Director

We like to call this "The Forge that Built Arthurdale." It was an important building since many metal items - from hand tools to nails - needed to be made. The Forge, located in the center complex, worked with wrought iron, copper, and pewter. The smiths produced locks, door handles, hinges, and fixtures for the homes and barns as they were built. They also made copper and tin light reflectors for the homes and buildings. They produced a line of Colonial reproduction pewter goods, decorative copper items, and traditional wrought iron wares like fireplace tools and wall hooks. These were sold through the Craft Shop and catalogs.Arthurdale Blacksmiths soon received a national reputation for the products they made. According to a 1940 MCCA catalog, the pewter knives, candlesticks, bowls, and plates made in Arthurdale had a "true antique finish [with the] charm of early American simplicity" and sold from 25 cents to $7 a piece. The American Federation of Arts even selected the MCCA pewter candlesticks for display at the 1937 Paris Exhibition to represent American craftsmanship.

The Forge pre-restoration in the early 1980s

Forge weather vane made by Blacksmiths in the shop - item is still on display in the Forge

Forge Exterior with wrought iron sign and weathervane

Interior of Forge with Blacksmith Forest Cress, Eleanor Roosevelt

The Forge was constructed in 1934 as a metal working shop. It supplied items like iron door hinges and handles plus copper sconces for some of the new buildings. Under the brand of Mountaineer Craftsmen’s Cooperative Association (MCCA) it produced decorative items in wrought iron, pewter, and copper. They were available at the Craft Shop, some shops in the Northeast, and through catalogs. Lon Fullmer and Forest Cress were the smiths. Lon was trained before arriving in Arthurdale.

Blacksmith's Forge

Institution

Revisit the 1930s in Arthurdale, West Virginia! Established in 1933 and homesteaded in 1934, Arthurdale is the nation's first New Deal Homestead Community. It originally featured 165 homes, a cooperative farm, health clinic, cemetery, inn, and its own progressive schools until 1947, when the federal government officially sold all its interest in the community.

The homes marked with an asterisk (*) on this tour are privately owned. All visitors should be respectful of private property.


Prior to the construction of Arthurdale, the land upon which it was built had connections to a number of prominent figures from local, state, and national history, most notably its prior owners John Fairfax, William Brown, and Richard Arthurdale. After Arthurdale defaulted on the land during the Great Depression he sold it to the federal government, which began plans to locate the first of its eventually 99 communities for American citizens in economically depressed areas around the country. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt took a particular interest in Arthurdale because she had previously visited the region, and went on to take an active role in the town's operation. In 1947, however, the government chose to sell Arthurdale's lots to private owners, and its buildings began to fall into disrepair. At the community's 50th anniversary celebrations, local residents formed Arthurdale Heritage Incorporated to preserve the structures at the site and the stories of those who lived in them. Arthurdale Heritage currently operates a museum and gift shop there, known as the Arthurdale Heritage Center, and also hosts a New Deal Festival celebrating the town's history every year.Athurdale's first European owner, Colonel John Scott Fairfax began building his new home there in 1817 after living in Preston County for over two decades. During that time, Fairfax had become one of the area's most prominent citizens, serving as a justice of the peace, militia colonel, and member of the House of Delegates. Fairfax Manor, which was the stone house Fairfax's slaves built for him in modern-day Arthurdale, passed to the colonel's daughter after his death in 1843, who in turn lived there until her death in 1882.After that, local attorney and agricultural enthusiast William G. Brown purchased the land. Brown went on to run for Congress in 1896 on the Populist Party ticket, but ultimately would not successfully win an election for the position until switching to the Democratic Party for the 1910 midterms. He then served as the area's Congressional representative in the 62nd, 63rd, and 64th Congresses, holding the office until his death in 1916. Shortly after Brown's victory in 1910 he made the decision to sell his farmland in Preston County to regional hotelier Richard M. Arthur, who continued to add to his holdings in the area throughout his occupancy of the site. Arthur, who is perhaps best known for operating the popular Hotel Arthur at the corner of 27th and Carson Streets in Pittsburgh from 1890 to 1893, constructed a 23-room mansion on his land shortly after purchasing it and added a large stock farm soon thereafter. The former hotel proprietor continued to live at the site until going into default on the land during the Great Depression and selling the land to the federal government.Shortly thereafter, the government began construction of the first of 99 planned communities nationwide that were part of a New Deal era initiative to provide jobs and adequate housing to the areas most impacted by the Depression. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt had visited coal camps outside of nearby Morgantown, and seen firsthand the economic downturn's impact on those living in the area. Seizing the opportunity offered by the recent passage of the Homestead Subsistence Act in 1930, Eleanor suggested building the first community near the area she had visited to help families like those she had seen. Construction on the planned community at Arthurdale began in late 1933. The First Lady continued to be deeply involved in all aspects of the project and life in the community, from helping to design the homes to paying for the teachers. She visited the site many times over the course of its existence, even passing out diplomas at the town's high school graduations for the first 10 years. In 1938, she also convinced President Franklin D. Roosevelt to give the commencement speech, making Arthurdale the site of the only speech delivered by a sitting U.S. president to a graduating high school class.Although Arthurdale seemed like a good plan on paper, it experienced a number of problems in execution, primarily as a result of its location and the political and financial changes of the era. The most impactful of these changes came as the Great Depression drew to a close and the Second World War brought factory jobs back to the region causing the need for such communities to decrease dramatically. As a result, the federal government eventually abandoned the project as it was no longer considered necessary. Because of the major improvements she witnessed in residents' lives Eleanor viewed Arthurdale largely as a success, as did the homesteaders who received employment and housing through the project.By 1984 the central buildings had fallen into disrepair and local people formed nonprofit Arthurdale Heritage Inc. (AHI) to save them and their homestead family stories. For years they fund-raised to buy one building, rehabilitate it (mainly by themselves), then start on another. Today AHI’s museum gives personal, story-filled tours through 5 buildings plus continues to save oral histories and expand its collection of artifacts. It also has a volunteer run Craft Shop. Every July they hold the New Deal Festival plus many other smaller events through the year. With 160 of the 165 houses standing today, Arthurdale takes you on a trip through time in "Eleanor's Little Village."

