By Ruth A. Ringelstetter
In the spring of 2010, as Joann and I were returning from North Carolina, I took the opportunity to plan the route past a couple of the highlights in West Virginia. Don’t get me wrong, we do want to spend a lot more time there, but I’ll need to do a lot more research before then.
One of the places that we did manage to visit was the historic town of Thurmond. Thurmond is in the New River Gorge, which is one of the most important natural areas in West Virginia.
Thurmond was a flourishing town, mostly due to the C&O Railway. At its height in the 1930s, the population of Thurmond was nearly 500. In 2013, the population was 5. It is the smallest incorporated town in West Virginia.
We laughed about how small the town hall was, but now, knowing that the town only has 5 residents, we know that little building is big enough.
Thurmond has a small row of remaining main street buildings, but it never had a main street. The railroad tracks ran just a couple of feet outside those buildings. At that point, the gorge is very narrow, and there was no room for tracks and a road. Just the tracks.
To enter Thurmond, you must cross a one-lane bridge. This one-lane vehicle bridge and the railroad bridge are side by side. Joann was a little reluctant to cross, wondering what might be happening on the other side. I wasn’t driving so I, of course, was telling her to just drive over it.
The first building you see is the restored depot. Today, it is a Park Service visitor center for the New River Gorge National River. It was built in 1904 to replace an earlier building that burned in 1903. It was enlarged in 1914, and was restored in 1995 by the park service.
The depot is also an Amtrak flag stop. Amtrak passes through three times per week, but only stops if there are passengers ticketed to or from the station. In the early years, 15 passenger trains per day passed through Thurmond, and it served 95,000 passengers per year.
The depot originally had three waiting rooms. One for white women, one for white men, and one for African Americans. It also housed a clerk’s office, trainmaster’s office, yardmaster’s office, car distributor’s office, and telegrapher’s cabin. The projecting bay served as a signal tower.
Many of the railroad buildings are gone now, but the coaling tower and sand house still stands as a testament to the coal that travelled through town. More freight used to pass through Thurmond than through Cincinnati, Ohio.
A few of the other main street buildings have been stabilized by the National Park Service and display signs about historic Thurman in the windows. One of those buildings is the former National Bank of Thurmond. It was built in 1917 and housed a jewelry company until 1922.
The National Bank of Thurmond acquired the building and renovated the front into what you see today. Originally, the building had cast iron storefronts, but the bank remodeled their half into a limestone façade.
The original plan was to renovate the buildings to be used for tourists, but no money was available, so only the depot was completely remodeled. The other buildings were stabilized or removed if they were past stabilizing or didn’t contribute to the historic district.
We hope to return to West Virginia, and if we do, we will probably return to the Thurmond area. If you find yourself in West Virginia, be sure to enjoy the natural beauty and small historic towns.
Happy Shunpiking!
Ruth
Shunpiking To Heaven Backroads Blog
Showing posts with label historic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label historic. Show all posts
Sunday, June 14, 2015
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
The D. H. Day Barn
By Ruth A. Ringelstetter
In May of 2007, Joann and I made our first trip to Michigan. Our goals for the trip were as many lighthouses as we could fit in (to be covered in another post), the cherry blossoms, and the Old Mission Peninsula.
Along with the above goals, we both wanted to see the D. H. Day barn. Each of us had seen pictures, and that was all it took for us to know that we had to visit for ourselves.
David Henry Day was born in Ogdensburg in upstate New York in 1854. His father died at a young age and they lost the farm they had there. He came to Glen Haven, Michigan as a clerk for the Northern Transportation Company in 1878 with $240. He began buying land and soon established a booming lumber company and bought land for his farm.
He established a 400-acre farm that he called “Oswegatchi” after the New York community where his father was born and the Oswegatchi River where he had played as a boy. The farm buildings were built in the 1880’s and 1890’s and included the Queen Anne style house, the barn, a hog barn, a creamery, and a bull barn.
The barn is 116 feet long with French curves. The original barn was a two-story dairy barn and did not include the ornate silos standing today.
In 1889, Day married Eva Ezilda Farrant, and they took up residence above the General Store that he had built in Glen Haven. She preferred to live in town, so he walked the 3 miles to his farm each day to oversee operations and check on his prized animals.
By the 1920’s, the farm had an immense fruit orchard containing 5,000 apple and cherry trees. There was also acreage for growing corn and hay to feed his 400 hogs and his 200 pure-bred Holstein cattle.
He dreamed of living in the house on the farm one day, but was always overridden by his wife, who wanted to continue to live in town.
When Day died in 1928, he was 76 years old. Newspapers said Michigan had lost “King David of the North.”
The barn is listed as one of the “50 Most Significant Structures in Michigan” by the Society of Architectural Historians. It lies within the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, but is privately owned.
At least once a day an artist or photographer pulls up along the road to study the farm and photograph or sketch the ornate buildings in their rural setting.
If you ever get to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, be sure to drive M-109 to view the farm for yourself. It’s gorgeous!
Happy Shunpiking!
Ruth
In May of 2007, Joann and I made our first trip to Michigan. Our goals for the trip were as many lighthouses as we could fit in (to be covered in another post), the cherry blossoms, and the Old Mission Peninsula.
Along with the above goals, we both wanted to see the D. H. Day barn. Each of us had seen pictures, and that was all it took for us to know that we had to visit for ourselves.
David Henry Day was born in Ogdensburg in upstate New York in 1854. His father died at a young age and they lost the farm they had there. He came to Glen Haven, Michigan as a clerk for the Northern Transportation Company in 1878 with $240. He began buying land and soon established a booming lumber company and bought land for his farm.
