The grand opening of the Tygart Hotel was last Friday. The hotel was filled with many friends, business partners and members of the community. But, it was most importantly filled with love and support.

Hannah Davis was a representative of the younger voices in the community. Davis is a junior at Elkins High School.

“ The Elkins community is not just a community, but a family. And at the center of the community is the Tygart Hotel.” Davis said in remarks at the ribbon cutting ceremony.

As the hotel brings Elkins closer to being fulfilled, it also brought more life into the town. Dave Clark, the Executive Director of Woodlands, welcomed the town to join him during the opening.

“As many of you remember, we got started on this in 2015 and Elkins looked very, very different. We had a lot of vacant storefronts and the Tygart Hotel was not a good place.” Clark stated.

Many organizations were involved with bringing the hotel together. Including Davis Trust Company, Freedom Bank, Pendleton County Bank, Fahe, Partner Community Capital, Coastal Enterprises, Inc, Virginia Community Development Fund, Woodlands Community Lenders, US Bank, WV Economic Development Authority, USDA Rural Development, and federal appropriations.

Political leaders including Senators Shelly Moore Capito, Senator Joe Manchin, Governor Jim Justice and Mayor Jerry Marco attended the event. Unfortunately, senator Capito had to go back to Washington that morning but left with her words of encouragement.

“I did spend the night here last night, and it was wonderful.” Capito said.

As many others loved the hotel, many were also very interested in the history behind it. As you go into the Tygart, there are many pieces of artwork created by West Virginians. The artwork was the main focus on each floor of the hotel. Each floor shows different lost towns of the mong forests in west virginia, along with an apple tag that taps on your phone for an informative video.