Welcome to the first New Deal planned community of Arthurdale, West Virginia! Started in 1933 under the direct personal guidance of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Arthurdale was the first of 99 such towns that the federal government constructed throughout the Great Depression for economically distressed areas nationwide. Arthurdale was constructed specifically to provide economic relief to destitute coal miners and their families from Scotts Run, WV, a place that became the poster-child of poverty in the Great Depression due to its prominence in the national press. In total, 165 families were situated in houses in Arthurdale with 2-5 acres of farmland each, barns, tools, education, healthcare, and employment opportunities for all. This was a massive and expensive project, but ultimately left these families with more resources and opportunities than they had before. Arthurdale Heritage currently operates a five-building museum on the site. Come step back in time and get a sense of the New Deal, the Great Depression, subsistence farming, and family life in 1930s rural West Virginia.Please note that many places included on this tour are private residences. We ask that visitors be respectful of the homes as you drive by them.

Community Center

On October 22, 1935, the homesteaders in Arthurdale chartered the Arthurdale Association, which took out loans to establish the cooperative businesses in Arthurdale, including all those at Center Hall. All of the co-ops lost money for the association. Historian Steven Haid stated that the cooperatives “were poorly conceived, poorly managed, and…poorly operated.” Although financially unsuccessful, the cooperatives did provide employment to the homesteaders at a time when it was most needed as well as skills they used even after the craft industry stopped operations.The Arthurdale Unit of the Mountaineer Craftsman Cooperative began in 1935, as a collective of manufacturing concerns which exemplified the trade skills of the homesteaders of Arthurdale. They manufactured furniture, pewter, copper, and woven goods. The cooperative in Arthurdale was an outgrowth of the efforts of the American Friends Service Committee.The most successful of the craft ventures was the furniture. In addition to making the simple furniture which was provided for and purchased by the homesteaders, the furniture factory produced 3 minor lines and 4 major lines of furniture, from the more simple to the more ornate, the 500, 700, 800, and 900 series. This furniture was sold to furniture stores or directly to the public. Many pieces are still in use today around the United States and there are several pieces in Eleanor Roosevelt’s Val-Kill Cottage. However, due to years of low profits, the furniture factory along with the Arthurdale branch of the MCCA closed before the other co-operatives in town. In 1934, with five looms from Scotts Run and nine additional looms purchased by Eleanor Roosevelt, the spinning and weaving cooperative in Arthurdale began. Mrs. Roosevelt also paid for teachers from Berea College in Kentucky to teach interested women to weave. The cooperative produced rag rugs, coverlets, aprons, pillow tops, tablecloths, draperies, bedspreads, and clothes out of linen, cotton, and wool. Most of these items sold commercially through the Craft Shop, but the cooperative also filled orders from all over the United States and other countries. The women also quilted blankets and donated them to the Health Center and Nursery School.The community interest in weaving was so high that a course was offered at the high school for junior and senior girls. In 1939, Eleanor Roosevelt paid for Arthurdale High School graduate Dorothy Mayor Thompson to study weaving in Louisville, Kentucky, with master weaver Lou Tate for 18 months.One of the important factors in the success of Arthurdale, was to be the creation of employment for homesteaders in a factory that would be built. As early as October 1933, the administration began looking at options for the factory and eventually built a factory in 1935. In January 1936, the Arthurdale Association purchased the factory building to house a vacuum cleaner factory. The 1930s proved difficult for business retention in the factory at Arthurdale. From 1936 to 1942, four different businesses operated in the Arthurdale factory buildings including the Electric Vacuum Cleaner Company (1936-1937), the Phillip-Jones Shirt Company (1937-1938), the American Cooperatives, Inc. tractor factory (1939-1940), and the Brunswick Radio and Television Company (1941-1942). During World War II, Silman Manufacturing and Ballard Aircraft Company provided employment for homesteaders in their respective war-related factories. Both companies closed at the end of the war.

Here, several buildings once stood that were important fixtures in the Arthurdale community. A general store, nursery school, tea room, weaving studio, and furniture factory building all existed in this space. These businesses were part of the Arthurdale Association, a non-share corporation and branch of the Mountaineer Craftmen’s Cooperative Association operating in Scotts Run. The association took out loans for several cooperative ventures in Arthurdale including a store, farm, inn, a barber shop, industrial factory, and service station, as well as a dairy and poultry operation.

Ruins at Center Hall

The Administration building was constructed in 1934 to house the New Deal federal agencies which managed the newly formed Arthurdale experimental community. First was the Subsistence Homestead Division, created in August of 1933, and it ran Arthurdale until its end in 1935. Then the newly formed Resettlement Administration took over until 1937, ending just after the last houses were built. The last supervisory agency was the Farm Security Administration which was in charge until the homes and other buildings were sold into private hands in the mid-1940s.Going down A Road, on the right, you will see our Chestnut Tree Orchard, which is part of a project to restore the American Chestnut.

The Administration building was constructed in 1934 to house the New Deal federal agencies which managed the newly formed Arthurdale experimental community. The Admin building is our main museum, and you can purchase tickets in the Craft Shop. Just past the Admin and Forge buildings, is our Chestnut Tree Orchard.

Administration Building

A doctor is an important part of a community, and having a doctor in town was necessary for the citizens of Arthurdale. Though there were various doctors who lived and worked in Arthurdale, we were fortunate to receive artifacts and information from the son of Dr. John Lehman, who served here from 1935-1939. While working in Arthurdale, he accepted a salary of $150 per month with no sick leave or vacation, but a house was provided for him and his wife Virginia.After leaving Arthurdale, Dr. Lehman practiced medicine in Kingwood. During WWII, he served as a Lieutenant Commander in the US Navy from 1942 until 1946, and was stationed at the Navy Fleet Hospital on Guam. He later served from 1956 through 1959 as the Chief of Staff at Preston Memorial Hospital in Kingwood. He passed away on October 4, 1964 at the age of 56.

