Lowe Hotel

4th and Main Streets • Point Pleasant, WV • 304-675-2260

These days as you traverse the backroads of the nation you become overwhelmed at the repetitiveness of the towns in America.

In every larger town through which you ride, and every junction with a highway, you'll find the same exact thing. It is as boring as it comes. Two or three chain motels (one actually bragging how smart you'll seem if you overnight there), a Ruby Tuesday, Chillis, Bennigans or Cracker Barrel will most likely be within striking distance, as will as a number of big gas stations; all with a 24-hour mini-mart so we can make sure to stock up on Red Bull to stoke us up to ride blindly into America's homogenization.

It bites - but it's just the way America has become; and although there is a time and place for a quick room and a bite to eat while making miles, we much prefer coming across simpler, yet grander places to call it a night.

One place that comes quickly to mind is the historic Lowe Hotel, which you'll find right on Main Street in Point Pleasant, West Virginia.

The history of this part of West Virginia is rich in many things. When surveyed by  George Washington he declared this bend in the Ohio river to be most pleasant. The name stuck. The Revolutionary War claims it's first battle here, back during the French and Indian War. The October 10, 1774 battle led to a parcel of land being paid to one Andrew Lewis who built the first hotel on the land.

The hotel you see today was built in 1901 and it ran successfully till the Stock Market crash in 1929 when it was sold to the Lowe family.

In 1990 Rush & Ruth Finley purchased the grand old lady and began the time consuming and difficult task of bringing it back to its former grandeur. The Lowe truly is a look back in time, and you get the feeling that things were a bit more special back then. Renovations go on and in 2004 they added a full service bar and restaurant to the hotel.

In the mid-60's Point Pleasant came to the nation's attention when a large man-like creature was reportedly inhabiting the region. The Mothman, as it was called, remained in the area until the terrible tragedy of the Silver Bridge collapsing into the Ohio River on December 15th, 1967 killing 46 people.

As we have told you a number of times, as many towns bury the strange weird and scary past, Point Pleasant honors its own monster with a gorgeous statue, which stands right across from the historic Lowe Hotel.

Down the street is a beautiful riverside park, complete with a superb mural depicting the history of this part of the Ohio river, and there is a monument to those who p

erished on that snowy December night when the bridge collapsed.

The rooms at the Lowe were real comfortable and Rush and his family were as friendly as they come, even allowing us to park our bikes safely under the hotels large porch during a monumental rain storm.

The town also has a museum dedicated to the Mothman, and it is the Mothman's legend that still brings thousands of visitors and truth-seekers here each year.

Sadly, the tragedy of the bridge comes second. As Rush told us at the bar, "Folks sometimes don't care about real history - but a mystery, ahh - that'll bring them in every time!"

We agree.

But, there is no mystery about the Lowe Hotel. It is the way things used to be and we wouldn't trade a night in a Holiday Inn Express for a night at the Lowe Hotel for anything. You would have to be stupid to do that!