Blue Ridge Country March/April 2020 - 16
OUR BLUE RIDGE TOWNS
HINTON, WEST VIRGINIA
Three Rivers
and a Railroad
With one of the largest National Historic Districts in the country, Hinton, West Virginia, is revising
its story and its future.
By JOAN VANNORSDALL
W
hen the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway
reached Hinton, West Virginia, in 1873,
only six families lived there. Thirty-three
years later, the population had blossomed
to 6,000. By 1925, the city enjoyed a wellequipped hospital, a $100,000 luxury hotel, a four-story Masonic theatre, many
shops and three banks, several newspapers, and one of
only four Carnegie libraries in West Virginia.
The Hinton C&O yard employed hundreds. Steam
engines pulled coal trains through Hinton, were serviced
in the roundhouse, and continued east to Talcott and
through Great Bend Tunnel, where legendary steel-driving John Henry went up against the steam drill and won.
Hinton's Big Four Building was home to four powerful
railroad unions.
You can guess the next chapter in Hinton's railroad
story: diesel engines requiring less maintenance came in
the 1950s, and the Roundhouse laid off workers. When
C&O and Seaboard Coast Line merged in 1980, creating
CSX, Hinton's decline continued. The Roundhouse was
torn down in 1983, businesses shuttered, people left.
Today, Hinton has about 2,400 residents. Through the
efforts of committed city supporters and native son Ken
16
BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM
Allman, Hinton is again coming into its own, its eye on
tourism as the driving force.
Twenty years ago, the city was looking in a different
direction. Built on the site of the collapsing Parker Opera House, the sprawling Hinton Technology Center was
championed by Senator Robert C. Byrd and Congressman
Nick Joe Rahall as a hub for computer technology and
government contract work. For more than a decade, the
Technology Center housed 80 workers...employees who
eventually began to work from home, says City Manager
Cris Meadows. The Center now houses a fitness center, a
daycare center and several small businesses.
Around the corner, near the only traffic light in the
county, is the Summers County Convention and Visitors
Bureau. This is where you'll pick up the newly redone
Hinton Historic District walking tour brochure, with 40
(!) stops on the 16-block route. If you do nothing else
but walk this tour and pay attention to what's in front of
you-as well as to the bold shadows of what once was-
you'll know Hinton pretty well:
The elegant 1875 Summers County Courthouse, designed by Frank Milburn.
The 1907 Big Four Building, now home to one of the
oldest drugstores in West Virginia.
http://www.BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM
Blue Ridge Country March/April 2020
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Blue Ridge Country March/April 2020
Blue Ridge Country March/April 2020 - Intro
Blue Ridge Country March/April 2020 - Cover1
Blue Ridge Country March/April 2020 - Cover2
Blue Ridge Country March/April 2020 - 3
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Blue Ridge Country March/April 2020 - Cover3
Blue Ridge Country March/April 2020 - Cover4
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