The Arthurdale doctor provided healthcare to the formerly impoverished homesteaders and their families. He and his family lived next to the health clinic. The first physician, Dr. Harry Timbres, arrived in Arthurdale in 1934 to provide much needed medical services to the community. He was paid by the American Friends Service Committee (Quakers) who were involved in several areas of Arthurdale. Dr. M.J.W. White was the first physician to live in this home when he became the community doctor in 1935. From 1935-1939, the resident doctor was John Lehman.

Doctor's Residence*

Eleanor Roosevelt believed that one of the most important issues to address in the new community was health care. The Arthurdale Health association formed in 1937 and charged $1 a month for services for an individual or $2 a month for a family. This building housed a three-bed clinic from 1936 to 1938.On January 19, 1937, she wrote about a visit to the clinic in her column "My Day."Her visit started with breakfast at the Arthurdale tea room, which led her to praise West Virginia ham: "West Virginia ham seems to me to be particularly good, and I think it should have some of the renown of its cousin, the Virginia ham."She went on to visit the newly opened Arthurdale health center, where she observed: "The little operating room is well equipped and the doctor's office and waiting room, kitchen and store room where medical supplies are kept, looked in spic and span order and ready to care for all clinic cases. Two girls from the National Youth Administration were folding gauze and taking a course in practical nursing under the doctor and nurse."She then visited the Arthurdale schools and remarked of the lunches being served to students: "The lunch being served to nursery school children seemed to me very sensible—creamed eggs, buttered beets, mashed potatoes and milk. The older children were having a stew which attracted us by its savory odor as soon as we came into the building, with bread and butter and milk in addition. These lunches seem to me a very important part of the school life for the mothers cook and serve them as volunteers and it means a great deal to the health of the children."Always interested in the well-being of Arthurdale residents, she attended three community meetings before returning to Washington: "We have had a school committee meeting, and a medical committee meeting and in a short time will attend the Arthurdale homesteaders meeting and get off in the late afternoon for Washington."

The Health Clinic at E-5 was staffed by the doctor who lived next door and one or two nurses who worked out of this house. Many homesteader babies were born here from 1935 into the 1940s. Eleanor Roosevelt believed that one of the most important issues to address in the new community was health care. The Arthurdale Health Association formed in 1937 and each family paid $2 a month for basic care. It housed a three-bed, one crib clinic from 1936 to 1938.

Health Clinic*

As the first homestead house to be built in Arthurdale, E-2 has a special place in our hearts. Though the Malone family originally lived in the house, Kenneth and Thelma Kees with daughter Sharon made it their home from 1942 until 2010 when they donated it to Arthurdale Heritage. After receiving a grant in 2013, we restored E-2, removing non-original components and lovingly preserving its historic character, and the thumbnail picture shows the house as it is today. This work was done in part with the cooperation of the Public History department at WVU. In 2013, the WVU Division of Design &amp; Merchandising held their 2nd Annual Historic Preservation Field School at the E-2 Homestead, and students did various projects related to historic preservation.

This prefabricated Hodgson house was one of the earliest completed houses. The Arnold &amp; Edith Malone family were one of the first 32 homesteader families who moved in on July 1, 1934. Their son Richard was the first baby born on the project that November. After they moved away, several young men who were training at the Arthurdale National Youth Association bunked there.

E-2 Kees Hodgson House

Located in Monongalia County, West Virginia, Scott’s Run is a five-mile long hollow named after the winding stream that flows through the communities of Cassville, Jere, Pursglove, and Osage as it makes its way to the Monongahela River. By World War I, the area was one of the most intensively developed coal districts in the United States; however, during the 1930s, many of the coal mines in Scott’s Run closed or operated sporadically due to the economic effects of the Great Depression.First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt heard about Scott’s Run through her friend Lorena Hickok, who came to north central West Virginia in 1933 to inspect the Appalachian coalfields. Hickok wrote that Scott’s Run was the worst place she had ever seen, with housing “most Americans would not have considered fit for pigs.” After hearing “Hick’s” account of the area, Roosevelt traveled to Scott’s Run in August of 1933 to visit with the impoverished miners and their families. The trip made a lasting impression on the first lady and formed a resolve in her to provide assistance to the residents. Within two weeks of her visit, plans to create Arthurdale were underway in Washington.Dan and Ann Houghton worked with the AFSC to help retrain miners in Scotts Run and eventually moved to Arthurdale themselves.

This Wagner-style house was finished in 1935 and became the home of Dan and Ann Houghton. Dan Houghton, a mechanical engineer, was part of the American Friends Service Committee (Quakers) and taught woodworking to the unemployed miners, beginning in 1931. The AFSC formed a group to market the miners’ crafts. The Mountaineer Craftsmen’s Cooperative Association moved to Arthurdale in 1934. Dan supervised the furniture making and designed furniture, looms, and metal goods. He married Ann, who had a medical background, in 1935 and she helped with well-baby clinics and weaving. They decided to become homesteaders and stayed after the government left.

E-13 Houghton Wagner House*

E-15 was constructed in 1935 along with the other 75 Wagner-style houses in Arthurdale. This particular house is a great example of the simple, practical architecture used in the depression-era housing project to encourage residents to live simply and within their means. Each of the 165 total houses built during the Arthurdale project was situated on a plot of 2.5 to 5 acres of land on which the family would grow its own crops, raise livestock, and house poultry, all of which would feed the family that occupied the house.This lifestyle focused on a family growing its own food is called "subsistence agriculture" and it was the cornerstone of this community as designed by the Roosevelt Administration. This ensured that families always had food on the table and in the cellars to feed themselves even during times of economic hardship. At E-15, the land to the left and right of the house was once farmed with vegetables, fruits, livestock, and poultry to feed the Heinz family, the first family that occupied the house. Be sure to look for the Heinz family's photos below to get a glimpse of their lives in the house.Wagner houses were the largest of the three different styles of Arthurdale houses. They were built with a kitchen, washroom, and a living/dining room downstairs and four bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs. The houses all had running water, electricity, refrigerators, and food storage spaces like root cellars, smokehouses, and basements. This was rather luxurious for many families moving into the houses as they were often living in shacks or even in tents in the woods before moving to Arthurdale. In these new houses, parents were able to provide stable, clean, and healthy lives for their children.Through the guidance of the New Deal administration, each house was rent-to-own. Each month, the houses cost each family between $15 to $20 in rent and after 20 years of paying that rent, the house and its property was to be paid off and formally owned by the family. In 1947, many years before the projected end of the rent-to-own program, the government had totally divested from Arthurdale and the families living in the homes had the choice of either buying out their houses or leaving them. Most families were able to purchase their homes after many years of paying into the program.

