Steven and I had spent the last several days last August being thoroughly charmed and enchanted by what we'd seen in the state of West Virginia and had therefore looked really forward to exploring its capital city, Charleston. We first searched out the remains of a burial ground in nearby South Charleston as it was near our hotel. The Mound Festival Mural was painted by Austel Miller in 2002.
The Adena Indians Burial Mound was one of the few remnants of the Adena culture in the Kanawha Valley and was opened by the Smithsonian Institution in 1883.
The sculpture by Cubert Smith was called Burial Attendants.
Charleston should have been known as the city of bridges for all those that spanned the Capitol River!
Steven and I were so looking forward to touring the State Capitol as part of our bucket list to visit all 50 but, due to Covid-19, it was unfortunately closed to all tourists. At least we were lucky that had been the only one so far.
West Virginia's capital was first located in Wheeling as of 1863 but it was relocated to Charleston in 1870. After Charleston was considered too isolated and provincial by lawmakers, it returned to Wheeling in 1875 before moving back to Charleston in 1885 following a statewide referendum! It was located two miles west until it was destroyed by a fire in 1921. The present building was completed in 1932. The building's outstanding feature was its rotunda dome, 180 feet above the main floor. How we'd loved to have seen the two-ton, eight-foot in diameter rock crystal chandelier that hung from the center of the dome!
The statue honored Stonewall Jackson who served as a Confederate general during the Civil War and was the best known Confederate commander after Col. Robert E. Lee.
A sign by the Capitol stated that when Abraham Lincoln was elected as the country's 18th President in 1860, he received fewer than 2,000 votes in Virginia, most from present-day West Virginia. He was credited with preserving the Union, ending slavery, and playing a crucial role in the state's admission to the country in 1862. When Lincoln died in 1865, Lincoln County, established in 1867, was named in his honor.
As we walked along the riverfront, we came to the Zero Mile Stone erected by the State Road Commission of West Virginia.
Trees planted across from the Capitol represented each of the state's counties which reminded us of the same tribute as in Carson City, Nevada's capital city we'd visited a couple of months earlier.
A historical marker on the waterfront said that two companies of the 45th US Colored Infantry with 212 African American soldiers were credited to West Virginia. The men, several of whom identified as having been born in West Virginia, had been 'recruited' in Philadelphia in 1864. I couldn't help but wonder what 'recruited' would have meant to a Black man in the 1860s. After fighting in several battles, they were discharged in late 1865.
Another sign by the waterfront declared that in 1860 Virginia, nearly 491,000 men, women, and children of African descent were held in slavery. Less than four percent lived in present-day West Virginia, with most concentrated in just seven counties. The geography and economy of western Virginia limited the use of slave labor. The state legislature officially ended slavery in the state in February of 1865.
In 1924, work began on this magnificent Georgian colonial-style mansion next to the Capitol that became the official home of the state's governors since 1926. The home was constructed of colonial Harvard brick at a cost of $203,000.
In the heavily Republican state of West Virginia, we were pleased to see political signs supporting the Democratic ticket of Biden and Harris in the state capital.
We returned to walk around the Capitol grounds where we stopped at the West Virginia War Memorials.
So many West Virginians gave their lives in WW II that names of the deceased had to wrap around the memorial.
The statue honored West Virginia's female veterans for "their dedication and selfless service" in the armed forces, something all too few other states did based on our tour of many state capitals.
Booker T. Washington was born a slave near Hales Ford in Virginia in 1856 but subsequently became a famous educator, author, lecturer, and advocate of interracial cooperation. He established the first vocational school for negroes in the country, at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. I imagine many of you may be familiar with the Tuskegee Airmen who trained at the Institute and served so valiantly in WW II. Steven and I already have marked the site to stop at on our summer itinerary.
Do you remember seeing reproductions of the Liberty Bell at other state capitals I've posted about! It was one of 53 cast in 1950 in France and given to the US government. The dimensions and tone were identical to those of the original Liberty Bell when it rang out the country's independence in 1776. People were invited to stand before the bell and dedicate themselves, as did the founding fathers, to the principles of the individual freedom for which the US stands.
More of the Capitol complex:
We drove over next to the Clay Center, the regional cultural center that was described as having interactive science exhibits, an art gallery, and a theater with a planetarium and also home to the West Virginia Symphony.
As all that was closed, we could only admire The Festival Delle Arti sculpture out front that had been produced at the Fonderia Massimo Del Chiaro in Pietrasanta, Italy in 2005.
I found the ultra-modern Hallelujah! sculpture less to my liking.
I hadn't realized before that cattle were big fans of corn shucks, were you?
At the market, we picked up a brochure describing The Block Historic District, the center of Charleston's black business and residential community that was located very close to the market. Sadly, the area declined due to urban renewal in the 1960s and the growth of the interstate system that was built in the middle of the district. The Block was named the first local historic district in 2011. Five properties in the 25-acre area were listed in the National Register and were all that remained of a once-vibrant community.
The Mattie Lee Home was named for the first Black female doctor from West Virginia. It was established in 1915 as a safe haven for Black girls arriving in Charleston and looking for employment. The home also became a social, religious, and cultural center.
