Buildings of West Virginia / S. Allen Chambers, Jr.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Chambers, S. Allen.

Series:

Buildings of the United States

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Architecture--West Virginia--Guidebooks.

Architecture.

West Virginia--Guidebooks.

West Virginia.

Genre:

Guidebooks.

Physical Description:

xxiii, 663 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : Oxford University Press, 2004.

Summary:

West Virginia, site of John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry and a child of the Civil War, is almost alone of all the states in having representations of architecture and engineering on its state seal. Yet, perhaps in part because of the diversity that formed them, West Virginia's architectural history and engineering heritage have not been fully explored and assessed until now. Buildings of West Virginia divides the state into ten regions, beginning with Charleston, and fans out to encompass the whole panoply of development from prehistoric times to the present. Readers will find within its pages both familiar images and many surprises. Included here are buildings ranging in type and date from the earliest remaining log houses and churches to mid- and late-twentieth-century designs by Walter Gropius and The Architects Collaborative; Skidmore, Owings and Merrill; and Michael Graves. Reflecting the diversity of the state's built environment, attention is paid to vernacular as well as high-style buildings: from the Washington family houses in the Eastern Panhandle to cottage rows at the numerous antebellum spa complexes; from the delightful Wheeling Italianate houses, which reflect that city's nineteenth-century industrial prosperity, to a Charleston church considered so architecturally significant that it was published in one of the first issues of American Architect; and from rustic structures in one of the nation's most impressive state park systems to Cass Gilbert's monumental West Virginia State Capitol.

In addition to individual buildings, S. Allen Chambers, Jr., surveys historic districts, residential neighborhoods, and even entire towns. Among these, Arthurdale, in the north central part of the state, remains the least changed and among the most important of the nation's New Deal-era town planning efforts, while company towns still dot the landscape of the state's southern coal country and its forested mountains to the east. In this comprehensive volume, Chambers records West Virginia's architectural treasures in a lively and insightful text, which is accompanied by 45 maps and approximately 370 illustrations. It introduces regions, cities, and towns with essays, many of them extensive, and pays careful attention to the historic and geographic elements that shape various settings in the Mountain State.

Contents:

Buildings of West Virginia : an introduction

Capital center and south central West Virginia

The Springs

Coal country

Lower Ohio and Kanawha valleys

Oil country (Mid-Ohio Valley)

Northern panhandle

Northern West Virginia

Central West Virginia

Potomac highlands

Eastern panhandle.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 567-573) and index.

ISBN:

0195165489

OCLC:

53315276