{"id":3366,"date":"2016-01-13T18:45:36","date_gmt":"2016-01-13T18:45:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/?p=3366"},"modified":"2016-02-12T01:47:06","modified_gmt":"2016-02-12T01:47:06","slug":"wheelings-stratford-springs-hotel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wheelings-stratford-springs-hotel","title":{"rendered":"Like a Comet in the Sky"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Wheeling\u2019s Stratford Springs Hotel<\/h2>\n
\n
Once upon a time in Woodsdale, just off Edgwood Street<\/a>, stood a grand hotel.<\/p>\n
$\"Stratford$
Woodsdale view with Stratford Springs Hotel in the background. OCPL Archives.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Nearly a block long and composed entirely of wood, this playground of the elite offered 84 guest bedrooms, a spacious lobby, numerous elegant dining rooms, sweeping verandas, a billiard parlor, bowling alley, tennis courts, a writing room, three sun parlors and a grand ballroom where formal dances, concerts, and elaborate costume balls were held. The \u201cGem of Wheeling,\u201d said the Wheeling News Register<\/em>, \u201cwas beautifully located near the foot of Woodlawn hill and nestled in a perfect bower of trees and shrubbery that made it a beautifully cool and sequestered spot during the sultry days of mid-summer.\u201d<\/p>\n
This was no fairy tale, this was the Wheeling\u2019s nationally famous Stratford Springs Hotel. But, like a comet streaking across the midnight sky, the Stratford\u2019s existence was brilliant and brief.<\/p>\n
$\"Undated$ <\/a>
Undated photograph of the Stratford Hotel. Courtesy Thad Podratsky.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Healing Powers<\/h2>\n
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Opened on May 1, 1907, she was built as a spa resort near a natural \u201csaline-chalybeate\u201d spring said to have\u00a0\u201ccertain healing powers,\u201d powers to\u00a0cure everything from headaches, indigestion, and rheumatism to \u201ckidney trouble\u201d and even \u201cbad teeth.\u201d In addition to being used to make carbonated beverages, the pure spring water was bottled and sold as an \u201cinvigorating and health giving\u201d tonic.\u00a0Stratford Springs Bottling Company was thus an outgrowth of the hotel.<\/p>\n
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This slideshow requires JavaScript.<\/p>
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$\"A$
A rare image of the spring from \u201cSouvenir of the Eighteenth Annual Session of the United Commercial Travelers of America,\u201d 1914.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Vacationing at resorts built around mineral springs, such as Saratoga Springs in New York, was quite fashionable in that era, and the Stratford\u2019s reputation grew. The mineral spring drew visitors from all over the country to Wheeling, but when the novelty peaked, Wheeling\u2019s rich and famous descended on the Stratford. As the News-Register<\/em> reported in a retrospective piece, \u201cmany of the well-to-do Wheelingites found that the hotel, which was located near their National Road mansions, could provide a better life in the winter as they closed their own homes and moved into the elegant quarters of the Stratford Springs.\u201d<\/p>\n
The hotel was full of such notables \u2014 all 84 guest rooms were occupied by 125 people, with names like Stifel, Paxton, and Hazlett \u2014 who were\u00a0\u201cwintering\u201d away from their mansions during a record cold spell, when disaster struck.<\/p>\n
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A Midnight Fire and a Roaring Furnace<\/h2>\n
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$\"Stratford$ <\/p>\n
Near midnight on Sunday, January 13, 1918, faulty electrical wiring (\u201ccrossed wires,\u201d as the News-Register<\/em> called it), or perhaps an overheated motor, sparked a fire in the Stratford\u2019s boiler room in the northeast corner of the structure. Fortunately for the mostly sleeping guests, the fire\u2019s spread was inhibited by a strong westward blowing, winter wind, affording the guests time to escape. Many fled the burning hotel \u201cscantily clad\u201d in various states of undress, in robes or in pajamas, some with only bed blankets wrapped around them in haste, and many with no shoes. Local residents helped, inviting survivors into their homes for warmth and tea, and providing hot coffee for the firemen.<\/p>\n
$\"Front$ <\/a>
Front page image from the Wheeling New Register, January 14, 1918.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Still transitioning from the horse drawn steam pumps<\/a>, the Wheeling firefighters arrived, only to find no nearby fire plugs. The water pressure was inadequate to douse the flames and the hose water froze into a massive sheet of ice on the steps and steep grade in front of the hotel. With the guests safe and accounted for, the firemen and some local residents went to work trying to salvage the hotel\u2019s fine furniture, pushing grand pianos, couches, a Victrola, rolled up rugs, and huge mirrors out the door. All \u201cslid down the hill toboggan fashion to the lawn below,\u201d while some continued to slide on the ice sheet all the way to Edgwood Street.<\/p>\n
The all-wood structure was soon a \u201croaring furnace,\u201d throwing heat too intense for anyone to be near. The glow of the flames could be seen all the way to downtown Wheeling.<\/p>\n
$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n
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A \u201cMonster Comet\u201d Crossed the Sky<\/h2>\n
\n
Newspaper accounts include reports of a \u201ca monster comet\u201d that was seen streaking across the midnight sky even as the Stratford burned. Said to be \u201cunusually luminous\u201d with a long tail, many of the witnesses thought the comet was a reflection of the fire in the smoke and mist filled sky.<\/p>\n
By morning the Stratford Springs Hotel was a smoldering ruin. Two brick chimneys and an iron beam jutted oddly from the ashes. The hotel\u2019s cash register and safe stood on the sprawling lawn surrounded by piles of rescued furniture.<\/p>\n
Just ten years after it opened, the grand hotel was gone.<\/p>\n
The spring house, where the water and carbonated beverages were made by the\u00a0Stratford Magnesia Springs Co., survived the fire and continued to bottle product for several years.<\/p>\n

$\"Thad$ <\/a>
Thad Podtratsky collection. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>

$\"Thad$ <\/a>
Thad Podtratsky collection. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>

$\"Road$ <\/a>
Road sign near original site. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n
\n
Sources<\/strong><\/p>\n
Callin\u2019s Wheeling City Directory, 1913, 1914.
\n<\/em>\u201cSouvenir: Eighteenth Annual Session of the United Commercial Travelers of America,\u201d 1914.
\nWheeling Intelligencer<\/em>, January 14 and 15, 1918.
\nWheeling News-Register<\/em>, January 14 and 15, 1918, 1938.<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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