Qualla: Waldo Hotel https://qualla.com/waldo-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/z/waldo-hotel-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Waldo Hotel https://qualla.com/waldo-hotel Waldo Hotel: Introduction https://qualla.com/waldo-hotel/ Photo credit Tim Kiser (w:User:Malepheasant), CC BY-SA 2.5. Nathan Goff Jr. - U.S. senator, congressman, judge, lawyer, and Republican Party leader - built the Waldo Hotel directly across from the family home in Clarksburg. He named it for his father, Waldo P. Goff. He spent over $400,000 on it between 1902 and 1904. Coal money was pouring into West Virginia, and Goff intended that his hometown should have a hotel that looked the part. For more than half a century, the seven-story Beaux-Arts pile delivered on that intention. Now it stands empty along the Monongahela ridge, and Clarksburg city council members keep asking when it should come down.

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Image: Tim Kiser (w:User:Malepheasant) | CC BY-SA 2.5

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/y/z/waldo-hotel-wp/dnyz-waldo-hotel-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Waldo Hotel: A Coal-Boom Hotel https://qualla.com/waldo-hotel/ Photo credit Tim Kiser (w:User:Malepheasant), CC BY-SA 2.5. Clarksburg in 1900 was a city on the make. The coal industry was transforming north-central West Virginia, drawing investors, engineers, salesmen, and labor from across the country. The city lacked a large, upscale hotel for the business travelers and social events the boom was g...

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/y/z/waldo-hotel-wp/dnyz-waldo-hotel-a-coal-boom-hotel.mp3 0:06 2 full Waldo Hotel: Inside the Waldo's Best Years https://qualla.com/waldo-hotel/ Photo credit Tim Kiser (w:User:Malepheasant), CC BY-SA 2.5. The lobby ran 60 feet long, with ceilings of 31 feet and a mosaic tile floor that drew the eye up to a crystal chandelier. Ten marble columns, accented with ivory and gold, framed the space. The reception desk was mahogany. The plasterwork ceilings carried Beaux-Arts motifs. A gr...

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/y/z/waldo-hotel-wp/dnyz-waldo-hotel-inside-the-waldos-best-years.mp3 0:06 3 full Waldo Hotel: Senators, Suites, and a Convention Floor Fight https://qualla.com/waldo-hotel/ Photo credit Tim Kiser (w:User:Malepheasant), CC BY-SA 2.5. Guy D. Goff - Nathan's son - kept a suite on the fourth floor as his official residence and offices during his Senate term from 1925 to 1931. The hotel doubled as his political headquarters. In 1928, a group of conservative U.S. senators met at the Waldo to plan how they might bl...

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/y/z/waldo-hotel-wp/dnyz-waldo-hotel-senators-suites-and-a-convention-floor-fight.mp3 0:06 4 full Waldo Hotel: Closing, Salem College, and Slow Decline https://qualla.com/waldo-hotel/ Photo credit Tim Kiser (w:User:Malepheasant), CC BY-SA 2.5. By 1962, economic pressures and shifting travel patterns finally closed the Waldo as a hotel. Two years later, the newly accredited Salem College acquired the building, hoping to use it as part of an expanding Clarksburg footprint. Salem also bought the Carmichael Auditorium in 1...

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/y/z/waldo-hotel-wp/dnyz-waldo-hotel-closing-salem-college-and-slow-decline.mp3 0:06 5 full Waldo Hotel: The Question of What Comes Next https://qualla.com/waldo-hotel/ Photo credit Tim Kiser (w:User:Malepheasant), CC BY-SA 2.5. Clarksburg city council has periodically discussed demolition. The arguments are familiar wherever an aging downtown landmark sits empty: falling debris is a public safety hazard, the building costs money to insure and secure, and the lot could in theory host something newer and ...

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/y/z/waldo-hotel-wp/dnyz-waldo-hotel-the-question-of-what-comes-next.mp3 0:06 6 full