The Virginian Hotel

The Virginian Hotel, fondly called the “hub of Princeton,” hosted fabulous wedding receptions, parties, social events, and hundreds of families for Sunday lunch after church. At various times throughout the Virginian Hotel’s 68 years it housed the mayor’s office, barbershop, shoeshine area, poolroom, and even the Piggly Wiggly. It was also home to its builder, Conley T. Snidow, his wife and six children, from 1916 until Snidow’s death in 1978.

Conely T. Snidow was a house painter and paperhanger from Pembroke, Virginia. The brash young man came to Princeton sometime before 1910, was befriended by Dr. Hobson, a Presbyterian minister, and the Virginian Hotel was born. Dr. Hobson’s original $1,200 investment and Snidow’s abilities built the original hotel, and forged a friendship between the two men that would last sixty years.

Famous people slept in the original three-story structure. Visitors to the hotel included Madame Ernestine Schumann-Heink, Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, John L. Lewis, even Lash Larue, and a member of the “Our Gang” movies.

The small hotel faced fierce competition from six hotels or rooming houses, but the ingenuity of the young entrepreneur won out as he sent a hack to the daily train to usher weary travelers to the blossoming hotel.

There was no running water and chambermaids worked for six dollars a week, supplying hot water and emptying chamber pots. In 1919-1920, Snidow made renovations to the hotel making it the second tallest building in Princeton, rivaled only by the Von Court Apartments.

Inside the spectacular structure were white Tennessee marble panels, irreplaceable pink globes in chandeliers and white scones, a cow-horn coat rack, an elegant black and white terrazzo floor, and black Vermont marble on the registration desk.

Guests, residents, and daily visitors enjoyed lovely furniture, elegant window treatments, flowers, a ladies’ parlor, even a small elevator.

Fire threatened the hotel in 1967, when a fire began in a storeroom operated by Roller Floral Company in the third section of the hotel built in 1924. Smoke damaged the hotel extensively, but otherwise only occasional “mattress fires” occurred.

For many years, service clubs such as Lions, Kiwanis, Rotary and Quota met in the dining room. Typical cost of meals for these meetings was $1.25.

Over the years, hundreds of families enjoyed the Virginian Hotel’s Sunday lunches. The largest group ever served, was on the day of the opening of the West Virginia Turnpike. More than 400 people dined at the Virginian Hotel that day.

Through the years, the Virginian Hotel benefited Princeton culturally and economically.

The Virginian Hotel closed its doors as a hotel in 1978 and was converted to an apartment facility.

Written By:

The Old Town Princeton Foundation, Inc.