Parkersburg City Park (Tour)

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One of City Park’s most famous features was the Lily Pond. Originally the park held two such ponds, but these days only the larger three and a half acre pond remains. Lily ponds were a landscape architecture mainstay in the early twentieth century. They were typically included in private estates, museums, and public parks. Such features were prized for their annual blooming of brightly colored water lilies. City Park’s pond was the largest artificial lily pond in the world when it was completed in the early 1900s. However, the lilies themselves were removed around 1980. In addition to being historically significant in its own right, the Lily Pond was also the site of a historical event. In 1913, pilot Morris Priest crashed an early Wright Brothers plane into the water feature. Priest had planned to give airplane rides to local residents when equipment failed during an initial test flight. Several Wright Brothers test flights had already taken place in Parkersburg, possibly due to the fact that the brother’s preferred building material was West Virginia spruce. The plane was retrieved from the pond by local residents, though it was completely totaled. Priest suffered no serious injuries.

2. Henry Cooper Log Cabin Museum

Constructed circa 1805, Henry Cooper’s Cabin was likely the first two-story cabin built in Wood County by pioneer Henry Cooper, who sojourned from Eastern Virginia in 1800. In the early twentieth century, the cabin was purchased by the city of Parkersburg and relocated from its original location in Slate, which is only nine miles away from its current location. The cabin was gifted to the Centennial Chapter of the Daughters of the American Pioneers. The building is now a museum that displays artifacts from the United States' Pioneer Era. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. The Centennial Chapter of the Daughters of American Pioneers continues to own and oversees the cabin and museum. The structure is significant both historically, and as a target of preservation long before preservation initiatives were common.

3. Nicholas H. Null Memorial

The Nicholas (Nick) H. Null Memorial is one of several veterans’ memorials located in Parkersburg, West Virginia. The memorial was dedicated in 2013 and is located at Parkersburg's City Park. It pays tribute to thirty-one American Soldiers, including Null, who lost their lives during a combat mission in Afghanistan on August 6th, 2011 after their helicopter was shot down. At the time, the incident was the greatest single loss of American life since the war in Afghanistan had begun. This memorial specifically honors Null, who was a Parkersburg native prior to joining the Navy.

4. Parkersburg Confederate Monument

During the Civil War, most residents of Parkersburg and Wood County remained loyal to the United States, although approximately 500 local citizens enlisted in the Confederate army. At the turn of the century, the United Daughters of the Confederacy gradually raised several thousand dollars to erect a statue to Parkersburg's Confederate dead as part of their nationwide campaign to create monuments that would lionize the Confederate leaders and vindicate the antebellum South. A key part of the UDC's program was the dedication of monuments in prominent places within Border South communities. As a result, West Virginia saw the creation of more Confederate monuments than Union monuments in the early 1900s despite the state's unique history which begins with the rejection of Virginia's decision to leave the Union. Meeting in Wheeling, representatives of western Virginia counties created a pro-Union government and formally joined the United States as a new state in the middle of the war. This monument was dedicated in 1908 and the ceremony featured noted United Confederate Veteran speaker and Lost Cause advocate Bennett Young. The former Confederate raider said little of Parkersburg or West Virginia's history in his speech, and instead chose to praise the racially "homogenous" nature of the Confederate army when he proudly proclaimed its soldiers "constituted the most homogeneous organization that every bore the Anglo-Saxon name." The monument features a bronze Confederate sentinel atop a rough-hewn granite pedestal.

5. Jackson Memorial Fountain

The Jackson Memorial Fountain was constructed in 1905 to honor the contributions of important local resident General John Jay Jackson and that of his sons. The entire Jackson family was active in politics and served in prominent cabinet, legislative, and judicial positions. The fountain has been damaged by the elements repeatedly over the years, culminating in its complete collapse in 2018. The entire structure was replaced while remaining as faithful as possible to the original Victorian predecessor. The Jackson Memorial Fountain is the only civic work of its kind in West Virginia. This monument was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

This Tour is a Virtual Museum or Site Tour.

Parkersburg City Park

Created by Iain MacKay on April 13th 2021, 4:36:19 pm.

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City Park was created in 1897 and reflects the growth of Parkersburg and the influence of the City Beautiful movement. In its early days, the park hosted a zoo, West Virginia’s largest Victorian fountain, and the second-largest artificial lily pond in the world. The park is also the location of several significant historical events, such as the crash of a Wright Brothers plane in 1913. The park also hosted John F. Kennedy’s largest West Virginia rally during his 1960 presidential campaign. The park has changed over time, and many of these changes are reflected in the virtual tour of the park within this entry.

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Parkersburg City Park

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