West Virginia and Regional History Center
1549 University Ave.P.O. Box 6069
Morgantown, WV 26506-6069
Business Number: 304-293-3536
wvrhcref@westvirginia.libanswers.com
URL: https://wvrhc.lib.wvu.edu
Staff of the West Virginia & Regional History Center
Administrative Information
Conditions Governing Use
Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. For more information, please see the Permissions and Copyright page on the West Virginia and Regional History Center website.
Conditions Governing Access
No special access restriction applies.
Preferred Citation
[Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], Brooks McCabe, Collector, Records of the Hotel Kanawha, A&M 3760, West Virginia and Regional History Center, West Virginia University Libraries, Morgantown, West Virginia.
Scope and Contents
Records of the Hotel Kanawha, including two ledgers containing a cash journal (July 1917 to March 1921) and guest register (one year in the period ca. 1903-1920). The Hotel Kanawha was constructed in 1903, and served as Charleston's premier hotel until 1965. It was later used by the Job Corps of West Virginia until 1997. The building was demolished in 2003.
Transactions in the cash journal are arranged chronologically, and include incoming and outgoing for the same day arranged on facing pages (verso and recto). Incoming cash is categorized by hotel, cafe, cafeteria, pool, long distance calls, house phone, laundry, tailor, and sundries; outgoing cash is categorized by stores, cafeteria, laundry, tailor, payroll, office, kitchen, deposits, and sundries.
Transactions in the guest register are arranged alphabetically by last name, chronologically therein, and are within the months of January through October. It is currently estimated that the ledger dates from between 1903, when the Hotel opened, to ca. 1920. Rates average one to two dollars per day. Listings include entries under headings titled: room number, name, date, number of days, rate, telephone, express baggage, tailor, cash, bar and cigars, total, and paid.