Stratford Springs Hotel in Wheeling

Opened on May 1, 1907, the Stratford Hotel was built as a spa resort near a natural “saline-chalybeate” spring said to have “certain healing powers,” powers to cure everything from headaches, indigestion, and rheumatism to “kidney trouble” and even “bad teeth.”

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 “Gem of Wheeling,” said the Wheeling News-Register, “was 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.”

The Stratford Hotel was destroyed in a fire, January 13, 1918. The spring house, where water and carbonated beverages were made by the Stratford Magnesia Springs Co., survived the fire and continued to bottle product for several years.

▶ Read more about the Stratford Springs Hotel fire on Archiving Wheeling's Blog: Like a Comet in the Sky: Wheeling’s Stratford Springs Hotel 

Location

▶ Destroyed in a 1918 fire the Stratford Springs Hotel was located in Woodsdale, just off Edgwood Street (Near the Stratford Arms Apartment Complex on Stratford Dr.)

Images

Newspaper Articles

▶ Stratford Springs Hotel Burned to Ground, Wheeling News-Register, Monday, January 14, 1918
▶ Only Gaunt Chimneys Mark Stratford Springs Hotel Site, Wheeling News-Register, January 15, 1918
▶ Remembering the Stratford Hotel, Wheeling News-Register, Monday, March 22, 1936
▶ Many Recall Plush "Stratford Springs," Wheeling News-Register
▶ Stratford Springs Reborn in Wheeling, 1990
▶ Way Back When, Laura Phillips Miller, Wheeling News-Register, Sept. 16, 1992  

Additional Resources

 ▶ Vertical File: Stratford Springs Hotel: Wheeling Room, non-circulating, ask for access at the reference desk.
 ▶ Archiving Wheeling Blog Post: Like a Comet in the Sky: Wheeling’s Stratford Springs Hotel