PENCE SPRINGS, W.Va. — Across the United States, historic hotels are finding new life. Grand railroad resorts have become boutique inns. Former sanatoriums have reopened as wellness retreats. Long-forgotten landmarks are being restored for a new generation of travelers seeking authentic stories rather than manufactured experiences.
In the mountains of southern West Virginia, one of Appalachia’s most remarkable historic resorts is poised for revival.
The historic Pence Springs Hotel, a 138.51-acre property in the Greenbrier Valley that has served as a luxury mineral springs resort, a women’s prison, and, most recently, the Greenbrier Girls Academy, is now being offered for sale through Foxfire Realty. For investors, preservationists, and hospitality entrepreneurs, it represents one of the most unusual redevelopment opportunities currently available in the eastern United States.
Randy Burdette, a listing agent and associate broker at Foxfire Realty, says the historic property is primed, given the global trend toward authenticity.
“It’s difficult to find another property that offers this combination of history, infrastructure, and natural beauty,” Burdette said.
“People across the country are rediscovering historic destinations. Pence Springs already has the history. The next owner has the opportunity to decide what the next chapter will be.”
A forgotten mineral springs resort with a remarkable past
For more than a century, the property has held a unique place in West Virginia history. Its story begins not with the hotel but with water.
Long before European settlement, indigenous people were drawn to the naturally carbonated mineral spring that bubbles up from the limestone beneath the Greenbrier Valley. In the nineteenth century, visitors increasingly traveled to the spring, believing its mineral waters offered relief from digestive disorders and other chronic ailments. As the nation’s fascination with healing waters grew, Pence Springs emerged as one of the region’s best-known resort communities.
By the turn of the twentieth century, the spring’s bottled mineral water had gained national attention, earning a silver medal at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition—better known as the St. Louis World’s Fair. That recognition helped establish Pence Springs among America’s respected mineral water destinations.
From healing waters to one of West Virginia’s grand hotels
The elegant Georgian Revival hotel that dominates the property today opened in 1918 after an earlier resort hotel was destroyed by fire. Guests arrived by rail to spend weeks in the mountains, enjoying the spring water, cool summer climate and the quiet beauty of the Greenbrier Valley.
The resort became one of southern West Virginia’s leading social centers, drawing prominent business leaders, public officials and vacationers seeking both recreation and relaxation.
The resort’s prominence extended beyond its famous spring. Annual events such as the Pence Springs Horse Show helped establish the community as one of southern West Virginia’s premier social destinations during the early twentieth century.
Unlike many historic resorts that have been reduced to a single surviving building, Pence Springs remains an expansive campus.
The offering includes the landmark hotel along with numerous additional structures spread across rolling lawns and wooded hillsides. Forest trails wind through more than 120 acres of hardwoods, while ponds, open meadows and mountain views create a setting that feels remarkably secluded despite convenient highway access.
More than a historic hotel: A 138-acre campus with endless possibilities
For Burdette, the property’s greatest strength is its flexibility. “This isn’t simply a historic hotel,” he said.
“It’s an established campus with roads, utilities, multiple buildings and an incredible natural setting. Someone could envision a destination resort, a wellness retreat, an educational center, a conference facility or something entirely new. Opportunities like this don’t come along very often.”
The property has repeatedly adapted to changing times. After its years as a celebrated resort, the campus later served as the West Virginia State Prison for Women before beginning another chapter as an educational institution. For decades, students from around the world called the former resort home while attending what became the Greenbrier Girls Academy.
The property’s remarkable evolution—from luxury hotel to prison to boarding school—is explored in greater detail in WVExplorer’s history of the Pence Springs Hotel Historic District.
Today, those same historic buildings offer another opportunity for reinvention.
Why historic hotels are making a comeback across America
The renewed national interest in heritage tourism has created fresh demand for distinctive destinations where history is part of the experience. Travelers increasingly seek restored hotels, adaptive reuse projects, and authentic places connected to local culture and landscape rather than standardized accommodations.
Southern West Virginia has become one of the nation’s fastest-growing outdoor tourism destinations following the establishment of New River Gorge National Park and Preserve and the region’s growing reputation for whitewater rafting, hiking, rock climbing, mountain biking and heritage travel. Pence Springs sits within easy reach of many of those attractions while offering a setting unlike any other in the region.
The property’s combination of architecture, acreage and history makes it difficult to duplicate in today’s market.
Randy Burdette: ‘The next owner will shape the next century’
“You can always build new buildings,” Burdette said. “You can’t recreate a place that’s spent more than a hundred years becoming part of a state’s history. That’s what makes Pence Springs so special. Whoever becomes its next owner won’t just be purchasing real estate—they’ll be becoming the steward of one of West Virginia’s great historic properties.”
As historic hotels across America continue finding new purpose, the next chapter of Pence Springs has yet to be written. For the first time in years, one of Appalachia’s grand mineral springs resorts is waiting for someone with the vision to bring it back to life.