The Simpson Memorial United Methodist Church was organized before the end of the Civil War in 1865, initially with a White minister. The congregation was sent its first Black minister, the Rev. C. O. Fischer, in 1866 by the Washington Conference of the Methodist Church. After moving several times (just like the Capitol and Capital!) this Gothic-style church was built in 1914 and still serves its members.
Garnet School was one of three Black high schools in the city during the segregation period. In the mornings, buses picked up Black students two-plus hours before collecting White students. Black students were also the last to be taken home in the afternoons. When Garnet was constructed, the school also had an auditorium, gym, cafeteria, special rooms for sewing, mechanical drawing, printing, and separate chemistry, physics, and biology labs.
The Elizabeth Harden Gilmore House was named after a high-profile funeral director and a pioneer in West Virginia's civil rights movement. As a former Girl Scout troop leader for one of our daughters, I was happy to read that Gilmore was successful in gaining admission of her Black Girl Scouts into a local camp. She also led the first sit-in against The Diamond Department Store's lunch counter. Eighteen months later, the Diamond opened its lunch counter to blacks in 1960.
I wish I could have shown you how the local interstate divided The Block and how terribly rundown the area had sadly become as my photos do not accurately the despair.
Some murals from the city's East End:
If you've been reading my posts for years, you probably remember Steven and I make a point of stopping at particularly historic or scenic cemeteries. That was why the city's Spring Hill Cemetery Park that dated to 1869 drew our attention. On the registry of National Historic Places was the Moorish Byzantine-styled mausoleum that had been built in 1910.
Seeing the extensive Children's Section was sad, knowing they were taken at far too young an age.
At least, the cemetery was a peaceful spot among the trees. It was also described as a beautiful place for picnics, dog-walking, self-guided history tours, bird watching, and arboretum touring! I certainly don't know of any other cemeteries where people could participate in so many activities.
The largest municipal cemetery complex in West Virginia had been intended by its Victorian planners in 1969 to be a park-like place for quiet walks and meditation among its 33,000 marked graves and 50,000 graves all told.
The following photos were part of the cemetery's Angel Walk. I hope you will like this quote as much as I: "Angels have long been looked to as our guardians representing serenity and peace as well as prayer and praise. Angels as monuments reflect these thoughts and emotions, placed in honor of those we loved but who have died before us."
The most prominent angel in the cemetery was the Cotton angel that had stood watch over the cemetery for over 100 years. The over 8-foot tall angel was hand-carved in Italy and guarded the remains of Harry Cotton who was interred in 1878. I liked knowing the outstretched wings represented a soul being escorted to heavenly eternity and that the angel's right hand was raised toward heaven.
In 1914, the Risk family placed this marble angel in their family plot in memory of their 19-year-old daughter, Minerva, who died of complications during surgery. As she was engaged to be married, her bridal veil was placed in her hair. The roses in the angel's hands indicated unfailing love.
The Oliver angel was placed to honor a mother. The openness of the wings overlapping the back of the granite represented the soul being escorted to heaven. I read that the angel's hands offered prayers for the eternal soul.
The only plot to have a historic marker honored Andrew Donnally who was born in Ireland in 1745 and emigrated to Greenbrier County, West Virginia. He and his family survived an attack by Indigenous Americans in 1778. He became one of the earliest pioneers in Charleston and, while holding multiple government offices, one of the largest salt makers in the Kanawha Valley.
Never had we seen a cemetery that was quite as 'wild' as this one in the sense that very little of the grass had been mowed. That made walking through the graveyard's uneven terrain more treacherous than I was game for! However, the unkempt look did add a certain beauty to the graves.
The oldest recorded burial was of William Lewis who passed away in 1818. I would have liked to view the marker but it was inaccessible like most of the gravestones.
We wouldn't have known of the Spring Hill Cemetery's existence without seeing a brochure about it at the Capitol Market. It turned out to be a pleasant place to while away an hour or so in a very picturesque location.
With nothing else to see in the capital city, we made our way to the nearby town of Dunbar to visit Wine Cellar Park. West Virginia, aka the Mountain State, has long been known for its long history in the mining industry. It was a surprise to learn that it had once been a thriving wine-making territory. Although the state's connection with grapes only lasted a few short years, there were still remnants of its past.
We had the park's small Laura Anderson Lake entirely to ourselves for a good hour or so. It was pretty idyllic reading, watching the geese, and texting with you, Suellen, about knitting bear toys if you remember?!
When another family showed up to fish, we opted to walk around the trail that clearly had not seen any maintenance for a long time!
As wildly impressed as Steven and I had been touring much of the state of West Virginia for several days, its capital city of Charleston was one of the most unrewarding state capitals of all those we've seen to date. No capital city yet had so little to attract tourists. Yes, we found things to do that interested us to while away the day but nothing that would lure us back for a repeat visit unless it were to see the gigantic chandelier in the Capitol Rotunda of course!
Next post: By contrast, the most charming city of Huntington, West Virginia, near the border with Kentucky.
Posted on March 9th, 2021, from our home in Denver's suburbs. For several weeks we've been planning an extensive remodel of the main floor that will include new kitchen appliances being delivered next month. Wouldn't you know it - our ancient stove gave up the ghost completely tonight, just a month before we were unceremoniously going to be sending it to the oven graveyard! So, now we're facing lots of meals on the outside grill, on our equally ancient camp stove, and perhaps a new toaster oven. I hope you and your loved ones are safe and can cook a hot meal more easily than we can!
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