HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena, as catalogued
Harpers Ferry's Historic Black-Owned Hotel Demolished in 2022
Harpers Ferry, WV
Research updated October 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
The historic hotel is closed and was demolished in 2022; its proposed replacement remains incomplete. Exterior can be viewed at no cost. Check hilltophousehotel.com for reopening updates.
Access
Limited Access
Hillside terrain; the hotel overlooks the Potomac and Shenandoah confluence
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1890 · African American Business History · Harpers Ferry Civil War History · West Virginia Historic Landmark · Storer College Legacy
Thomas S. Lovett opened the Hill Top House Hotel in 1890 with a singular vision: to build a destination hotel above the town that John Brown's 1859 raid had made famous, on a site with sweeping views of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers at their confluence. Lovett had graduated from Storer College, the historically Black institution established in Harpers Ferry after the Civil War, and he and his wife Lavonia ran the hotel through considerable adversity.
As one of the largest hotels in the United States owned by an African American, Hill Top House operated in a peculiar social register — serving a White clientele of national prominence while being Black-owned in a border state in the decades following Reconstruction. Among its confirmed guests: Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Bill Clinton. (Note: hotel marketing materials have long listed Mark Twain and Alexander Graham Bell as guests, but research by historian Lynn Pechuekonis for the Harpers Ferry-Bolivar Historic Town Foundation found no independent confirmation of either visit; those claims first appeared in hotel marketing materials from the 1950s and 1960s-70s respectively.)
The hotel's physical history is one of repeated loss and rebuilding. The original frame structure burned in 1912 — described in contemporary accounts as the most substantial new building erected in Harpers Ferry since the Civil War. Lovett and his wife rebuilt, and the replacement hotel burned again in an electrical fire in June 1919. They rebuilt a second time. This hotel survived for decades before eventually falling into structural decline.
The condition had deteriorated sufficiently by 2007 that the hotel closed permanently. In 2021, developers Fred and Karen Schaufeld of SWaN & Legend Venture Partners acquired the property and planned a replacement hotel. The historic structure was demolished in 2022. As of 2024, the project was still in progress, with the Jefferson County Commission pursuing Tax Increment Financing district designation. Community opposition has stalled the replacement project’s completion. The planned reopening was expected to feature a restaurant program overseen by chef José Andrés.
Sources
Harpers Ferry itself is among the most historically charged locations in American history, and the Hill Top House Hotel — built to overlook the site of John Brown's 1859 raid on the federal armory — carries that weight directly into its paranormal reputation.
The most documented accounts center on a phantom regiment. Multiple visitors to the hotel reported, independently, seeing what appeared to be Civil War soldiers — men in period military uniforms — moving through the building's rooms and in some accounts marching along the exterior grounds. The time window most frequently cited for these encounters is between 2 and 3 a.m.
Along with the regiment sightings, the kitchen area of the hotel has been reported as a source of unexplained noise: banging pots, laughter, and voices — sounds audible from other parts of the hotel despite an empty kitchen. The combination of auditory and visual accounts across an extended period of hotel operation has made the Hill Top House one of the more consistently documented sites in West Virginia paranormal records.
The paranormal history was documented in detail by Theresa's Haunted History of the Tri-State, which published a profile of the hotel in December 2011. The Haunted Road Trip website has also catalogued the accounts. The historic structure was demolished in 2022, and the proposed replacement remains incomplete.
Notable Entities
Some links on this page may earn HauntBound a small commission when you book, at no extra cost to you. Our editorial picks are independent. Full disclosure
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Free Guide
11 verified stops, rated for families, mapped in order. Free.
One email to confirm, then the guide link. Unsubscribe anytime.
Huntington, WV
The Frederick Hotel opened in 1906 in downtown Huntington and was long considered the most elegant hotel between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. It closed as a hotel in 1973 and was later converted to offices, apartments, and retail. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Downtown Huntington Historic District in 1986.
Morgantown, WV
Hotel Morgan opened in 1925 on High Street in downtown Morgantown and was named, at the local historical society's urging, for city founder Zackquill Morgan. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the building was fully renovated in 2020 and operates today as a Wyndham hotel with 81 rooms and two suites.
Sistersville, WV
The Wells Inn opened on January 15, 1895, built by Ephraim Wells, grandson of Sistersville's founder, to accommodate the flood of oil prospectors arriving after crude was struck in Tyler County in 1894. The two-story brick hotel with its wraparound verandah retains its original 1890s mosaic tile, oak furnishings, and tiled fireplace.