Mannington, Marion County

May 2019 Update: The depot is almost completed, and Nativibes continues to rent it as an art gallery and studio. The major items to be rehabilitated are the roof and some exterior brickwork. 

2017 Update: No updates have been made available to PAWV in the past six months. 

As of the last update provided to PAWV in January 2017, the Mannington Railroad Depot has served as an art gallery, called Nativibes, for a local artist since February 2016.  The artist volunteered his time to complete the building’s interior renovation. The artist also utilizes the depot to conduct youth art classes and host art shows and other activities as a part of broader community events. 

Mannington, Marion County

2023 Update: New owners purchased the mansion in 2021 and have invested almost $250,000 into its restoration. The owners studied photographs in order to recreate the interior and exterior as authentically as possible, and they are also collecting artifacts from the Bowers family to display. In May of 2023, the mansion will open as an event space! Visit www.senatorsmansionwv.com for information about event reservations.

2017 Update: No updates have been made available to PAWV in 2017.

As of the site’s last update report to PAWV in 2016, the 22-room mansion was for sale.   

2009: The Bowers House is located in Mannington’s Historic District. Built about 1870, the Queen Anne Victorian home was later purchased by state Senator George W. Bowers, who served from 1921 to 1924. Bowers also served as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1936. A prominent entrepreneur, he was the owner of the Warwick (USA) China Company, Homewood Glass Company, Bowers Pottery Company, Bowers Realty Company, First Exchange Bank and many other turn-of-the-century enterprises. The home underwent many changes influenced by the Arts and Crafts period of the 1930s and 40s and remained in the Bowers family until 2003. Little maintenance was done for an extended period of time, but restoration has been undertaken by the present owners. 

Fairmont, Marion County

The Marion County Jail is another site endangered by the abandonment of historic local jails for new regional facilities. The Marion County Jail, designed in the Romanesque Revival style by Edward John Wood, AIA, and built in 1912, is architecturally significant as a part of the County Courthouse complex, which includes the courthouse, the jail, and the sheriff's residence. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995, the jail is a contributing structure to Fairmont's Historic Downtown District. In addition to the jail's architectural significance, the jail provides an important link to the history of organized labor, including the 1915 Farmington coal strike and the 1919 national coal strike, when approximately 100 strikers were incarcerated and held for two months while awaiting trial. The Marion County jail also has significant links to workers rights in the U.S. Postal Service; in 1915, twenty-five letter carriers were incarcerated after labor disputes and one committed suicide in the jail.