The second style of houses constructed in Arthurdale were called Wagner-style houses. They are named after Steward Wagner, the New York City-based architect who designed them in the mid 1930s. The E-15 Homestead represents a typical Wagner home, of which 75 were built in Arthurdale. In 1999, Arthurdale Heritage, Inc. purchased the home and restored and historically preserved it as a museum house to give visitors a glimpse into the life of the 1930s homesteaders. This Wagner was originally lived in by the Heinz family.

E-15 Heinz Wagner House

Lon (James Londus) Fullmer was born on March 12, 1889 in a log cabin near Hudson (near Valley Point) West Virginia to James Preston and Rachel Jane Cale Fullmer. Although he only completed the 6th grade, he was a self-educated man who could out-spell, out-write, and knew more math than most high school educated students. He could play 5 musical instruments and learned to play the piano and read music when he was about 70 years old.He was an outstanding Blacksmith. His abilities ranged from shoeing horses and making farm and mine equipment to artistic smithing such as decorative wellheads, lamps (including one in the Roosevelt Museum in Hyde Park, New York), and pieces in the Smithsonian Museum. He also did contract work for the Smithsonian.He was the excellent father of 12 children, 10 of whom he and Elizabeth "Lizzy" Fullmer raised to adulthood. Lon was hired in 1934 by Arthurdale as a Blacksmith and worked in the old wooden shop until the new forge was built. He continued as a smith until World War II started. He then worked as a Blacksmith and layout man for the DuPont Company in Morgantown. After the war, he returned to his own shop at his home in Arthurdale where he continued working well into his 80s. He died in May of 1980.

This Wagner was the home to Lon and Elizabeth Fullmer and their 12 children. You may recognize Mr. Fullmer's name from the Forge where he was one of the two full-time Blacksmiths. He had been a skilled Blacksmith before coming Arthurdale and taught fellow homesteaders while he worked in the forge. After the government left, he continued to work in his own forge which was in the barn at Q-7. Some of his work is in the Smithsonian collection.

Q-7 Fullmer Wagner House*

During the First World War, the United States government forged a compromise between industry and organized labor in order to keep production running smoothly during the war. However, when the war ended in 1919, large industries like the coal companies operating in Scotts Run were eager to return to their non-union status quo. President Harding lifted wartime industry regulation in 1922 as demand for coal had decreased, thus allowing a return to pre-WWI non-union policies.  Then United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) advocated for fair wages for coal miners and signed the 1924 Jacksonville Agreement with Central Competitive Field and the 1927 Baltimore Agreement with the Northern West Virginia Coal Operator’s Association. In West Virginia, most field operators did not sign any agreement with the lone exception being in Fairmont. The Fairmont operators believed that union coalfields in northern West Virginia would be able to compete with the non-union southern coalfields; however, they were quickly proven wrong as coal prices plummeted. The northern operators then abrogated the Jacksonville/Baltimore Agreement, which sparked a seven-year coal war in the northern part of the state. All told, these strikes and lockouts lasted from 1924-1931 and included the longest strike in West Virginia’s history.  Many miners and their families in the Scotts Run area became destitute. In 1931 under the banner of the communist National Miners Union (NMU), miners from Scotts Run organized another strike against additional wage cuts (their wages were already below subsistence levels). The strike lasted a month before the Scotts Run operators negotiated a compromise with the UMWA; they chose to speak with the UMWA as the miners representative to avoid giving legitimacy to the NMU. While this victory did bring about a resurgence for the UMWA, it did not bring prosperity to the Scotts Run miners who were suffering greatly in these early years of the Great Depression. Because of the strikes, many miners had been without real work for years, and some like Creed Maxwell who had an active role in unionizing and striking efforts, were Blacklisted and prevented from working in the mines.

Homesteaders Creed and Hattie Maxwell first occupied this Wagner house. Before being accepted into the Arthurdale project, Creed had been blacklisted in the mines of Scotts Run for his union organizing activity. This kept him from working in the mines and he and his family struggled to survive until they moved to Arthurdale in 1935.

U-2 Maxwell Wagner House*

The Arthurdale Association was a homesteader-run co-operative that helped to fund the various business ventures in Arthurdale in order to provide employment for the homesteaders. Founded in 1934, the association provided jobs and services for the community, and though private industry jobs proved hard to come by, employment in these craft and agricultural co-ops meant that “there was more employment in Arthurdale than in Reedsville and Masontown put together” according to homesteader Annabelle Mayor (Hoffman 75).Some of the first Co-ops established included the health clinic, the barbershop, and the general store. The furniture-making co-op, part of the Arthurdale branch of the Mountaineer Craftsman’s Cooperative, had very close ties to Mrs. Roosevelt, who had a small furniture company on the grounds of her Hyde Park estate in Val-Kill, New York. Master chairmaker, Bud Godlove, was also brought in to train Arthurdale workers in creating some of these wooden works of art. The Arthurdale Association sometimes faced financial difficulties, particularly because the high-quality work produced in Arthurdale was considered a luxury good in the Depression. Despite this, the jobs and services provided by the co-op helped foster a community spirit and work ethic. Most of the co-ops closed in the late 20th century after the government project ended, and today the cemetery is the only one remaining.

The Arthurdale Cemetery is the last remaining homestead cooperative of the dozen that were established within this community. Other cooperatives included the general store, barber shop, furniture factory, loom room (used for weaving and spinning), and the dairy farm which once sat behind the WVU farm fence that you can see in the distance. These associations were cooperatively owned and managed by the homesteaders. Drive around the cemetery to get to the next location.

