The American Hotel was constructed by the Virginia Central Railroad in 1855, just one year after the railroad had reached Staunton. The railroad was expanding westward and was now an established connection between the Shenandoah Valley and the state capital of Richmond. The hotel is located a mere 20 yards from the railroad.

At the time of its construction it was considered one of the most modern and convenient hotels in the country. Thick carpeting, gas lights, several bathtubs and a Grand Ballroom were a few of the latest additions to the hotel. There were no hotels like it, from Staunton to Washington DC to Cincinnati. All of that would change in the year 1862. A year into the American Civil War, hardships and suffering would make its way to the small town of Staunton. Because of the towns connection to Richmond, the capital of the Confederacy, Staunton became a focal point of the Union army. Since the arrival of the railroad, Staunton had become a center of communication and commerce, factories were establsihed that produced uniforms, shoes and blankets. Confederate troops trained in Staunton and it soon became a base of operations.

With the war expanding, there were more and more battles, local and afar, it did not take Staunton long before it was overhwelmed with sick and wounded soldiers. The few hospitals Staunton had soon become overcrowded. Many schools, churchs, houses and hotels were soon converted into hospitals. The American Hotel was no exception.

The American Hotel would serve as a Receiving Hospital from 1862 until the end of the war in 1865. Most, if not all, sick and wounded soldiers that made their way into town were received at the American Hotel. From there they would be sent to another hosptial in town or would stay and be treated at the American Hotel. The Hotel could accommodate up to 250 patients. The largest hosptial in town was the Virginia School for the Death and Blind known as VSDB. It was known as a General Hospital and could accommodate up to 10,000 patients.

After major battles such as Antietam and Gettysburg, the flow of sick and wounded soldiers into town was of epic proportions. Every hospital in Staunton was completely overwhelmed. Amazingly, the death rate was fairly low in Staunton during the war. More soldiers died of sickness than actually of battlefield wounds. General hospitals such as VSDB provided the best care for soldiers. Simply put, they were much more equipped to handle sickness and battlefield wounds. They had more doctors, surgeons, medicines, more beds. Soldiers that did die at the American Hotel would have been transferred to the basement which served as a morgue. Depending on the seasonal weather at that time, the bodies may have spent some added time in the morgue until the weather permitted a decent burial. Most local soldiers were buried in Thornrose Cemetery here in Staunton. Dead soldiers from states other than Virginia would be transported to Richmond, Virginia, for burial in Hollywood Cemetery or in some cases transferred to their hometown if next of kin could be contacted.

Staunton did not fall into Union hands until June of 1864. Union General David Hunter ordered the depot station and railroad to be destroyed. Warehouses and factories in the area were burned down. He also ordered his soldiers to remove the confederate sick and wounded from the American Hotel and make the hotel available to his staff.

Incredibly, Hunter would spare the hotel from destruction on the advice of one of his officers, whom had developed a friendship with the current owner of the American Hotel. During the time of the Civil War, the hotel as well as the train depot station was active on a daily basis: dead and wounded were transported through the area, troops were constantly coming and going, and supplies were always moving to and from the station. POWs were even paraded through town for all to see before boarding a train headed to a prison in Richmond. Anything and everything that came through the depot station during the civil war passed by the American Hotel, it was a hotbed of daily activity.

The American Hotel would go on to survive the Civil War.

On Christmas Eve, December 24th, 1869, a gentleman named Henderson Coe spent the night at the American Hotel with his father and brother on the third floor of the hotel. His father and brother were to have him admitted to Western State Lunatic Asylum the next day, Christmas Day. Somehow, during the course of the night, Henderson Coe, for whatever reason, managed to escape through the window of his room while everyone was asleep. A loud scream was heard and Henderson Coe was found dead just outside the hotel. No documented reason was stated for why he was out on the window ledge. Was he trying to escape and run away? Did he slip and fall? Or did he commit suicide? We may never know.

In 1874, the first year of his presidency, Ulysses S. Grant took a brief vacation trip to White Sulphur Springs stopping overnight in Staunton at the American Hotel. When the news of his arrival spread, a music band that had previously served as Stonewall Jackson’s headquarters band assembled at the station opposite his hotel room and serenaded Grant with the song Dixie and “My Country ‘Tis of Thee.” Grant came out on hotel balcony and acknowledged the band by raising his hat. Grant is reported to have bowed repeatedly to the band. The incident was one of the first public acts of reconciliation after the American Civil War. Grant was quite fond of the band and in later years they played at his funeral.

Three months later, famed Confederate Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard stopped at the American for a night. The Stonewall band serenading of Beauregard was extremely emotional.