Qualla: Daniel Boone Hotel (Charleston, West Virginia)

Daniel Boone Hotel (Charleston, West Virginia): Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Analogue Kid at English Wikipedia, CC BY 2.5. When a city builds a 465-room hotel and names it after a frontiersman who probably never slept where the building stands, you can usually trust that the city is going through a confident moment. The Daniel Boone Hotel opened in 1929 at the corner of Capitol and Washington Streets in downtown Charleston, West Virginia - ten stories of blond brick and tan terra cotta, designed in the Classical Revival skyscraper style by architect William Lee Stoddart, who had made his name building elegant hotels across the Eastern United States. Construction had begun in 1927. Two more wings would follow in 1936 and 1949. For more than fifty years, the Daniel Boone was the hotel where governors swore in their cabinets, lobbyists held court, and West Virginia's civic life convened over breakfast.

Image: Analogue Kid at English Wikipedia | CC BY 2.5

Daniel Boone Hotel (Charleston, West Virginia): A Skyscraper for the Capital

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Analogue Kid at en.wikipedia, Public domain. The Daniel Boone Hotel was conceived in the boom years of the late 1920s, when Charleston was growing fast on chemical and coal money. The Kanawha River front had filled in with industry. Downtown was lengthening up Capitol Street and the new state capitol building was about to o...

Image: Analogue Kid at en.wikipedia | Public domain

Daniel Boone Hotel (Charleston, West Virginia): The Hotel That Charleston Used

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Marduk, Public domain. In its decades as a hotel, the Daniel Boone was where things happened. The grand ballroom hosted political conventions, debutante balls, and inaugural dances. Three parlor meeting rooms accommodated smaller affairs. The coffee shop drew the breakfast trade of state legislators an...

Image: Marduk | Public domain

Daniel Boone Hotel (Charleston, West Virginia): From Hotel to Office Tower

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Harper1040, CC BY-SA 4.0. The decline came gradually. By the 1970s, business travel had shifted to newer hotels along the interstate highways and out near the airport. Downtown hotels of the Daniel Boone's vintage struggled across the country - too much square footage, too many small rooms, too few elevat...

Image: Harper1040 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Daniel Boone Hotel (Charleston, West Virginia): The Walk Past

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit ChristopherLocke, CC BY-SA 3.0. Walk down Capitol Street today and the Daniel Boone is hard to miss - a ten-story rectangular block among taller modern neighbors, distinctive for its blond brick and the careful terra cotta detailing at the cornice. The arched windows of the base look out on the same sidewalk th...

Image: ChristopherLocke | CC BY-SA 3.0