He established a 400-acre farm that he called “Oswegatchi” after the New York community where his father was born and the Oswegatchi River where he had played as a boy. The farm buildings were built in the 1880’s and 1890’s and included the Queen Anne style house, the barn, a hog barn, a creamery, and a bull barn.
The barn is 116 feet long with French curves. The original barn was a two-story dairy barn and did not include the ornate silos standing today.
In 1889, Day married Eva Ezilda Farrant, and they took up residence above the General Store that he had built in Glen Haven. She preferred to live in town, so he walked the 3 miles to his farm each day to oversee operations and check on his prized animals.
By the 1920’s, the farm had an immense fruit orchard containing 5,000 apple and cherry trees. There was also acreage for growing corn and hay to feed his 400 hogs and his 200 pure-bred Holstein cattle.
He dreamed of living in the house on the farm one day, but was always overridden by his wife, who wanted to continue to live in town.
When Day died in 1928, he was 76 years old. Newspapers said Michigan had lost “King David of the North.”
The barn is listed as one of the “50 Most Significant Structures in Michigan” by the Society of Architectural Historians. It lies within the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, but is privately owned.
At least once a day an artist or photographer pulls up along the road to study the farm and photograph or sketch the ornate buildings in their rural setting.
If you ever get to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, be sure to drive M-109 to view the farm for yourself. It’s gorgeous!
Happy Shunpiking!
Ruth
Monday, June 25, 2012
Mary Worthington Macomb House
By Ruth A. Ringelstetter
On our trip to Ohio this spring, Joann and I stayed one night in Chillicothe, Ohio. I had several historic locations marked for us to investigate, and I thought these would make good first light photo opportunities. Little did I know that we would still be in town nearing lunch time!
One of these locations was the historic Mary Worthington Macomb house which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. The house sits in an industrial area of town on the banks of Paint Creek.
Mary Tiffin Worthington was born in Virginia (present day West Virginia) in 1797. She was the first child of Thomas and Eleanor Worthington. The following year, her family moved to the Northwest Territory. (The Northwest Territory existed from July 13, 1787 until May 1, 1803, when the southeastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the state of Ohio. It included all of the land west of Pennsylvania and northwest of the Ohio River.)
Being from an affluent family, Mary and her younger sister Sarah attended boarding schools in Kentucky and Maryland, and Mary attended one of Dolly Madison’s tea parties at the White House.
When Mary chose David Macomb for her husband, her father did not approve. Even though he was from a prominent family, he was considered lower in society.
The land where the house was built was originally owned by Nathaniel Massie. A later owner of the land began building the two story sandstone house in 1813, and the house was completed two years later. The year the house was finished, Mary’s father, the future Governor Thomas Worthington, bought the property.
By 1819, David’s poor management of their finances forced them into debt and their belongings were sold at public auction. For a time, Mary and her family lived in this house which was owned by her father.
In 1825, David moved the family to Tallahassee, Florida. In 1835, hearing of a promising life in Texas, David moved the family again. Mary became ill on the trip to Texas and never recovered. She died in Texas in 1836 at the age of 39. David also suffered from failing health and was despondent over Mary’s death. He committed suicide a year later. They were buried in the wild woods of Texas and their graves have never been found.
The property in Chillicothe, on which the house stood, was converted for commercial use. By 1845, there were multiple new buildings around the structure including a frame building and a slaughterhouse. Those buildings are now gone, but the house remains, standing silent as a testament to early Chillicothe settlement.
If only these were the sort of things we learned in history class. Memorizing dates didn’t mean as much to me as being in front of these old historic locations and then learning something about the lives of the people who lived there.
Happy Shunpiking!
Ruth
On our trip to Ohio this spring, Joann and I stayed one night in Chillicothe, Ohio. I had several historic locations marked for us to investigate, and I thought these would make good first light photo opportunities. Little did I know that we would still be in town nearing lunch time!
One of these locations was the historic Mary Worthington Macomb house which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. The house sits in an industrial area of town on the banks of Paint Creek.
Mary Tiffin Worthington was born in Virginia (present day West Virginia) in 1797. She was the first child of Thomas and Eleanor Worthington. The following year, her family moved to the Northwest Territory. (The Northwest Territory existed from July 13, 1787 until May 1, 1803, when the southeastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the state of Ohio. It included all of the land west of Pennsylvania and northwest of the Ohio River.)
Being from an affluent family, Mary and her younger sister Sarah attended boarding schools in Kentucky and Maryland, and Mary attended one of Dolly Madison’s tea parties at the White House.
When Mary chose David Macomb for her husband, her father did not approve. Even though he was from a prominent family, he was considered lower in society.
The land where the house was built was originally owned by Nathaniel Massie. A later owner of the land began building the two story sandstone house in 1813, and the house was completed two years later. The year the house was finished, Mary’s father, the future Governor Thomas Worthington, bought the property.
By 1819, David’s poor management of their finances forced them into debt and their belongings were sold at public auction. For a time, Mary and her family lived in this house which was owned by her father.
In 1825, David moved the family to Tallahassee, Florida. In 1835, hearing of a promising life in Texas, David moved the family again. Mary became ill on the trip to Texas and never recovered. She died in Texas in 1836 at the age of 39. David also suffered from failing health and was despondent over Mary’s death. He committed suicide a year later. They were buried in the wild woods of Texas and their graves have never been found.
The property in Chillicothe, on which the house stood, was converted for commercial use. By 1845, there were multiple new buildings around the structure including a frame building and a slaughterhouse. Those buildings are now gone, but the house remains, standing silent as a testament to early Chillicothe settlement.
If only these were the sort of things we learned in history class. Memorizing dates didn’t mean as much to me as being in front of these old historic locations and then learning something about the lives of the people who lived there.
Happy Shunpiking!
Ruth
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