Helen Historic District Found Eligible for National Register of Historic Places

A Preserve WV AmeriCorps member’s survey of historic Helen, WV could result in a national designation, making many of the buildings eligible for a variety of historic preservation funding opportunities. The West Virginia State Historic Preservation Office found the town of Helen potentially eligible for the historic designation because it represents an intact example of an early 20th-century coal mining company town. Grants, historic tax credits, and a loan guaranty program will be available for Helen property owners if a nomination is submitted and accepted for the National Register of Historic Places - the official, honorary list of historic properties designated by the National Park Service.

The survey was a project for Kyle Bailey, the Alliance’s Preserve WV AmeriCorps member. Bailey researched and documented the 100-year history of Helen and submitted all the required paperwork to West Virginia’s State Historic Preservation Office. Bailey, currently serving his second AmeriCorps term with the Alliance, notes, “The Helen Historic District would be an incredible opportunity to promote economic development and heritage tourism in the southern coalfields of West Virginia. The historic preservation funding, includes a 45% historic tax credit that can be used to update commercial buildings and a 20% historic tax credit that can be used to preserve historic houses. There is also a state construction grant offered annually to all types of property owners including small entrepreneurs, nonprofit organizations, and homeowners.”

This survey project arose from a collaborative effort between the Preservation Alliance of West Virginia, the National Coal Heritage Area, and the Winding Gulf Restoration Organization. The three groups joined together in 2014 to clean out and secure the Helen Apartment building, a historic boarding house that was once used to house single miners. The goal of the survey was to see if historic preservation funding could ultimately be used to rehabilitate this apartment building and other significant coal company buildings as there are very few financial resources available otherwise.