Arthurdale Cemetery

The last group of houses built in Arthurdale derive their name from the stone quarried from a nearby hillside, which became the principal building material for them. Begun in 1936, the 40 stone homes were completed the following year.These multi-storied homes featured two styles: Colonial and English Tudor. Although the stone home floor plans were very similar to the Wagner homes, the major difference between the two was the extensive use of stone to replace the cinder blocks and framing. Each stone home had six rooms and featured all of the conveniences and appliances of the first two styles with the addition of stone fireplaces. None of the stone homes built had basements, but they were provided with root cellars for storing vegetables and canned food.

This Stone-style house was one of the third type of house built here. Made out of Preston County sandstone, they were erected between 1936 and 1937 and are distinctive for their smaller appearance. They too have four bedrooms. The Joe and Viola Tres family moved into this house after they had lived at M-12 for several months. Severe flooding there pushed the family to move to higher ground here in the late 1930s.

U-13 Tres Stone House*

In a series of recollections published in the Arthurdale Heritage newsletter and later in Goldenseal Magazine (Summer 2012), Jim McNelis shared stories about growing up in Arthurdale. Upon moving into their Hodgson-style house, the McNelis family had, for the first time, running water, an indoor bathroom, and their own house and land.Many tourists came to Arthurdale in those early years due to the press the project received. Jim McNelis remembers, "It was not unusual, especially on Saturdays and Sundays, to have visitors ask my parents for permission to walk through our house to see how it was designed and constructed. My parents usually granted permission unless we were entertaining relatives." Later, a model home was furnished for visitors to walk through.Jim McNelis started attending school in Arthurdale in the Arthur Mansion as a 7th grader before the school buildings were built. Starting in 9th grade, Jim attended the brand new Arthurdale High School. In 1938, Louise McNelis was one of the graduating seniors who received her diploma from President Franklin D. Roosevelt himself. After the ceremony, the McNelis family went home to work on their farm and have dinner, but they returned in the evening for the graduation dance. Jim McNelis remembers, "When the caller announced the Virginia Reel - Eleanor Roosevelt's favorite dance - she looked around for a partner from among the attendees. Very few of the homesteaders of the guests knew the steps, but I did, as I had learned them the previous year in school. The next thing you know, I was dancing with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, in my work pants and muddy sneakers."According to Jim McNelis, "Arthurdale and its survival owe a lot to Mrs. Roosevelt." Besides her efforts to create the town and keep it running, she also visited many times and made a real impact on the lives of the homesteaders.

Another of the early homesteading families, the William and Viola "Chris" McNelis family, moved here in the summer of 1934. The McNelis family had two children: Louise McNelis Shafer and Jim McNelis. Before coming to Arthurdale, the family lived in Cassville, WV, in the Scotts Run area. Eleanor Roosevelt later helped their son Jim get a summer internship under Treasury Secretary Morgenthau. After serving in WWII he earned a journalism degree and spent 35 years as a journalist, 19 of them as Washington D. C. Bureau Chief. He credited Arthurdale with his success in life. Jim can also be seen dancing the Virginia Reel with Mrs. Roosevelt at the Arthurdale High School in 1938.

F-12 McNelis Hodgson House*

The first houses in Arthurdale were known as Hodgson houses, manufactured by the E.F. Hodgson Company of Massachusetts. These were kit houses, part of a trend begun by Montgomery Ward &amp; Co. and Sears, Roebuck &amp; Co. in the late 19th century. E.F. Hodgson began his company in 1891 but began producing houses around 1900 when he saw the market appeal of summer vacation houses. He designed two versions of this house: the Hodgson Camp Cottage and the Hodgson Summer Cottage, which was also marketed as a Cape Cod House.  In the Hodgson House Catalogs produced between 1935-1939, Hodgson Houses are shown in various settings, including near “lakes, shores, mountains, northern snows, and tropical hurricanes” as an advertisement for their sturdy construction (Tedesco viii). In 1933, the Division of Subsistence Homesteads purchased 50 Hodgson Houses for Arthurdale homesteaders. FDR’s advisor, Louis Howe, wanted to use these prefabricated homes because they could be constructed quickly, though Mrs. Roosevelt disagreed with the choice of uninsulated Hodgson Houses and characterized the decision as “absurd” (Hoffman 42). Howe ordered the houses despite this protest, and the problems with these houses created the first widely-publicized fiasco of the Arthurdale project as the press was attuned to any problems with this expensive, experimental community. The houses were unable to withstand winter in the Appalachian mountains and did not fit the foundations that had been laid for them. Homesteaders were frustrated by the building delay, and the cost of renovations to make the houses liveable was heavily criticized both by the national press and within FDR’s administration. The first homesteaders eventually moved into their new homes in July 1934.

You'll notice to the right up on the hill, the Hodgson house where the Ambrose and Bessie Brotherton family once lived. It has a retaining wall which also functions as a small patio for the house. Additions like these were common to repair the Hodgson houses and to make their foundations more structurally sound in the 1930s. These needed repairs were expensive and wide-ranging and were a major reason why the government decided to build sturdier houses like the Wagner and Stone ones after the first 50 Hodgsons.

A-3 Brotherton Hodgson House*

Some have attributed Arthurdale’s adoption of this alphabetized pattern to Eleanor Roosevelt’s suggestion, but it’s unknown who actually made the decision. Six of the letters of the alphabet are not represented in Arthurdale’s grid, including “I,” “J,” “L,” “N,” “T,” “V." And the grid is not laid out in the order of the alphabet, either, though some roads are in proximity to the following letter in the alphabet.Several roads in Arthurdale’s environs area also labeled as CR and SR along with a number. That is an abbreviation for county route or state route, respectively. The state Division of Highways (then the Department of Highways) in the throes of the Great Depression was given jurisdiction over all but certain streets and roads in municipalities and private roads in West Virginia. Few, if any county governments were able to fund maintaining and repairing roads then. The DOH is responsible for maintaining and repairing some 38,000 miles of county and state roads across the state today.There are more than 15 miles of roads throughout Arthurdale’s environs. About a dozen miles of roads were carved out of the area in the 1930s during while Arthurdale was being built. These roads were initially “paved” with “red dog,” the reddish colored cast-off waste material from coal, which was fairly cheap and made a good surface material for dirt roads, in the 1930s. The roads throughout Arthurdale today are by and large paved with asphalt.

