Buckhannon, West Virginia

Buckhannon is a city and the county seat of Upshur County West Virginia. Of note, its the only city in Upshur County. The name Buckhannon is a derivative of a Native American Lenape Chief. While founded in 1861, Buckhannon is home of the Wesleyan West Virginia University and one of the largest Methodist churches in West Virginia. This is a DRAFT and there will be many more changes. Please do feel free to leave comments. IF you wish to purchase a print, I can be contacted via e mail 

To start, the Courthouse....

AND YES, the old Jail still stands just behind the county courthouse. 

NOTE the image below. Yes, its the Bethlehem Mines Corporation. IF you had any doubt that coal was not an impact here, this sign is one of the few relics downtown that says, ALOT of coal moved here. I was delighted to find it.

NOTE: The Wesleyan Church is the tallest building in Upshur County West Virginia. It is also the largest dedicated place of worship in the entire state as well as the home of the largest pipe organ in the entire state.

 Tams, West Virginia

Tams is a former coal town located in Raleigh County West Virginia. The main coal company at Tams was the Gulf Smokeless Coal Company. Construction of Tams started in about 1909 and yes, it is the namesake of William Tams. I will be updating this page more as it is a DRAFT. William Tams was a coal baron, with glaring differences from his colleagues. He lived in his coal town, he lived in a modest house and he made Tams a model coal town for its time period. Tams actually had its own school, and movie theater with paved roads. THAT was a remarkable thing at that time.

However, IF you were to drive to Tams today, the only building standing is the New Salem Baptist Church. This church is NOT in Stotesbury,  I am very tired of pointing that out. The famous St Johns church at Stotesbury was burned to the ground after it had started to collapse and pose a public safety hazard.

Below are pictures of the New Salem Church at Tams West Virginia, There will be much more to come, but please do feel free to look and comment.

CORNER STONE OF THE TAMS CHURCH

 FUN FACTS about the West Virginia Sate Capitol Building

Every year, I get asked many trivia questions about the West Virginia State Capitol Building...Thats odd right? I mean this blog talks about coal towns in West Virginia. WHY would anyone who photographs coal towns in West Virginia, get questions about the state capitol building in Kanawha County??  Earlier in this blog I quoted my one of my kids after we trekked through hard core coal towns in McDowell, Raleigh and Wyoming Counties. When we made it to Charleston, they said. It glitters, my God, this is a city. AND truth be told, its beautiful. HOWEVER, it would be remiss on my part not to share some NOT SO COMMON trivia about the West Virginia State Capitol Building, are you ready?? 

FYI, Cass Gilbert was the architect. He also designed the Supreme Court Building of the United States. IF you want to know about Cass Gilbert and what he did, check out the Cass Gilbert Society on line at https://www.cassgilbertsociety.org/

COST

On June 20th 1932, what we now know as the WV State Capitol was dedicated to the public. It took 8 years to build and cost (in 1932 dollars), JUST SHY of 10 million. HOWEVER, what is that in todays dollars? In 2022 dollars and adjusted for inflation, it would cost just under $190,960,274.00 

SIZE MATTERS

SO, after doing some raw research, here are a few cool items to know:

• The building itself is 292 feet tall and YES is THE tallest in West Virginia
• It has over 520,000 square feet of floor space
• The Eagle on top of the dome is 5 feet tall
• The chandelier in the main dome inside comes in at 4,000 pounds or 2 tons
• Ground breaking started in January of 1924

IF you want to know more? Check out the Summary of Facts for the WV Capitol Building which is maintained by the West Virginia State Legislature.

West Virginia History...

If you have the craving to know more about our state, start out by having a charming read of the current  West Virginia State Constitution

MORE updates on the way, BUT, enjoy the read