Duck and cover

Author: By Anthony Flint, Globe Staff

Date: SUNDAY, January 26, 1997

Page: M1

Section: Travel

Who would have thought we'd end up with duck and cover?

That Cold War drill for schoolchildren was very much on our minds as we toured what is fast becoming a major attraction at the five-star complex: the Government Relocation Facility, an expansive Cold War bunker buried 800 feet in the hillside under the hotel's West Virginia wing. Built between 1958 and 1961, the top-secret facility was designed to house Congress in the event of nuclear war. It was revealed in 1992 and declassified, and the Greenbrier started giving tours not long after.

So while tennis, golf, trap shooting -- not to mention falconry, hiking and lazy afternoons by the fire -- marked our Thanksgiving-weekend visit, a provocative history lesson became an unexpected highlight of the Greenbrier experience. We found ourselves transported back to another era, one that ended not so long ago. We came away amazed that such preparations were actually in place, when the world teetered on the nuclear brink. It's a perfect way to show young people, now reading about the Cold War in history books, what the mentality was like.

The bunker, with ceilings and walls up to 60 inches thick and protected by huge concrete and steel doors, was built under the guise of the construction of a wing at the Greenbrier; if the Soviets spied the construction, they saw only a resort doing a little expansion. But deep underneath the new wing, the country's biggest bomb shelter took shape, a 153-room, 112,000-square-foot complex with its own power plant, communications system, medical facilities, dormitories, kitchen and meeting rooms -- including a place for Congress to meet -- capable of sustaining 1,000 people for up to 40 days.

A driveway leads to an outside garage door marked with a dire sign reading ``high voltage,'' to fend off the curious. Incredibly, it worked. The secret was safe for 3 1/2 decades.

Looking around the spartan facility, with its checkered-floored cafeteria and plain white dishes, along with the spare dormitory rooms and rows of metal bunk beds, you feel a sense of readiness that seems frozen in time. Implausible as it may seem, they were serious about this. The constitutional government was to continue operating here while Washington and most of the rest of the country was obliterated.

It is no small irony, notes resident historian Robert S. Conte, that a place revered as the height of civilization was so prepared for the end of civilization.

The Government Relocation Facility -- Project Greek Island, as it was known -- assumed that Congress, staff and families could make it to the Greenbrier in the event of nuclear war. But the complex is 250 miles from Washington. The government was expected to have sufficient warning to hop on a fast train through the hills to safety. What a train ride that would have been.

That the Greenbrier was selected for the relocation of Congress comes as no surprise. The resort has had a long association with official Washington, from the time Thomas Jefferson first noted the curing powers of the waters here to the days when presidents from Dwight D. Eisenhower on down came to play golf on the fabled links. The facade of the main building even looks a bit like the White House.

During World War II, the government actually took over the Greenbrier -- first as a staging area for Axis diplomats being expelled from the country, then later as a therapeutic hospital for injured soldiers. One can only imagine the resort in those days: German, Italian and Japanese diplomats biding their time, captive guests at countless dinners in the elegant dining rooms, kept there long enough to establish temporary schools for their children. Then the soldiers returning home, dunking battered limbs in the soothing hot waters of the spa, the sound of shells whistling and guns pounding replaced by what must have been eerie yet thankful silence; some of them, transported here in the night, were said to believe they had died and woke up in heaven.

At the Greenbrier, the legacy of the past permeates the regal corridors. You just don't get this kind of stuff at a Hyatt Regency.

Indeed, how many other resorts have a resident historian? Conte, the Greenbrier's in-house answer man, makes himself available informally and gives lectures and tours of the interior. We spotted his 10:30 a.m. Greenbrier history lecture on the list of daily events handed out to all the rooms, and one rainy morning we wandered into the main hotel's big theater to listen. In the darkness of a late-morning slideshow, it is true my wife, 5-month-old son and mother-in-law dozed off for a bit, but for some reason I found the whole thing captivating.

The Greenbrier started when a settler first sipped from the sulfur spring on the property in 1778; Thomas Jefferson noted the healing powers of the mineral waters, said to help rheumatism, six years later. By the mid-1800s, aristocratic Southern families were coming to the spring to socialize as well as cure ills.

The hotel, actually an original structure known as ``the Old White,'' served as a Confederate military headquarters and hospital during the Civil War and was almost burned down on Union orders afterward. But it escaped that fate and benefited greatly through the turn of the century by a railroad built by its doorstep; the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad bought the resort for $150,000 in 1910, and the current structure was built shortly afterward.

With time out for various government takeovers, the relationship with the railroads has continued to this day. The Greenbrier is currently owned by the CSX Corp.

Today the Greenbrier -- the 550-room hotel and separate guest cottages and suites -- is enjoying something of a renaissance as an all-inclusive destination. Its cache is surely aided by the the array of activities, some of them, like trap shooting or the slightly overpriced falconry classes, not found at the average resort. Certainly the fine golf courses, where Sam Snead once shot his record-setting 59, and the tennis facilities are also a draw, as are hiking, walking and mountain-biking all over the Greenbrier's 6,500-acre estate.

The Greenbrier is increasingly popular as a meeting point for far-flung families at holiday time, which was indeed what we did, electing to let someone else do the Thanksgiving cooking. It is also very popular for conferences, and the ever-creative management offers special cigar aficionado weekends, cooking classes, golf packages and Big Band weekends as well.

The spa is splendid and includes a full array of mud wraps, tranquil baths and pulsating showers. There is also a diagnostic clinic where you can get checked out by doctors to assess your health.

The food is good and plentiful; breakfast is a special treat, with its offerings of fresh brook trout, grits and strong coffee. Dinners tend to be a bit of an event, spent in one of three ballroom-sized dining rooms. Afterward, there are musical performances in front of roaring fireplaces amid decor still reminiscent of New York designer Dorothy Draper, who gave the Greenbrier its trademark floral prints, lush carpeting and antique furniture.

Don't miss cocktails in the Old White bar, where crooners harmonize on obscure 40-era classics like ``Cab Driver.''

But there I go again, falling for that retro-nostalgia thing, wanting to be carried off to another era. Maybe that's why I found the history of the Greenbrier, including the Cold War bunker, such a rich addition to the experience.

Yet the history component was spurred by an intellecual impulse as well. It was like finding a riveting biography at a rented beach house, or stumbling on a great public television documentary when you planned to watch vacuous TV. You go so the body and spirit can recuperate, but darned if your mind doesn't get a little exercise as well.

Room rates range from $175 to $220 per person, double occupancy, depending on the season. Suites and guesthouses, which are set apart from the main hotel, start at $225. The rate is a Modified American Plan and includes breakfast and dinner.

Activities include golf, tennis, hiking, mountain-biking, fly-fishing, falconry, skeet and trap shooting and hunting. The spa offers a range of relaxing treatments. The hotel includes well-appointed common spaces, bars, dining rooms, a billiards and bowling area, an indoor swimming pool and a skating rink in winter.

Lectures on the history of the Greenbrier and guided tours for the Government Relocation Facility, the Cold War bunker, are regularly scheduled; check the daily events newsletter or the front desk.

By air: USAir provides regular service from Boston to Lewisburg, the airport for the Greenbrier, connecting through Washington, Pittsburgh or LaGuardia. A hotel limousine will take you to the resort, about 15 minutes away, for a $15 charge.

By car: Driving time from Washington is approximately 4 1/2 hours. The resort is just off Interstate 64.

By train: Amtrak (call 800-USA-RAIL) offers regular train service to The Greenbrier from major cities. The resort has a long association with the railroads (and indeed is owned by one), and it used to be the preferred way to travel there. The station is right across from the main gate.