Qualla: The Greenbrier https://qualla.com/the-greenbrier en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:15 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/w/y/the-greenbrier-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: The Greenbrier https://qualla.com/the-greenbrier The Greenbrier: Introduction https://qualla.com/the-greenbrier/ Photo credit Valereee, CC0. For thirty years, guests at the Greenbrier sipped cocktails and played golf while an underground bunker large enough to house the entire United States Congress sat hidden beneath their feet. Code-named "Project Greek Island," the classified facility was built between 1959 and 1962, disguised by the construction of a new hotel wing above it. The secret held until a Washington Post reporter exposed it in 1992. But the bunker is only the most dramatic chapter in a story that began with sulphur water and a woman with aching joints. Since 1778, when a frontier settler named Mrs. Anderson followed a Native American tradition of "taking the waters" to relieve her rheumatism, this patch of the Allegheny Mountains in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, has drawn the powerful and the privileged. Twenty-eight presidents have slept here. The Confederacy and the Union fought over it. Dorothy Draper redecorated it. And comedian Norm Macdonald nearly won a million dollars answering a trivia question about it.

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Image: Valereee | CC0

]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/w/y/the-greenbrier-wp/dnwy-the-greenbrier-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full The Greenbrier: Sulphur Springs and Southern Society https://qualla.com/the-greenbrier/ Photo credit David Wilson from Oak Park, Illinois, USA, CC BY 2.0. The spring at the center of the property still bubbles up through a white-columned spring house topped by the resort's signature green dome. For 125 years the place was known simply as White Sulphur Springs, a summer escape for coastal elites fleeing heat and disease. The Calwell...

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Image: David Wilson from Oak Park, Illinois, USA | CC BY 2.0

]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/w/y/the-greenbrier-wp/dnwy-the-greenbrier-sulphur-springs-and-southern-society.mp3 0:06 2 full The Greenbrier: A Railroad's Grand Ambition https://qualla.com/the-greenbrier/ Photo credit Richard Rosendale, CC BY-SA 3.0. Everything changed in 1910 when the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway purchased the property. The railroad built the colossal six-story, 250-room hotel that still forms the central wing today, designed by British-born architect Frederick Julius Sterner and opened on September 25, 1913. T...

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Image: Richard Rosendale | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/w/y/the-greenbrier-wp/dnwy-the-greenbrier-a-railroads-grand-ambition.mp3 0:06 3 full The Greenbrier: Draper's Bold Colors and the Bunker Below https://qualla.com/the-greenbrier/ Photo credit A. D. Maust, CC BY-SA 3.0. When the C&O railroad reclaimed the Greenbrier after the war, they hired Dorothy Draper -- one of America's most famous interior designers -- to bring the battered hotel back to life. Draper spent two years applying her signature style: bold colors, classical flourishes, and mode...

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Image: A. D. Maust | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/w/y/the-greenbrier-wp/dnwy-the-greenbrier-drapers-bold-colors-and-the-bunker-below.mp3 0:06 4 full The Greenbrier: Fortunes Won and Lost https://qualla.com/the-greenbrier/ Photo credit Jonathunder, Public domain. The Greenbrier hosted the 1979 Ryder Cup -- the first played as United States versus Europe -- and the 1994 Solheim Cup, making it the first venue to stage both competitions. Sam Snead served as head golf professional starting in 1944, followed decades later by Tom Watson and Lee...

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Image: Jonathunder | Public domain

]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/w/y/the-greenbrier-wp/dnwy-the-greenbrier-fortunes-won-and-lost.mp3 0:06 5 full The Greenbrier: Still Standing in the Alleghenies https://qualla.com/the-greenbrier/ Photo credit Kberg115, CC BY-SA 3.0. Today the Greenbrier sprawls across its mountain valley with 710 guest rooms, 20 restaurants, and four golf courses -- though all four were damaged in the devastating 2016 West Virginia flood that briefly closed the resort. The bunker, once the nation's most closely guarded Congr...

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Image: Kberg115 | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/w/y/the-greenbrier-wp/dnwy-the-greenbrier-still-standing-in-the-alleghenies.mp3 0:06 6 full