# New boutique hotel opens in former school building in West Virginia

> Hill Hall Hotel opened in September in a former 1923 school campus in Fayetteville, West Virginia, with 40 rooms.

- **Section:** New hotels
- **Published:** 2026-10-16
- **Publisher:** Voyage (https://thevoyage.gr)
- **Type:** our own summary of someone else’s reporting
- **Source:** Lodging Magazine — https://lodgingmagazine.com/schoolhouse-history-meets-modern-hospitality-hill-hall-hotel/

Hill Hall Hotel opened in September, housed in a former school campus in Fayetteville, West Virginia. The 40-room boutique hotel is the result of an extensive renovation that preserved elements of the original 1923 school design while updating the property for modern travelers.

The hotel's restaurant, named Patsy's, honors Pat "Patsy" Phillips Wendell, grandmother of Stephen Wendell, founder and CEO of Mountain Shore Properties, and draws on her recipes. Mae Pate, head of design at Mountain Shore Properties, said the connection to Patsy allowed the team to make the space "warmer and more personal."

The design retained references to the building's school history, including sturdy wood furniture, library-style shelving, and laminate tables, paired with warmer materials such as upholstered banquettes. Pate said the goal "was never to make the building feel new... it was to make it feel cared for, useful again, and still recognizable to people who knew it before."

Most of the artwork in the bar area comes from the Wendell family's collection, including historic photographs of Fayetteville and maps of the West Virginia landscape. The team also custom-designed the lighting throughout, including a pendant fixture at Patsy's restaurant.

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This summary was written by Voyage based on reporting by Lodging Magazine. The full article is at https://lodgingmagazine.com/schoolhouse-history-meets-modern-hospitality-hill-hall-hotel/. Canonical URL of this page: https://thevoyage.gr/en/a/new-boutique-hotel-opens-in-former-school-building-in-west-virginia