Writing in 1863, Captain Edward Boynton's History of West Point, he describes the hotel listed on Wade's panorama:
"The West Point Hotel, also built in 1829, (as was the Band Barracks) is a stone building, stuccoed, 50 x 60 feet, and contains sixty-four rooms. It was built chiefly from the proceeds of the sale of wood cut down from the public lands, and cost about $18,000. A wing three stories high, 62 x 29, of brick, corresponding with the main building, was added in 1850."
He goes on to comment on visitors to West Point:
"Thirty years ago, the arrival of a stranger at West Point, to witness the signs of promise and development of one united by the ties of kindred and friendship, was in itself a novelty; but now , the increased facilities for travelling, and the existence of two fashionable hotels, bring, or carry away daily, a hundred voteries of pleasure from this once secluded spot.
To satisfy these, there are no medicinal waters, no cataracts, or surf-bathing; but there are walks, and talks, and drives, and hops, with two hundred chosen of Columbia's youth, whose gallant bearing and courteous attentions are sometimes remembered with a sigh, and sometimes borne with a matron's affection through the voyage of life.
The visitor at the West Point Hotel may direct his view up the river northward to Newburg, nine miles distant, and note the Shawangunk Mountains in the extreme distance; and if the atmosphere be unusually clear, the Catskill Mountains, while the intervening distance is dotted with steamers and vessels, significant of the wealth of the West and the enterprise of the East."
The West Point Hotel was built during the tenure of Superintendent Sylvanus Thayer, who understood that in order for West Point to continue to receive funds from the government, it would have to be known and appreciated by wealthy and influential people. Just some who visited the hotel included Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, Jenny Lind and the Grand Duke of Russia.
The other fashionable hotel Boynton refers to is Cozzen's Hotel which also drew many famous people over the years. Cozzen's hotel was completed just after Wade's panorama was published and so is not noted on the map.