company’s first holding in West Virginia – is fully operational, it will employ 60 full and part-time workers.
“It seems like every person we talk to has some personal connection and memory inside the hotel,” Thrash said.
The hotel is named for Morgantown founder Zackquill Morgan. During its nearly 100 years of existence, the hotel has hosted Eleanor Roosevelt in 1934; President Harry Truman in 1954; and was a campaign stop for John Kennedy in 1960.
TWEET @41SUZANNE
