E-13 Houghton Wagner House*

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. 

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.

Arthurdale Heritage, Preserving Arthurdale, WV – Eleanor Roosevelt's New Deal Community. Arthurdale Heritage Inc.. Accessed March 20, 2017. http://www.arthurdaleheritage.org/.

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Jones, Mary Hoxie. Swords into Ploughshares: An Account of the American Friends Service Committee 1917-1937. Greenwood Press Publishers, 1937.

Maloney, C. J. Back to the Land: Arthurdale, FDRs New Deal, and the Costs of Economic Planning. John Wiley & Sons, 2013.

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Penix, Amanda Griffith. Images of America: Arthurdale. Arcadia Publishing, 2007.

Scott's Run Settlement House. Accessed November 30th 2021. https://www.srsh.org/.

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Ward, Bryan. A New Deal for America. Arthurdale Heritage Inc., 1995