Greenbrier Hotel Up for Public Auction

The Greenbrier Hotel, owned by Gov. Jim Justice and his family, has been announced for auction on the courthouse steps late this month because of default, according to a legal advertisement placed in Lewisburg’s West Virginia Daily News. more

So, why is this news?

One of the great vestiges of the Cold War is the Greenbrier bunker, a facility built to house all 535 members of Congress in the event of a nuclear attack.

In 1955, Dwight D. Eisenhower instructed the Department of Defense to draft emergency plans for Congress in case of a nuclear strike. Even if Washington, DC was destroyed, American officials needed a procedure to maintain the continuity of government. As part of these efforts, the Army Corps of Engineers was charged with scouting the location of a nuclear bunker for the members of Congress. They ultimately selected the Greenbrier, a luxury resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.

Greenbrier was chosen because of its location—relatively close and accessible to Washington, but far enough away to be safe from an atomic bomb—and because of its prior relationship with the United States government. During World War II, Greenbrier had served as an internment facility for Japanese, Italian, and German diplomats and then as a military hospital, where Eisenhower himself was at one time a patient. Although it returned to its original function as a hotel after the war, government officials occasionally held conferences at Greenbrier. more 

Video of the bunker.

Time to sing-s-long! or sing-a-long with... a little darker number.

New York’s KGB Espionage Museum Will Soon Go Up for Auction

It’s a sad fact that as the coronavirus crisis stretches on, many museums and galleries won’t be able to survive the economic crunch, and will likely be forced to sell off their collections. 

However, this also means that vast and unusual troves of items will be redistributed to the public, which is the case with an upcoming Julien’s Auctions sale of the entirety of the items within the KGB Espionage Museum in New York City. 

Set to take place on February 13, 2021 at Julien’s Auctions in Beverly Hills and online simultaneously, the auction will include the world’s largest collection of authentic KGB spy equipment dating back to the Cold War...

“The KGB Espionage Museum’s collection of Cold War era items is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world,” Martin Nolan, the Executive Director of Julien’s Auctions, told Observer on Thursday. “We anticipate the auction will attract a wide range of collectors from museum curators to historians to James Bond fans, particularly in this election year." more