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Historic Morgantown

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Historic Morgantown

Preserving the stories hidden in plain sight. Historic homes. Forgotten people.

Lost Morgantown.
📍 Morgantown, West Virginia
Follow to rediscover the city you thought you knew.

05/14/2026

Let’s save the old buildings!

04/23/2026

“This monument almost didn’t exist.” 🇺🇸

On July 4th, 1867, just after the Civil War, the people of Monongalia County gathered at Oak Grove Cemetery overlooking the Monongahela River. Veterans stood among the crowd as speeches echoed, music played, and cannon fire rolled across the hills.

That day, they laid the foundation for a monument to honor their fallen.

And then… nothing happened.

For years, the project was abandoned. No monument. No tribute. No follow through.

By the late 1800s, community leaders were calling it out publicly. They said it plainly, it was a disgrace that Monongalia County had not honored its own sons who died preserving the Union.

So they tried again.

With renewed determination, and even cannons donated by the federal government, the people of this community finally made good on their promise.

This monument is not just stone. It is a second chance. A reminder that Morgantown refused to forget.

📍 Soldiers Monument
🌳 Oak Grove Cemetery
🕰 Early 1900s postcard

04/16/2026

🏛️ Before Evansdale… before modern expansions…
the heart of WVU Law was shaped right here in Morgantown.

🏡 This was the home of Thomas P. Hardman — Rhodes Scholar and longtime Dean of the West Virginia University College of Law from 1931 to 1956.

Built in 1928 on Grand Street, his residence overlooked the city and rolling hills, surrounded by pristine gardens and carefully crafted stonework that still define the character of South Park today.

Known to students as “Chappie,” Hardman helped shape generations of legal minds — all while calling this quiet hillside home.

A beautiful house… with a lasting legacy.

04/08/2026

🏡 ”The Home of Good Plumbing.”

That wasn’t just a slogan—it was Clyde Brand’s reputation.

Known to friends as “Jerry,” Brand started with nothing more than a job at a bottling works in Fairmont. He returned to Morgantown in the 1890s, learned the plumbing trade, and then left to sharpen his skills in larger eastern cities.

But like a lot of Morgantown’s builders… he came back.

By 1904, Brand had launched his own business.
Within a few years, his work was showing up in some of the finest homes in the city—many right here in South Park.

His advertisements promised quality.
His work delivered it.

And eventually, he built a home for himself to match.

Designed by Elmer F. Jacobs, this house reflects the same philosophy as his trade—solid, grounded, and built to last.

03/31/2026

She built an empire from this hill.

Long before women were allowed in the boardroom, Agnes Greer was running one.

From this mansion overlooking Cheat Lake, she controlled:
• Steel companies
• Coal operations
• Morgantown’s newspapers
• And radio stations—including WAJR

When her husband died in 1948…

She didn’t step back.

She took over—and expanded.

By the 1950s, she owned controlling stakes across multiple industries and states. One of the most powerful business figures in West Virginia…

⸻

The mansion tells the story.

Built in 1929 from stone on the property, and designed by Agnes herself, it included:
• A ballroom
• An elevator
• Servant quarters
• A schoolhouse for her daughter

But the real statement?

The view.

Miles of rolling hills—chosen by a woman who understood power, scale, and presence.

⸻

📍Greer Mansion — Near Morgantown, W. Va.

03/29/2026

He didn’t just write West Virginia’s history… he helped teach it.

Hu Maxwell—who built and lived in this South Park home at 709 Park Street—was more than a historian.

Through his work with Acme Publishing Company in Morgantown, Maxwell helped produce some of the most widely used historical materials in the state.

In 1901, he co-authored The History and Government of West Virginia—a book printed right here in Morgantown that went on to serve as a classroom textbook for generations of West Virginia students.

At a time when West Virginia was still defining its identity, Maxwell wasn’t just recording the past—he was helping teach it to the next generation.

But his life wasn’t limited to writing and publishing.

