With a commitment to preserve our unique cultural heritage, PAWV and its members work to save our past for the future, supporting and promoting historic preservation through education & outreach, advocacy, preservation tools, and heritage tourism.

WHAT IS PAWV?

Preservation Alliance of West Virginia serves as the statewide grassroots organization dedicated to the support and promotion of historic preservation.

Now with more than a quarter century of service to the cause of preservation in West Virginia, the Preservation Alliance of West Virginia was established by a group of concerned and dedicated volunteers in 1981. These volunteers were interested in building interest in, knowledge about, and legislative support for historic preservation through grassroots advocacy, education, and outreach. Officially incorporated the following year, the organization quickly began making significant, positive contributions to the preservation of West Virginia’s vast, proud heritage.

Through the years, Preservation Alliance has maintained the statewide, non-profit presence promoting historic preservation, with periodic newsletters, web site, technical assistance and advocacy, and annual conferences. One of its first major accomplishments came in 1984, when PAWV published a Preservation Sourcebook for West Virginians. A traveling exhibit, shown all around the state, hit the road in the same year. This exhibit showcased preservation success stories from all over West Virginia. In 1987, PAWV played a role in restructuring the different state agencies that ultimately came to fall under the Division of Culture and History. In 1991 and 1997, respectively, the Preservation Alliance successfully lobbied for the passage of business and residential tax credits for preservation at the state level. 1997 was also the year of the first West Virginia History Day, and was the year in which PAWV published a booklet called Economic Benefits of Preservation. This was the first manifestation of what has become a staple of PAWV’s platform: the direct link between economic development, tourism, and preservation. In 2003 a staff person was hired for the new West Virginia Cultural Heritage Tourism program, which has become a highly successful program under the current guidance of Mitzi Miller. In 2005, the Preservation Alliance hired its own full-time director, and began planning a series of home repair and preservation workshops. The workshops have been executed through the summer of 2006, and will likely serve as the pilot models for an expanded program in the very near future.

At its first-ever joint conference with Main Street West Virginia in May of 2006, held in Charleston, PAWV celebrated its 25th Anniversary. Fitting of the occasion, the dinner featured local, traditional musicians, was catered by a local restaurant that had been fostered through the successful East End Main Street program in Charleston, and was held in the Charleston Woman’s Club, a Charleston Cultural Instituation since 1926. Board members and longtime supporters Mike Gioulis, Phyllis Baxter, and Dan Gooding reflected not only on the many important things that PAWV has accomplished through the years, but also on the many individuals whose hard work and dedication made it happen. Today, the organization continues to grow, with more solid programming than ever, and a group of members and leaders worthy of its past. PAWV aims to do nothing but build on and add to its successes in the coming years.