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The West Virginia Encyclopedia
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The West Virginia Encyclopedia
Named after the Indian princess, Aracoma, legendary daughter of Chief Cornstalk, the Aracoma Hotel was a landmark in Logan. Built in 1917 at a cost of $50,000 by Harvey Ghiz, a Syrian immigrant, the hotel was the largest downtown building erected during the wave of fireproof construction that followed Logan’s great fire of January 1912. While preparing the ground for the foundation, wooden scrapers pulled by mules unearthed a bone and relic field roughly a block square that had been prehistoric burial site.
The original four-story brick hotel, built in an architectural style known as Richardson Romanesque and trimmed in ornamental stone, fronted on Coal Street with an elaborate arched facade. Inside, there were 94 rooms, most with private shower baths. The Aracoma had electric elevators and fine woodwork.
In 1921 during the Mine Wars, women of the town set up an emergency food station in the lobby to supply meals and sundries to the troops, police, and other antiunion forces quartered in Logan. Notable guests at the hotel have included the Cincinnati Reds baseball team (1923), evangelist Billy Sunday (1923), Eleanor Roosevelt (1939), and John F. Kennedy and Edward Kennedy during the presidential primary campaign of 1960.
The Aracoma was heavily damaged by fire on November 15, 2010, and was demolished later that year.
Written by Paula D. White
Spence, Robert Y. The Land of the Guyandot. Detroit: Harlo Press, 1976.
Great Hotel to be Built in the City. Logan Democrat, 8/13/1916.
U.S. Troops Now Enroute to Logan. Logan Banner, 9/2/1921.