West Virginia Coal Towns: Charleston, WV beautiful city

Charleston, West Virginia

Charleston WV is by itself, beautiful. The most visible landmark is of course the West Virginia Capitol building. When Cass Gilbert designed this building, a little known factoid was rarely talked about. This building is LOADED with symbols.....Example, our Capitol building was dedicated on June 20th, 1932....West Virginia Day!

The front, Lincoln Walks at Midnight a statue designed by Fred Torrey, tells of the founding of West Virginia on its base.. We celebrate this as June 20, 1863, (*a Saturday)....SO, why talk about the Capital of West Virginia in the context of coal towns?

When I drove to the Capital with my assistant we had driven up from McDowell County and followed a northern route that ended in Kanawha County. He had seen coal towns. Hard core, knuckle busting sweat down the back coal towns. Driving into Charleston, they were stunned....."My God, this is a city, a real one, it glitters.." In other words, it was the exact opposite of what we had seen.

HOWEVER, much like the coal towns, the dome was not just a gold thing meaning wealth, it was loaded with symbols, hidden in plan sight, very much like the coal towns we had visited. Symbols of power, wealth, strength industry......

The Eagle, 5 feet tall, at the top of dome exceeding 290 feet in height....AND NO, I did not forget the Lions

NOTE the garlands, being held at each lion head and the shells lining the roof

Eagles are ALL over the dome as well as the garlands

The Capitol allows us to understand that our state is strong, and yes, immersed in a need for prayer. Lincolns statue mentioned above has a curious element. Per the pic below, I believe Lincoln is in prayer, or meditation. Head bowed, looking onward to our state flag.