Designed by a Bristol, Tennessee, architect, the six-story former Hotel Norton was long a favorite lodging establishment for coal company executives visiting Norton and the coalfields of Southwest Virginia. Abandoned in the 1980s and threatened with demolition, the building was acquired by the Norton Industrial Development Authority (NIDA) in 1987. Beginning in 1994, the building was gutted and its interior rebuilt for commercial uses. The Renaissance Revival building has a three-bay facade facing Park Avenue and eleven bays along NW 8th Street. The first story is clad in stone veneer and accented by a molded stone cornice. Above are four stories of plain brick walls laid in stretcher bond, and a top floor of brick above a stone and wooden cornice. Carved stone panels between paired and single windows decorate the top story, which finishes with a wide cornice topped by a brick parapet.