The Hotel Morgan on High Street is officially closed for renovations but is anticipated to be open again for business before Dec. 31, 2020, more than 12 months from now.
It is not clear whether the closure is related to new ownership or not. The Dominion Post reported in July the historic downtown structure was in the process of being sold, and a deal was expected to be finalized by fall.
In an email sent to tourism partners of the Greater Morgantown Convention and Visitors Bureau, Susan Riddle, the organization’s president and CEO, said the 78-room hotel is closed for renovations.
“I have no further information to comment on at this time,” she said.
A check of the hotel’s website said it is permanently closed.
Hotel Morgan — officially known as Clarion Hotel Morgan — opened for business in 1925. According to a hotel history on the Clarion website, the hotel was a popular site for weddings and banquets because of its two-story ballroom. The hotel was last renovated in 1999 by the Brant family, which had owned it since 1997. R. Theodore Brant died in 2000 at age 53.
According to documents filed in the Monongalia County Courthouse, Brant paid $1.35 million for the hotel in 1997.
The hotel, named after city founder Zackquill Morgan, hosted Eleanor Roosevelt in 1934, President Harry Truman in 1954 and was a campaign stop for John F. Kennedy in 1960.
In 1999, Brant and his brother Robert proposed an enclosed racetrack at Pittsburgh International Airport on land owned by Allegheny County at a cost of $300 million.
Dubbed the Brant Pittsburgh Auto Racing Complex, the track would have been the size of six football fields and sat up to 125,000 people. Following Brant’s death in 2000, interest in the project faded and there had been discussions about building the track in Ohio. Those plans never came to fruition.
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