You may have noticed that the roads in Arthurdale are named for almost all of the letters of the alphabet, from “A” to “Z’. This was common in many planned communities which needed to name a group of new streets in the past and to avoid controversy or disputes. The roads in Arthurdale also may have taken their naming pattern from the streets in Washington, D.C. where many roads also take their names from the alphabet and numbers.

Alphabetized Roads

Claude Bonnette and Hazel Jenkins met in Morgantown in 1933, where they lived for three years before being accepted into the Arthurdale project. The couple had four children: Jean, Claudette, Thomas, and Sandra, the latter three were born after the Bonnettes had moved into the homesteading community. Claude and Hazel were active members within their community. Claude served on the board of directors, he was also on the medical board for the community clinic, and he played clarinet in the Arthurdale Community Band. Later in his life Claude was the head of the Arthurdale Water Company while Hazel served lunches at the community school.  The family moved from their original homestead, B-5, to M-15 in 1942 (Hall 116).

In 1936 Claude &amp; Hazel Bonnette moved in and began their family. When Claude died at 92 in 2001 he and his wife were the last surviving homestead couple still living in Arthurdale. When Hazel died in 2015 at the age of 102, she was the last surviving homestead parent.

B-5 Bonnette Hodgson House*

In the words of school administrator Elsie Ripley Clapp, “What the children studied at school their mothers and fathers also were learning, and what their parents learned and did taught the children. And we, the teachers, learned both from them and with them, for homesteading and building a village community were new to us too.”  The Arthurdale schools opened before the facilities were entirely ready, and teachers lacked textbooks and materials. This meant then that the Arthurdale teachers had to develop their own curriculum and learning experiences, but the first teachers who arrived from Kentucky and were trained in the progressive education model welcomed the challenge and found ways to adapt to it. Children studied subjects that were relevant to them such as farming while also engaging in “block play” which was meant to develop critical thinking and sensory-based learning theory as the children constructed their own buildings. Traditional subjects like reading and math were incorporated into these hands-on versions of education.West Virginia teachers were late arriving to Arthurdale and, as they did not have the same training as the Kentucky teachers, they had to learn the progressive education model as they taught it. This proved stressful for some of the teachers, like Sara Liston who remembered that “At some of the conferences [organized by Elsie Ripley Clapp] , for instance, she wanted us to take a problem child and study that child, and study far enough along that with readings, we would learn to cope with that child in ways best for his advantage and ours. We had to keep a report on that child and then she [Clapp] would ask for a written report on results…we had to study John Dewey’s methods. She wanted to know if we were understanding and applying them” (Stack 76). Despite the difficult transition, the teachers appreciated the experience of working with the Arthurdale schools, and Clapp praised Sara Liston in particular as “an outstanding teacher.”  The teachers also maintained that the community involvement with the school was important to the success of education in Arthurdale as it formed a connection between the school and students’ parents. Teacher Inez Funk stated that she learned a great deal from her experience in Arthurdale and would not trade it for anything.

These two stone houses were occupied by Arthurdale teachers. They paid about $25 rent, which was more than the homesteaders, and were not expected to farm. However, they were expected to be involved in the daily life of the community, to help with making plans and solving problems. Many teachers originally came from Kentucky, and teachers from West Virginia arrived later.

BB-2 and BB-3 Teachers' Stone Houses*

Prior to moving into Arthurdale B.B Luzier worked as a cook in the lumber camps and then as an electrician in the coal mines. This experience and skill set helped B.B gain an Arthurdale homestead. During the initial construction of the community the Luzier family lived in the Arthur Mansion and remained there for two years before moving into their homestead. In total BB and Rosella had five children: June, Letty, Jack, Glenn, and James. While the Luzier were living in the mansion Eleanor Roosevelt would visit the family. At the time the Luzier’s had a 6 month old baby, Glenn Luzier. It is reported that Mrs. Roosevelt was very fond of him and during her evening visits to the family she would carry baby Glenn around (Hall 129).

The former home of B. B. Luzier is on the hill your right. B. B. was originally hired as a cook for the homesteaders when the men lived and worked out of the Arthur Mansion. During this time, the homesteaders (and hundreds of other laborers) were constructing roads, digging wells, planting fruit trees, and building the houses they would live in. He then applied to become a homesteader. His wife Rosella Luzier became the head of the Women's Club of Arthurdale and each year Eleanor Roosevelt donated funds for the club to buy Christmas gifts for the children of Arthurdale.

X-3 Luzier Hodgson House*

From 1934-1936, Elsie Ripley Clapp served as administrator of the Arthurdale School. A student of John Dewey, Clapp saw the school in Arthurdale as a great opportunity to create a community school. Students learned through hands-on activities rather than theoretical learning and undertook projects related to agriculture and construction. The students also learned about their Appalachian culture. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt donated books, money, and supplies to the school.When the school opened in the fall of 1934, the school buildings had not been built. Determined to begin the education of the children in Arthurdale, Clapp set about placing the students in various community buildings. The elementary school held classes in the Arthur Mansion, high school students learned in the Center Hall, and the nursery school filled the space newly completed by homesteaders at the center.In addition to the buildings not being completed, the books and supplies ordered by Clapp and her teachers, had not arrived. The teachers improvised and put their progressive teaching plans to work. Second grade learned about construction by watching the workers build the homes throughout Arthurdale and put their knowledge to practical use by building their own homestead community. Fourth grade studied pioneer life in the old Fairfax cabin. High school students combined disciplines and created surveying equipment through their math, science, and shop classes; they eventually surveyed Route 92 for their final project.Elsie Clapp helped design the school campus, which opened in the fall of 1935 and featured a high school, cafeteria, gymnasium/auditorium, elementary school, primary school, and nursery school.Educational advisers to the Arthurdale project included Lucy Sprague Mitchell of Bank Street College, Dean William Russell of Teachers College, Columbia University; John Dewey, Eleanor Roosevelt, Clarence Pickett, and W. Carson Ryan, a future editor of the journal Progressive Education.From 1936 to 2000, four of the original Arthurdale school buildings were under the control of the Preston County Board of Education and used as a middle school and elementary school. In 2000, the PCBOE transferred the high school, cafeteria, and elementary school buildings to Arthurdale Heritage.

