Coolfont Resort
Logo of Coolfont Resort
Coolfont Resort main building in November 2020
General information
Architectural styleA-frame
Address3621 Cold Run Valley Road
Town or cityBerkeley Springs, West Virginia
Coordinates39°34′42″N 78°16′05″W / 39.578315°N 78.268131°W / 39.578315; -78.268131
Opened1965 (1965)
OwnerLarry Omps
Website
www.coolfont.com

Coolfont Resort is a resort hotel in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, operating from 1965 to 2006 and from 2020 to present.

History

In 1961, Sam Ashelman (1913–2010), a Washington, D.C. businessman who had been influential in the consumer cooperative movement, bought the property, consisting of about 1,200 acres including a landmark 1913 house built by author John Herbert Quick and called Coolfont in reference to nearby springs.[1] In 1965, Ashelman, together with his wife Martha and Rosalyn and Alden Capen, established the hotel.[2][3] The Ashelmans added numerous cabins, private homes, a conference center, and other buildings on the grounds.[4] It became a West Virginia landmark visited by numerous famous guests, and noted as a retreat for Washington politicians who used the facility for both recreation and for policy discussions.[5] Among the hotel's best known regular guests were Al and Tipper Gore, who famously got lost in the woods while hiking at Coolfont a few days after Al Gore was elected Vice President of the United States in the 1992 election.[6]

By 2003, Ashelman's son Randall was in charge of operations, while Sam Ashelman remained active and continued the activities of the non-profit Coolfont Foundation for the Arts, which brought musicians, writers, and others to the resort.[7] In 2005 the Coolfont was sold for a reported $7.8 million to the Carl M. Freeman Companies, a real estate developer with aspirations to upgrade the resort and create a community of homes.[8][9] However, company CEO Joshua Freeman was killed in a helicopter crash the following year,[10] and the resort lay dormant and in disrepair.

In 2014 the company removed a substantial amount of timber from the property.[11] The property was listed for sale and in 2016 was put up for auction. The entire remaining resort property, amounting to 988 acres, was sold in nine parcels for a total of $2.673 million.[12]

In 2019 the resort began reconstruction and was set to reopen by May 2020. The restaurant and some lodging reopened during early- and mid-2020. A brewpub opened on the resort campus in 2019.[13]

References

  1. ↑ "Coolfont Manor House, near Berkeley Springs in Morgan County, West Virginia", Library of Congress (accessed 2017-02-04).
  2. ↑ "Samuel F. Ashelman Jr., Resort Founder", The Washington Post, August 25, 2010.
  3. ↑ "Samuel F. Ashelman Jr., 97" Archived 2017-02-05 at the Wayback Machine, The Herald-Mail, August 13, 2010.
  4. ↑ Iris Krasnow, "Coolfont: A slice of heaven in West Virginia", United Press International, December 14, 1987.
  5. ↑ Roger Piantadosi,"Springs Fever: A weekend retreat to West Virginia", The Washington Post, May 11, 1994.
  6. ↑ "Outdoor Gores get lost in woods", Sarasota Herald-Tribune, November 10, 1992.
  7. ↑ Marina Henricks, "World peace and quiet: Resort owner retreats (a bit) from international affairs", Sunday Gazette-Mail, March 2, 2003.
  8. ↑ Peter Heerwagen, "New Coolfont Owner Makes Changes", Quad-State Business Journal, February 1, 2006.
  9. ↑ Juliet A. Terry, "Coolfont to Get New Life as Vacation Home Destination", State Journal, August 17, 2007.
  10. ↑ Miranda Spivak, "Developer Killed in Crash Recalled for Sense of Fun", The Washington Post, December 16, 2006.
  11. ↑ Kate Shunney, "Timbering underway on former Coolfont Property", Morgan Messenger, October 8, 2014.
  12. ↑ "Former Coolfont resort sold at auction", Martinsburg Journal, June 22, 2016.
  13. ↑ "Coolfont Resort". Retrieved 4 November 2020.
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