Qualla: Blennerhassett Hotel https://qualla.com/blennerhassett-hotel en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:07 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/y/p/blennerhassett-hotel-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Blennerhassett Hotel https://qualla.com/blennerhassett-hotel Blennerhassett Hotel: Introduction https://qualla.com/blennerhassett-hotel/ Photo credit Daderot, CC0. Harman Blennerhassett was a wealthy Irishman with a degree from Trinity College Dublin, a beautiful young wife, and the misfortune of having befriended Aaron Burr. In 1798, the Blennerhassetts settled on an island in the Ohio River across from what would become Parkersburg, West Virginia, and built a Palladian mansion - the most elegant private residence west of the Alleghenies. Eight years later, in 1806, the former Vice President of the United States arrived at the island and asked to use it as the staging ground for a military expedition whose purposes are still disputed. The Blennerhassetts said yes. When the federal militia raided the island in December 1806, the family fled down the Ohio in a flatboat, leaving the mansion behind. They never returned. Eighty-three years later, in 1889, an entirely different establishment - a four-story Queen Anne hotel in downtown Parkersburg - opened bearing the family name. The Blennerhassett Hotel has carried it ever since.

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/y/p/blennerhassett-hotel-wp/dnyp-blennerhassett-hotel-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Blennerhassett Hotel: The Original Blennerhassetts https://qualla.com/blennerhassett-hotel/ Photo credit Nyttend, Public domain. Harman and Margaret Blennerhassett were Irish gentry who had fled Europe partly to escape the consequences of an unconventional marriage - Margaret was Harman's niece - and partly to seek fortune in the new American republic. The island they bought sat in the middle of the Ohio R...

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/y/p/blennerhassett-hotel-wp/dnyp-blennerhassett-hotel-the-original-blennerhassetts.mp3 0:06 2 full Blennerhassett Hotel: The Burr Conspiracy https://qualla.com/blennerhassett-hotel/ Photo credit Nyttend, Public domain. The exact nature of what Burr was planning has been debated for two centuries. The federal government's case, as eventually argued before Chief Justice John Marshall, was that Burr intended to lead an armed expedition to detach the western territories from the United States and e...

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/y/p/blennerhassett-hotel-wp/dnyp-blennerhassett-hotel-the-burr-conspiracy.mp3 0:06 3 full Blennerhassett Hotel: The Hotel https://qualla.com/blennerhassett-hotel/ Photo credit Nyttend, Public domain. In 1889, the Parkersburg businessman William Chancellor opened the Blennerhassett Hotel at 4th and Market Streets. The choice of name was savvy local marketing - the Blennerhassett story was the most romantic episode in the region's history, and the family's association with eleg...

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/y/p/blennerhassett-hotel-wp/dnyp-blennerhassett-hotel-the-hotel.mp3 0:06 4 full Blennerhassett Hotel: The Gaslight Era https://qualla.com/blennerhassett-hotel/ Photo credit Nyttend, Public domain. Parkersburg in the late 1880s was riding the oil and natural gas boom that had begun at Burning Springs in 1860 and accelerated after the Civil War. Money flowed into the city. The downtown grew. The Blennerhassett was built for the businessmen, salesmen, and travelers that the b...

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/y/p/blennerhassett-hotel-wp/dnyp-blennerhassett-hotel-the-gaslight-era.mp3 0:06 5 full Blennerhassett Hotel: What Survives https://qualla.com/blennerhassett-hotel/ Photo credit Nyttend, Public domain. The Blennerhassett was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. The hotel's own marketing has occasionally and incorrectly claimed National Historic Landmark status, but the more modest National Register listing is still meaningful - it acknowledges the building...

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/y/p/blennerhassett-hotel-wp/dnyp-blennerhassett-hotel-what-survives.mp3 0:06 6 full