On this narrow road behind the present-day West Preston school, six school buildings once stood. Today, four are still standing including the Rec Center, the High School, the school's Administration building, and the Elementary School. Use the small turn around in front of the two-story Administration Building which once housed the superintendent, the industrial cannery, the homesteaders' bank, and the cafeteria.

Arthurdale School Buildings

During the time that Arthurdale was a government project (1933-1947), there was no official church in Arthurdale. Due to separation of church and state, the government cannot build religious buildings, so instead homesteaders met for religious services in each other's homes, in the school gym, or in Center Hall, and sermons were given by community members or travelling pastors. Some families also travelled to nearby churches in other towns. However, after the government left Arthurdale, the people decided to build their own church, Community Presbyterian, which was opened in 1960. Eleanor Roosevelt returned to Arthurdale that year to speak at the dedication of the church, and it was her final visit before she died in 1962. The church is still in operation today.

During the period that Arthurdale was a government project, there was no official church building in town, and nondenominational services were held in Center Hall or in the school cafeteria. Community Presbyterian Church was built in 1959 and 1960 by homesteaders and others who carved out the sandstone near the cemetery and built it during their free time. The church was dedicated in 1960 by Eleanor Roosevelt during her final trip to Arthurdale.

Community Presbyterian Church

Richard Arthur retired and moved from Pittsburgh to West Virginia in the early 1900s. He purchased 600 acres, built his Victorian mansion (right across from where the Administration Building stands today), and became a farmer.Arthur's farm grew to 1,200 acres, but saw less success in the 1920s. It was about to be taken by the state for taxes in 1933 when he negotiated to sell the property and the mansion to the U.S. government.When it came time to build a new Inn for Arthurdale's many visitors years later, many thought the site of the mansion was the perfect location for it. Rexford Tugwell and the federal government ordered the mansion to be demolished, even though some wanted to save the home.By May 1938, the newly completed Arthurdale Inn was open for business. It had 20 guest rooms and baths, the food served was grown by Arthurdale homesteaders, and the furniture was made by the local Mountaineer Craftsmen Cooperative Association. When Eleanor Roosevelt visited Arthurdale, she stayed at the Inn and even had her own private quarters there.

The Arthur mansion once stood close behind where the Inn is today. In 1937, the Inn was finished and Eleanor Roosevelt would often bring dignitaries and donors to the project to stay in the Arthurdale Inn. She had her own suite. Federal managers from Washington would stay there when checking on projects. The community used the building for celebratory dinners and events. It continued to operate as a restaurant and inn after the government left. Today, the inn is an administrative building for WV Caring, a hospice organization.This ends the primary part of the tour. If you would like to continue the tour to see a few more buildings, keep going.

Arthurdale Inn

In 1933, the National Youth Administration (NYA) was established as part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Eleanor Roosevelt was a strong advocate of this program as a way to “bring these young people into the active life of the community and make them feel that they are necessary” (Flynn 152). Though the NYA started as a student-aid program for students in high school and college, it later expanded to include young people who had been unable to finish their education and who would benefit from guidance and experience before entering the workforce.There was much concern about the young adults who were coming of age during the Great Depression, and they were referred to by some as a “lost generation.” The lack of jobs and limited prospects that these young people faced caused some to worry that they would be attracted to fringe, zealous movements. By engaging young people with their communities, government officials hoped to cultivate national pride and a sense of purpose. The NYA provided vocational training along with homemaking skills but also addressed etiquette like punctuality, appropriate dress for work, and respect for authority. Some NYA members traveled and lived in camps like the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), but other, particularly young women, continued to live at home.Though the NYA was disbanded in 1943, its legacy lives on through a variety of youth-focused programs around the country, most notably AmeriCorps, which was created during the Clinton administration. However the Student Conservation Association is the oldest of these modern groups, and there are other state-specific youth programs that draw inspiration from the New Deal era. Many of these modern organizations were founded or supported by former NYA and CCC members who recognized the benefits they received from these earlier programs.

The G-2 Hodgson House was finished in 1934 and included land on both sides of G Road. The Floyd and Elizabeth Moats family moved out of G-2 in the late 1930s and it became one of ultimately twelve bunk houses for young members of the National Youth Administration. Here, 18 to 25 year olds learned skills in subjects like radio, stenography, machine shop, and welding. As WWII began, the classes focused more on war production work skills. They managed themselves under a youth governing system. Girls were also members of NYA but often stayed in their family homes.

G-2 Moats Hodgson House*

Glenna Williams moved into to Arthurdale with her parents, Jack and Hattie Williams, and her two sisters June and Hilda, on June 30, 1934. They moved into a 13-acre farm with a cottage-style home, known as a Hodgson house, named for the company out of Cambridge, Mass., that built the first 50 prefabricated houses in Arthurdale. The Williams family was among the first homesteaders in Arthurdale. The house had three bedrooms, a living room with a fireplace, a kitchen, a bathroom and a full basement. The farm featured a large barn, a log cabin and a smoke house. The land was also divided by W.Va. 92 The family tended milk cows, pigs, chickens and a large garden. Glenna was immediately struck by how green everything was after coming from the then gritty and barren environs of the Scotts Run coal fields. The land and the family quickly flourished in this new environment and the Williams' home was filled with love, according to Harriet Mayfield, Glenna's niece. Glenna's father, Jack, held the first church service for the community in their home. Although the house's structure looks a little different now the old the bones of a great beginning and life are still there, according to Harriet, Glenna lived at the residence until the death of her father in 1961, when the farm was sold.Glenna would move back to Arthurdale in the early 1980s after serving the Presbyterian church in three counties in West Virginia. The Rock Forge Presbyterian Church today also houses the Glenna Williams Community Center. She is also recognized as one of the central founders of Arthurdale Heritage Inc., the nonprofit founded in 1984 that continues to promote and preserve Arthurdale, the New Deal's first subsistence homestead community.The sandstone blocks used to build the Community Presbyterian Church, were sourced from the back pasture of O-1. Glenna's father was a stone cutter and he also turned the first shovel of dirt at the groundbreaking ceremony when the church's construction got underway.