Maxwell was also an outdoorsman and explorer, spending time in the wilderness and even camping alongside Theodore Roosevelt, sharing in the early conservation spirit of the era.

And through it all, this home in South Park was part of his story.

A house connected not just to history—
but to how West Virginians learned it.

03/26/2026

The man behind the house.

Around 1905, this Park Street home was built by Charles G. Lutes—a young contractor who arrived in Morgantown just as the city was taking off.

He didn’t just build homes… he helped shape a growing city.

Born in 1874, Lutes quickly made a name for himself, constructing some of the most prominent residences in South Park. This home—designed by Elmer Jacobs—was one of his early speculative builds, a bold bet on Morgantown’s future.

And then something incredible happened.

In the late 1920s, as the city pushed toward Greenmont, this entire brick house was moved one lot north to make way for Alexandria Avenue.

Same house. New location.

A builder who helped shape Morgantown… and a house that literally moved with it.

📍 129 Park Street
👷 Built by Charles G. Lutes
📖 c. 1905

Follow Historic Morgantown for more stories like this.

03/23/2026

Morgantown Country Club – Evansdale (1920)

In August 1920, The New Dominion announced plans for a new country club overlooking Morgantown—set atop an eighty-acre tract owned by Joseph H. McDermott.

The vision was ambitious.

A nine-hole golf course designed by Joseph J. Walsh of the Maryland Country Club and C. J. Chisholm of Pittsburgh, with a grand clubhouse nearly 80 feet wide featuring large social and dining rooms.

Positioned along Star City Road and Willowdale Road, and bordered by the old fairgrounds, the development reflected a growing, confident Morgantown—one investing in recreation, status, and community life.

Soon after, this vision became reality.

The clubhouse—seen here—stood as a symbol of that era: wide verandas, towering columns, and sweeping views over the valley below.

A place where Morgantown gathered—not just to play golf, but to connect.

Do you know what stands here today?

03/22/2026

📍 Grandview Ave — Home of Dr. John L. Sheldon

Before South Park was built out, this home belonged to a man helping define science in West Virginia.

Dr. John L. Sheldon (1865–1947) came to Morgantown in 1903 as a WVU professor of botany and bacteriology. From this house on Grandview Avenue, he helped document plant life across the state — expanding what we knew about West Virginia’s natural world.

He wasn’t just teaching — he was in the field, collecting, studying, and contributing to early works like Living Flora of West Virginia.

By 1913, he was named Professor of Botany at WVU.

“A pioneer in the botanical exploration of West Virginia… a teacher whose enthusiasm inspired alike his students and associates.”

From this quiet South Park home, Sheldon helped shape WVU and the scientific legacy of the Mountain State.

03/20/2026

🏡 443 Park Street, Morgantown, W.Va. (c. 1903)

This is the story of a house, a family, and two West Virginia University professors.

Built for Professor W. E. Rumsey around 1903, this South Park home remains one of Morgantown’s most distinctive residences.

The first image shows the house under construction, rising from the hillside with scaffolding still in place. Even at that early stage, its steep gables and arched windows hint at the blend of Victorian Gothic and Queen Anne styles that would define the finished home.

Once completed, the house revealed its full character, with decorative shingles, varied textures, and a sweeping wraparound verandah.

But what makes this story special is the people behind it.

One image captures the Rumsey family gathered on the front steps of their new home, offering a rare glimpse into everyday life in South Park at the turn of the century. Seated on the far left is fellow WVU agriculture professor John Lewis Sheldon, who lived nearby on Grandview Avenue — a reminder of how closely connected this neighborhood was to the early university community.

Another image shows Professor Rumsey himself, seated inside a greenhouse at West Virginia University, reflecting the academic and agricultural work that brought him to Morgantown.

More than 120 years later, the home remains largely unchanged.

Homes like this are part of what make South Park one of Morgantown’s most historic and architecturally rich neighborhoods.

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South Park
Morgantown, WV

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