NEWBERRY — The Old Newberry Hotel in Downtown Newberry is under new ownership after Joe and Mary McDonald purchased the 25,000-square-foot facility in July.
The McDonalds vision for the Old Hotel is to make it into a multi-use facility that will provide space and opportunity for artistic exploration, education and exhibits, artist studios and residence space for artist, a venue for receptions, parties and meetings, short term and long term living space, commercial space and possibly a tavern.
“One of the reasons we wanted to buy it is to protect the presence of the Newberry Art Council. We have been strong supporters of that program. We like what they are doing, like what Marquerite (Palmer) does,” Joe McDonald said. “We want to protect that program and in fact our vision statement expands the presence of the arts program there by creating artist studios upstairs and artist residence upstairs , and maybe some gallery space upstairs.”
The Art Center currently uses two spaces in the Old Hotel, one space for pottery studio, and another for a painting studio.
There are five commercial store fronts, all of which will remain commercial space. In fact the Newberry Literacy Council recently moved in to one of the commercial spaces.
When it comes to making part of the Old Hotel a venue, McDonald said this will incorporate the downstairs lobby that will be fixed up for a gathering place, and an upstairs area. The original hotel had an upstairs ballroom that had a grand piano and a place to dance.
The McDonalds would like to bring that back to life.
McDonald said there are so many different visions of what they can do. The mission is to reach a broad cross-section of community residents through a variety of activities, programs and opportunities. They also want to enrich the artistic environment of Newberry, restore and showcase an historic property with deep roots and importance in the community, add to the vibrancy of life in downtown Newberry where a number of projects have restored historic buildings and enticed shoppers, dinners, tourists and patrons to the area and partner with community groups to provide for the widest and most diverse use of the facility, to include, the City of Newberry, The Newberry County School District, Newberry and Piedmont Colleges and The Opera House.
“I am excited putting the hotel back into operation as a multi-use facility for the community, because the space upstairs has not been used since the 1950s. So if we can turn that into usable space, and space for different kind of use, it can be an asset for the community, for downtown, another stage of downtown development,” McDonald said.
McDonald added that they are open to ideas of what they could do with the space, or if anyone would like to make suggestions to add to their current vision they can do so.
Back to life
The Old Hotel was previously owned by a company based in Connecticut. According to McDonald, their intention was to turn it back into a hotel, but the project fell through.
The McDonalds received the architectural plans that the group drew up. They also started deconstruction work and pulling some stuff out, such as fixtures. McDonald said they pretty much stripped the building down to the floors and walls.
“The outside was painted in the last 10 years, windows replaced and the roof replaced. The previous owners did what was needed to protect it from the elements,” he said.
Mary McDonald has already started fixing up the courtyard, but realized that when construction starts some of the court yard will be torn up. However the work she is doing is more cosmetic and is more for the short term.
Inside the hotel most of the doors upstairs are original, and include the original hinges. Joe McDonald said anything like that, that still works, they will keep to indicate the original look of the hotel. Some of the original wallpaper is still up, and McDonald says is in remarkably good shape, that might be something they keep.
Most of the rooms also had fireplaces, but were sealed off years ago. McDonald is thinking about uncovering some of them to show the history.
“We reached out to Misty West, she has experience with the old mill. We talked to others, some people in Columbia, a lot of advice from people who have done similar projects,” he said.
As of now, there is no time span of when construction will begin.
History of the hotel
The McDonalds know very little about the history of the 45-room hotel. The history they do know is listed on their Facebook page, @OldNewberryHotel. Here is some of the history the page discusses.
The first mention of a hotel was in 1820. It was managed by James Fernandis, who later moved to Alabama. The hotel was then run by Robert Stewart, and known as the Magnolia House. Lenn Morgan took over proprietorship and later moved to the Greenville/Spartanburg area.
In 1859 the Morgan House was purchased by H. H. Kinard and the name was changed to Farmer’s Hotel H. H. Kinard turned over ownership of the hotel to his son John M. Kinard in 1860. John M. Kinard was in the Confederate service, received a wound to the right arm which eventually was the cause of his death.
Ownership of the hotel then reverted back to H. H. Kinard who sold the Hotel to J. N. Martin. The name of the establishment became the Martin House.
The newspaper reported that General Hood, escorting the wife of Jefferson Davis, spent the night at the Martin House on their flight from Columbia. In December 1865 the hotel was sold to H. I. Epting who changed the name of the establishment to the Newberry Hotel. J. Pool moved to Newberry from Greenville in 1866 and purchased the site, renovated, repaired, and called the new establishment the Pool Hotel. There was an elegant bar room attached to the establishment.
In 1868 the hotel went into receivership due to bankruptcy. S. B. Calcutt of Marion moved to Newberry and managed the hotel, leasing the hotel from Jordan Pool. In 1872, when the lease expired, Calcutt retired from management and J. P. Pool again took over. C. C. Chase, son-in-law to J. P. Pool, became the owner in January 1873 but in 1875 Chase moved to Spartanburg and reverted ownership back to J. P. Pool.
It was at that time that the newspaper started to report the names of those registered at the hotel and so from January 1876 to March 8, 1877 there were weekly reports of the activities of the building. Fire consumed the hotel March 8, 1877 and in October 1877 a frame storehouse was constructed on the site. In 1878 the present day structure was built with bricks made by J. P. and T. C. Pool brick-making company.
While the McDonalds do not know many stories that involve the hotel, they do know one. This came from Jim Wiseman who was born in the hotel. His father was the manager of the hotel.
“No one has been able to tell us for sure when it stopped being a hotel, best guess is the 1950s. We are still looking for people with memories, anything fascinating, looking for pictures, ghost stories, really anything. We do not have any pictures of the inside of the hotel,” McDonald said. “We know there was a barber shop, a doctor’s office and a drug store. Where the Pottery studio is now is where the hotel restaurant was. The painting studio was the drug store.”
If anyone has any information they would like to share, they can reach the McDonalds at 803-944-1711 or find them on Facebook at @OldNewberryHotel.