In 1934 Glenna Williams moved here as a teenager with parents Jack and Hattie and two sisters from Scotts Run. She earned 2 degrees and spent her working life as director of Christian education for the Presbyterian Churchin coal camps in 3 local counties. She moved back to Arthurdale when she retired in 1981 and became the driving force behind forming Arthurdale Heritage and served as the director for the first five years.

O-1 Williams Hodgson House*

Rural airfields were more common in the mid-20th century than they are today. Even towns as small as Arthurdale could have an airstrip, and, in fact, air travel was an increasingly common method of transportation around the Mountain State after World War II. The southern coalfields of West Virginia alone once had at least 40 rural airfields (Tan), though today that number is much lower. In the late twentieth century, with many pilots trained in combat during World War II, air travel revolutionized transportation around West Virginia as it was much faster to fly than drive around the mountains. However, as highways were built, these airfields and the costs to maintain them were in many cases no longer worth the effort as these small airfields had to maintain the runways and planes, along with staff and crews. The airfield that used to exist at O-5 is part of Arthurdale’s history after the government project here ended. Today, this airfield, like many others in the state, is a memory. To learn more about air travel in West Virginia, we recommend the Inside Appalachia podcast included in the citations below.

Richard and Carra Turnley were among the first residents of Arthurdale when they moved in on July 15, 1934. Their house on your left is now covered in blue siding. They raised four sons here, one of whom became manager of the Arthurdale Airstrip, a small regional airstrip used mainly in the 1950s.

O-5 Turnley Hodgson House*

Warren Smith printed the first issue of “A Letter from Home” on February 12, 1944. Sponsored by VFW Post 1589 of Masontown, WV and published in Reedsville, WV, the newsletter was published weekly until May 26, 1945. For service men and women who received this newsletter, it provided a boost in morale, and many wrote to Smith to share their praise. As the newsletter continued, more people got involved in its publication including mothers of those on active duty, local businesses, and just friends. They had a common goal in making sure that local people in the military were able to keep in contact with their loved ones at home.  In the first issue, Warren Smith began with a message to the G.I.s explaining the letter and its purpose. He noted, “We hope that you will bear with us for the first few weeks and not be too critical of our efforts to provide you with news, remembering that it is a tremendous task...But we are going after this thing with a solid determination and the wholehearted support of all of you fathers, mothers, wives, and friends. With such unusual cooperation we surely cannot fail” (Smith February 12, 1944). Each issue began with a letter to the service men and women from Warren Smith and included weekly columns like “War Mother of the Week,” “Dots and Dashes,” and “Here and There,” as well as articles that reported on different bits of hometown news, especially local sporting events. A special Mother’s Day edition in 1944 included messages from war mothers to their children.  Though the weekly letter provided encouragement to service members and a community project for those at home, it was hard to avoid the realities and tragedies of war and separation. In the issue published on December 23, 1944, Smith noted at the end the malaise of the community as “We are sick to the point of becoming nauseated simply because we know that we have made no sacrifices - no concrete physical contribution toward winning this war. We are sicker still when we recall that hundreds, yes, more than 400 boys and girls whose names are on the mailing list to receive this issue of the LETTER are away from our shores tonight” (Smith). The “Letter from Home” ceased publication before the war was fully over. Its last issue on May 26, 1945 came soon after V-E (Victory in Europe) Day but more than three months before V-J (Victory in Japan) Day was celebrated. The tone of the letter near the end of its publication conveys relief and hope but still a sense of worry for the many young people still in active service. According to Smith, “War wives and mothers generally accepted the V-E Day announcement with subdued emotions and with the somber realization that ‘there is one more river to cross,’ and until that river is crossed there is no reason for giving expression to emotions that hold no security until the final day of victory over Japan” (May 19, 1945).  The complete collection of “A Letter from Home” was published by Arthurdale Heritage Inc. in 2006 and is dedicated to the memory of Warren W. Smith and the valiant men and women of Valley District who served in the armed forces during WWII.

Warren &amp; Ruth Smith moved to Arthurdale in 1939, one of the last families to come here. Their two daughters were born here. Warren worked with the US Postal Service and during WWII he wrote a weekly newsletter about area happenings. “A Letter from Home” was mailed to all active duty service men and women from the Valley District and bound copies are available in the Craft Shop.

P-4 Smith Stone House*

Did you know the land Arthurdale sits on was once part of an early American plantation? In 1790, after working for 7 years as Superintendent of George Washington's Mount Vernon, Col. John Fairfax of Charles County, MD purchased about 2000 acres in what is today Preston County. Fairfax was a prominent figure, serving as a Justice of the Peace, member of the Virginia House of Delegates, Sheriff of Preston County, and Colonel of the 104th Regiment of the Virginia Militia during the War of 1812. His 1818 Georgian stone mansion still stands outside Kingwood. Richard M. Arthur purchased part of the Fairfax land in the late 1800s. He later sold his land to the federal government and Arthurdale was named after his farm.Fairfax and his two wives, Mary Byrne (d.1803) and Anne Franklin (d. 1850), plus other family members and an untold number of their enslaved people are buried at the Fairfax Cemetery on H Road.

To your right behind the wooden split rail fence is the final resting place for Colonel John Fairfax, a prominent local politician, his first wife Mary Byrne and second wife Anne Franklin. Col. Fairfax was told by George Washington to "go west and grow up with the country," prompting him to move to this area of western Virginia at the time. Alongside the Fairfaxes lay about 200 unmarked graves for Black men and women who were enslaved by the family in the early to mid-1800s. These enslaved people lived on and worked the land that would become Arthurdale decades later.

Driving Tour of Arthurdale

Blacksmith's Forge

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources