After the hotel closed in the middle 1970s and its HoJo's frozen in time, the building saw use as the George Washington Home for Adults, an assisted-care living facility. The care facility lasted from 1975 until 1995, and the only other tenant was a home furnishings business that operated there during 1996. The George Washington remained vacant after 1997, and was eventually put up for sale.

At a fire sale price of $600K in 2003, Winchester City Councilman Glen P. Burkerental, a local real estate mogul of sorts, purchased the old hotel with its ghost-of-a HoJo's. No doubt it pays to be connected, and Mr. Burkerental was quickly portrayed as a good altruistic citizen out to preserve the GW. While the hotel will be reopened as a Wyndham during 2007, there was never even a whimper in the dark to save any remnant or artifact from what had been the preserved circa 1954 Winchester Howard Johnson's.