The Blennerhassett hosts weddings, rehearsal dinners, board meetings, trainings, regional meetings and reunions, from a boardroom of 26 to a ceremony of 200. The hotel stands on Market Street in downtown Parkersburg, West Virginia, and puts eight event spaces, 82 guest rooms, a restaurant, a lounge and a spa in a single building that opened in 1889.
Seminars and company events
Three rooms on the second floor are set up for working meetings. The Alexander Parker has full audio and visual equipment, pushpin walls for material that stays up all day, and ergonomic boardroom chairs. The Stratford adds large windows and coffered ceilings, and the Monroe next door mirrors it, so the pair works as a plenary room plus a breakout. Catering comes from Chancellor's, the restaurant downstairs, and attendees who travel in can stay upstairs. Executive suites and semi-private dining areas in Chancellor's suit smaller groups.
Weddings and receptions
The hotel handles the full weekend: ceremony, reception, rehearsal dinner, a block of rooms, spa appointments on the morning of the wedding and breakfast the next day, with one coordinator throughout. Couples usually hold the cocktail hour on the Promenade, the pre-function area outside the ballroom doors, before opening the room. Because everything sits in one building, nobody has to drive between venues.
Rooms and capacities
The Charleston Ballroom on the first floor covers 2,730 square feet under 16-foot ceilings and chandeliers. It seats 200 theater style, 120 classroom and 176 at rounds of eight, and divides into three sections of 875 to 945 square feet. The Patio Tent, 1,350 square feet with chandeliers, arched windows and paver floors, is temperature controlled and used all year; it seats 125 for a ceremony and 88 at rounds. The Alexander Parker seats 65 theater style and 26 at its boardroom table, the Stratford 56 theater style and the Monroe 48, each with 32 at rounds. Standing receptions take more guests than these seated figures.
Accommodation
The 82 rooms and suites include standard kings, rooms with two queen beds for families and groups, and five named historic suites. The 2002 to 2006 renovation reduced the room count from about 104 to 82 to make each room larger. Blocks of rooms can be held for a date, with a booking link to share with guests. The hotel is smoke-free and welcomes up to two dogs.
Catering
Chancellor's, named after the hotel's founder, serves seafood, steak, chicken and pasta and cooks the menus for events, which are built to order. The 1889, a lounge off the lobby, serves cocktails and small plates. Breakfast is served à la carte.
History and setting
Ground was broken in 1883, and the hotel took its first guests on May 6, 1889. Colonel William Nelson Chancellor, twice mayor of Parkersburg and president of the First National Bank, built it during the oil and gas boom and ran his bank from inside the building. The hotel survived a 1979 fire, was saved by local residents and investors in 1980, and was renovated in 1985 and again from 2002 to 2006. A library of more than a thousand books, a garden patio and a stage for summer evenings came with those works.
Getting there
The hotel sits at 320 Market Street in downtown Parkersburg, on the Ohio River. Mid-Ohio Valley Regional Airport serves the area, and Interstate 77 runs just east of the city.
