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Monday 12 February 2018

Hotel Farr - Dream vs Reality

Have you ever had a grand plan in your mind  for something which hasn't worked out, but what you did end up with was more than satisfactory only for that to eventually come to an end?
I know I have, and John S Farr has too.
Who was John S. Farr? We'll he was a coal operator who envisaged a 14 storey, 250 room hotel in Huntingdon West Virginia.
A drawing of his plan can be seen in this vintage card below. 



However World War I meant that constructions costs increased and the hotel finished up half the size as was planned, but was still rather nice.


Just days after the end of WWI, a pottery salesman became the first guest of the hotel, setting a precedent as the hotel proved popular with travelling salesmen in the decades which followed.
The hotel  changes hands and went through a number of name changes in the 30s and 40s before closing in 1965 . From the 1970s until 2014 the building had been used as offices, business as well as apartments, but has remained empty since July 2014 when a fire damaged most of the building.
The building does actually still stand, and the original Hotel Farr sign is still visible but I'm not aware of any plans to renovate the building. In fact it's very hard to find any information about the place at all, but thanks to postcards and postcard collectors it is not truly forgotten.