Suspicious Fire Destroys Historic WV Hotel
By Rick Steelhammer
Source The Charleston Gazette-Mail, W.Va.
July 21 -- The last of nine hotels that once housed visitors from across the region seeking to escape summer heat and imbibe the curative spring waters in Webster Springs in the early 1900s burned to the ground early Friday.
The vacant, 114-year-old Oakland Hotel was engulfed in flames when the Webster Springs Volunteer Fire Department arrived at the scene shortly after being dispatched at 12:14 a.m. The VFD had responded to a reported structure fire.
According to a press release from the department, crews and equipment from seven other VFDs in Webster and Nicholas counties aided Webster Springs firefighters in battling the blaze and providing backup.
The fire produced no injuries.
Photos supplied by the fire department show flames sweeping through the four-story Victorian style wooden structure from the covered porch on its ground floor to the top of its gabled roof and high into the night sky above it. Despite firefighters’ efforts, the building burned to the ground.
At least three nearby structures and three vehicles sustained heat damage from the fire, “which is considered suspicious at this time,” according to the release. The State Fire Marshal’s office was contacted to investigate the cause of the fire.
The Oakland Hotel was opened by owner Eva Bennett on July 1, 1904, according to “The Webster Springs Hotel and Historic Springs, WV: The Summer Resort Center” by Mark Romano. The Oakland was the town’s second-largest lodging venue next to the 176-room Webster Springs Hotel — larger than The Greenbrier at the time — which was destroyed by fire on the same date 93 years ago.
The Oakland was located immediately behind the West Virginia Hotel.
During the late-1890s and early 1900s, visitors arrived by rail from across the eastern United States to “take the waters” from Webster Springs’ four mineral springs, fish for trout in the nearby Elk River and relax in the shade provided by the walls of the narrow valley encompassing the quiet mountain community.
In 1929, four years after fire claimed the Webster Springs Hotel, the railroad serving the town discontinued rail service, forcing guests to travel by car on narrow dirt roads to reach the resort town. Business waned, and gradually seven of the eight remaining hotels that served Webster Spring during its tourism heyday were converted to other uses, torn down, or burned.
The Oakland Hotel was sold to a new owner in 1936 and later was converted to use as an apartment building, a role it played into the first decade of the 21st century. The news release described it as “abandoned” at the time of the fire.
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