Overlooking what what were once bustling rail lines of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in Grafton, West Virginia, which was an early B&O hub. To the right are the Willard Hotel, built in 1911 by the B&O to house travelers and important railroad employees, and the old B&O terminal. Rail traffic increased as the B&O expanded, reaching 30 passenger trains a day by the 1920s. The old Grafton House, containing both hotel and depot facilities, had been built in 1857 and could no longer meet the railroad’s needs. Named in honor of B&O President Daniel Willard, the Willard (no connection to the famous Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C.) was built by Grafton attorney and industrialist John T. McGraw. The contractor for both the Willard and the new B&O station was J. Walsh & Son of Baltimore, and the same granite and brick were used on both buildings. The six-and-a-half-story hotel is Second Empire in style, with a mansard roof, cut stone trim, and brick corbeled quoins. The Willard was a thoroughly modern hotel for its time, with all the amenities and one of the finest ballrooms in the area. By the early 1960s, ridership had declined to a trickle. The Willard ceased to function as a hotel and was used to house train crews; by 1988, it stood vacant. The closed station is now the Grafton B&O Railroading Heritage Center. Photo by Carol Highsmith, 2015.