A Brief History of the Greenbrier Resort

The Duchess of Decorating
In 1945, The Greenbrier hired influential American designer Dorothy Draper to redecorate the hotel, as she had with New York's Hotel Carlyle, Washington's Mayflower Hotel, and Chicago's Drake Hotel. Her ornate and flamboyant style, dubbed "modern baroque," is epitomized in The Greenbrier's decor — bright, patterned wallpaper, black-and-white checkerboard floors, red chairs paired with mustard yellow walls and exotic floral prints (above). Whenever she completed a project, the room was said to have been "draperized." It took her 14 months, 45,000 yards of fabric, 15,000 rolls of wallpaper and 40,000 gallons of paint to transform The Greenbrier.

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