Waldo Hotel

[bsmont]

This is a McNicol Piece from a Clarksburg Hotel. One of the first that I have seen and my first to own. You see more silverplate and glassware from the Waldo. Located on the corner of Pike & 4th. Street in Clarksburg. It was a 150 room Hotel. Quite upscale in its day. Building is still there but not occupied. It has been in the news lately because a Non-Profit now owns the building and their money came from a federal earmark. Our Congressman is being ASKED about it.

[Jackie]

I used to have this one, a little berry dish, I think I sold it for less than $10 about 2 years ago:

[bsmont]

Jackie: How did I miss that one???????

[floralady]

bsmont,
I just looked up the Waldo (nice topmark) and on the surface it seems this Vandalia Foundation is a good thing preserving the past and all. What is the trouble?
Flora

[dmcgrann]

Bill, I actually know someone who stayed at The Waldo about 25 years ago.

He didn't like it.

That's a nice find!

[apPaul]

I have a listing for that hotel in my 1906 HRB but no listing for 1964 or 1970

I was hoping to find a Hotel Red Book ad to post, but no luck.

Nice piece!

[Jackie]

Jackie: How did I miss that one???????

I dunno, maybe you were sleeping that week.

[bsmont]

After the Hotel closed it was changed into small appts. That lasted for awhile. As Flora said the Vandalia Foundation is the Non Profit that now owns the Building. Their plans are to refurbish into upscale appts. The news stories are about the fact that the Person or Persons in charge of the Vandalia Foundation are friends and/or former employees of the Congressman. I believe all of the stories have slowed down any work.
Paul: I found a listing in my 53 HRB. So it closed sometime between 53 and 64. Jackie: I was Asleep or Brain Dead!!!

[dbstoneware]

I found a listing for the 150-room Waldo Hotel in Clarksburg, WV in my 1956, 1959, 1961, and 1963 HRBs. Each listing had a different manager!! The Waldo was NOT listed in my 1968.

[bsmont]

Dick: Thanks, That fits with what I know. Probably shut down sometime in that 1964-65 timeframe. I was not living in Clarksburg until 1969. And as for the different managers I'm sure that shows they were having problems. I know that in the early 70's it had been converted to appts. because a friend lived there for awhile. I will try to find a Post Card to Post. Nice Older All Stone Building.

[bsmont]

Two Auctions with Waldo Connections. A Post Card and a Towel.

http://cgi.ebay.com/WV-CLARKSBURG-WA...QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/Clarksburg-West-...QQcmdZViewItem

[GeraldB]

When I was a kid we went to the big city of Clarksburg for shopping and movies. I think the Waldo included the coffee shop where we stopped for milkshakes.

[dmcgrann]

Hmm. Maybe my friend's stay at the Waldo was earlier than I thought. He was working as a Federal employee and was in Clarksburg for business for a week and his agency put him up at the Waldo.

On another note, I've noticed that in the early 1960's or thereabouts a lot of hotels dropped out of the Hotel Red Book. For example, the 1956 edition has a couple of hotels listed for Richmond, VA that aren't in the 1962 or 1963 editions, even though I know that the hotels in question survived into the 1980's and even through to today.

It appears to me that the hotels that may have become more residential in nature or used as SRO ("single room occupancy") housing dropped out and that membership in the AHA may have become a requirement for listing.

A couple of large hotels that have been discussed in various forums that appear in the 1956 book but were gone by 1962 are the Broadway Central in New York City and the Golden West in San Diego. The Golden West is still in operation and the Broadway Central lasted until it collapsed in the 1970's. In the 1956 book, both are shown, but not as AHA members. Ditto with the many Milner and Earle hotels across the country.

One of the Richmond hotels that dropped out of the HRB is still in business, and though it's primarily a SRO facility, you can still book a room there for the night. A coworker of mine from Phialdelphia did just that on the strength of some sort of online information that made the place sound like a charming bed-and-breakfast type of place, which it is most assuredly not.

I agree with Bill, it is a nice building. There are also a few other buildings in Clarksburg that are real gems, in my opinion, but it seems that a lot are being torn down.

[Jackie]

I think that towel is pretty cool. I think it's lots harder to find that type of collectible than it is to find china and such.

[reddygal]

Yeah but the towel probably won't get more than one bid! Watch me be so wrong now...