After the roof collapsed and the building was condemned in 2022, Shavers Center at Snowshoe Mountain Resort was razed. In its place, a new lodge bearing the same name has been constructed.
Suzanne Stewart
Staff Writer
One of the several symbols of Snowshoe Mountain Resort is the Shavers Center. It was the first lodging facility to be built on the mountain when it was transformed into a ski resort in 1974.
The lodge was a gathering place for avid outdoorsmen and women who loved gliding down the mountain on skis and snowboards. It was the beginning of something great and served the mountain for decades.
That is until the roof collapsed in the winter of 2022.
At that point, a decision needed to be made – repair or rebuild.
“The building was getting older, and it definitely had some issues here and there, but then the roof partially collapsed after a storm,” marketing director Shawn Cassell said. “They brought in an engineer to look at it. He looked at the rest of the building, and they ended up just calling it condemned.”
The structure was of historical significance for many reasons, including that it was built using wood milled in nearby Slaty Fork.
Regardless, the safety of employees and visitors was too big a risk to try to fix what was there. Instead, the building was razed, and a new lodge was designed and built in its place.
A groundbreaking for the new lodge – which would retain the name Shavers Center – was held on April Fool’s Day, but it was no joke. A new building was just over the horizon.
The center will return to its heyday, with the main floor serving as a food court and gathering site for those on day trips or those wanting a nice place to rest between slope rides.
“There will be some ticket windows for buying lift tickets or snowmobile tours,” Cassell said. “There will be some windows on the exterior of the building where you can just walk up on the patio, similar to the way it used to be with the Shavers Center.”
Inside, there will be a variety of eateries to choose from, as well as the Skidder bar for after hours. The main portion of the floor will be filled with tables and chairs, for visitors who just need a respite or designated gathering spot off the slopes.
“That’s what we’ve really been missing for the last few years without Shavers Center,” Cassell said. “If you didn’t have lodging – if you didn’t have a room to go back to when you were taking a break – there was no place to just go hang out.”
The lower level will serve as the ski school, pre-ski daycare and adventure outpost location.
“For the last few years, we’ve been using a little prefab building between The Village and the Shavers Center as our Adventure Outpost,” Cassell said. “That’s for snowmobile tours, side-by-side, The Hut dinners. So instead of going to that little shack, it will be in the lower level of the new Shavers Center.”
Shavers Center was the first lodge built at Snowshoe Mountain Resort when it was founded in 1974. The lodge was the hub of activity on the mountain for decades until The Village was built and lodging options expanded.
The new and improved Shavers Center will open in mid-December, just in time for the rush of visitors who want to spend their winter vacation on the mountain.
It’s great news for returning families who had a difficult time adjusting to where they would drop kids off for ski school or pre-ski.
“With not having the Center for a few years, we moved a lot of our ski school over to Mountain Lodge and it just made for a disjointed ski school experience,” Cassell said. “I always felt so bad when they would get over here and say, ‘I have one kid in pre-ski and one in regular lessons,’ and we’d have to tell them, ‘You’ve come to the right place for one of them.”
Now, everything is going to be back in one location, right next to the Skidder slope, so it should be smooth sailing for skiers of all ages and abilities.
Gone, along with the original building, is the confusion behind the spelling of Shavers Center.
“It will still be the Shavers Center, no apostrophe,” Cassell said. “Center is spelled normal. At one point in the history of the Shavers Center, they gave it the Old English ‘re.’ We’re keeping it simple. No Old English.
“Unless we want to call it Ye Olde Shavers Centre,” he added, laughing.
Whether it was meant to be Center or Centre, one thing is certain, the founder of Snowshoe, Dr. Thomas “Doc” Brigham, would be happy to know his vision for a southern ski resort has been kept alive for 51 years.
