Huntington's 1906 grand hotel, now offices and lofts on the National Register
940 4th Avenue, Huntington, WV 25701
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
The building is no longer a hotel; it houses offices, apartments, and retail. The exterior can be viewed for free from the public sidewalk.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Downtown sidewalk; interior is private offices and residences
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1906 · National Register of Historic Places (1986) · Downtown Huntington Historic District · Early-20th-century grand hotel
The Frederick opened in 1906, designed in a Renaissance style by architects James B. Stewart and Edwin N. Alger. A newspaper of the day called it the greatest building project ever begun in Huntington. Contemporary accounts described an enormous undertaking — millions of bricks, miles of electrical wire, hundreds of telephones, and railcars of glass — at a cost of roughly half a million dollars including furnishings.
For decades the Frederick was the social and commercial center of downtown Huntington and was regarded as the finest hotel between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. Its guest registers over the years included nationally known figures; the Herald-Dispatch's 'Lost Huntington' history records visits by President Richard Nixon, the entertainer Liberace, and comedian Bob Hope.
The hotel closed in 1973. In 1986 the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places within the Downtown Huntington Historic District, and it was adapted for new use; today it holds offices, apartments, and retail space. Its history is documented by the West Virginia Encyclopedia, the Library of Congress, the Herald-Dispatch, and SAH Archipedia.
Sources
The Frederick's haunted reputation dates to its long life as a hotel and persists in the building's adaptive-reuse era. Regional hauntings accounts describe the sound of jangling keys and footsteps in the older corridors, disembodied voices, and at least one reported scream heard by people in the building after hours.
The most repeated specific account places two ghostly children near the space that once held the hotel's ground-floor restaurant. The stories are anecdotal, passed along through West Virginia folklore and hauntings listings, and we present them as the building's legend layer rather than as verified events. The Frederick is now a private mix of offices and residences, so the appropriate way to experience it is as an exterior architectural and history stop on the downtown sidewalk.
The Frederick opened in 1906 as the finest hotel between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati and closed as a hotel in 1973. The building, now offices, apartments, and retail, can be admired from the public sidewalk in downtown Huntington. The interior is private; this is an exterior, self-guided stop.
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