The Greenbrier
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.
Sulphur Springs and Southern Society
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 Calwells, a prominent Baltimore family, developed the property into a resort and sold cottages to wealthy Southerners. Martin Van Buren and Henry Clay visited. In 1858, the Grand Central Hotel rose on the grounds, earning the nickname "The Old White." The Civil War nearly destroyed it all -- the property changed hands between Confederate and Union forces, and Union troops came close to burning the resort to the ground. After the war, Confederate General Robert E. Lee issued the "White Sulphur Manifesto" from these grounds, the only political paper he published after the surrender, calling for reconciliation between North and South.
A Railroad's Grand Ambition
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. The summer-only resort became a year-round destination, and the name officially became the Greenbrier. Golf arrived that same year with a full 18-hole course designed by Charles B. Macdonald. Then came World War II, and the elegant hotel took on stranger roles. On December 17, 1941, ten days after Pearl Harbor, the resort became a detention center for Axis diplomats. German diplomats arrived first, joined later by Japanese officials transferred from The Homestead in Hot Springs, Virginia. By September 1942, the Army had commandeered the property entirely, converting it into Ashford General Hospital, a 2,000-bed facility that treated nearly 25,000 wounded soldiers before closing in 1946.
Draper's Bold Colors and the Bunker Below
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 modern touches that transformed every room. The grand reopening in April 1948 drew the Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson, Bing Crosby, and members of the Kennedy family. But beneath this glamorous revival, the Cold War was building. In the late 1950s, the government approached the Greenbrier about constructing a secret emergency relocation center for Congress. The classified underground facility, Project Greek Island, was built from 1959 to 1962, hidden beneath a new hotel wing. For three decades it waited, staffed and maintained in total secrecy, ready to receive 535 members of Congress in the event of nuclear war. The secret died in 1992 when The Washington Post revealed it to the world.
Fortunes Won and Lost
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 Trevino. But the resort's finances told a darker story. Competition from automobile-accessible destinations steadily eroded the Greenbrier's clientele. By 2009, the resort filed for bankruptcy, listing debts of up to $500 million against assets of $100 million. West Virginia coal baron Jim Justice purchased the property for $20 million, outbidding Marriott in a dramatic courthouse maneuver. Justice promised to restore the resort's five-star status and introduced casino gambling after a narrow county referendum. Financial struggles continued into the 2020s, with the property used as loan collateral and narrowly avoiding foreclosure in 2024.
Still Standing in the Alleghenies
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 Congressional secret, is now a tourist attraction. The video game Fallout 76, set in post-apocalyptic West Virginia, immortalized the property as "The Whitespring Resort," complete with hidden government bunker. NFL teams have held training camps on the grounds. The New Orleans Saints practiced here for three seasons, a relationship that started when head coach Sean Payton visited for a golf tournament pro-am in 2013. The resort has inspired murder mysteries, novels, and one memorable moment on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, when Norm Macdonald correctly identified the Greenbrier's bunker as the answer to the million-dollar question but walked away with $500,000 for charity, convinced that Regis Philbin was trying to talk him out of the right answer.
From the Air
Located at 37.79N, 80.31W in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, nestled in the Allegheny Mountains. The massive white resort complex with its distinctive colonial architecture is visible in the valley, surrounded by four golf courses and dense Appalachian forest. Nearest airport: Greenbrier Valley Airport (KLWB) approximately 10 nm south. The resort sits along I-64 in a narrow mountain valley. Best viewed at 3,000-5,000 ft AGL. Be aware of mountain weather conditions and turbulence common in the Allegheny ridgeline area.