Bluefield Walking Tour Brochure 11-1-2010 revised

BUILDING #1
BAILEY BUILDING
704 Bland Street
BUILDING #2
PERRY BUILDING
525 Bland Street and 524 Federal Street
A monument to its builder, Bluefield optometrist Dr. Thomas Peery, the
eight-story office building of glazed commercial brick was built in 1919 and
designed by noted Bluefield architect Alex Mahood. Converted into the clinic
of Bluefield’s Sanitarium Hospital in 1954, the unique building has entrances
on two streets at different levels. Every office had an outside window. A
dentilated cornice with gargoyle figurines caps the striking building which,
upon its construction, was Bluefield’s tallest building. The structure has been
recently refurbished into transition housing.
BUILDING #3
OLD CITY HALL
500 Bland Street
Now the lovely restored home of the Bluefield Area Arts Center, Old City
Hall was built in 1924 and provided Bluefield with quality municipal services
for fifty years. Designed by noted architect Wilbur Mills, the massive Classical
Revival Style three-story half-block edifice displays a lovely façade, vaulted
entrance hall, and spacious auditorium. The building still contains jail cells
and the remnants of the police, fire, and other municipal services. The Paine
Gallery was formerly the public library.
Saved by a broad-based citizen coalition, the lovely old building now
houses the Summit Theatre and several offices. Old City Hall is the heart and
soul of Bluefield.
Crossing Ramsey Street, walking tourists should note Ramsey School to
their left. The oldest educational institution in the city, Ramsey was listed by
Ripley’s Believe It or Not! for its seven entrances on seven levels.
BUILDING #4
BLUEFIELD DAILY TELEGRAPH BUILDING
412 Bland Street
For seventy years home of the Bluefield Daily Telegraph, the striking
façade of the building suggests its importance in the community’s unique
history. Hugh Ike Shott, editor and publisher of southern West Virginia’s only
daily newspaper for over fifty years, began his remarkable career as a telegraph
operator and ultimately served in the United States Senate.
Built in 1916, the Neo-Classical brick building, still housing the old typeset
press, is separated into three bays by rectangular brick pilasters with Terra
Cotta Corinthian columns supporting an entablature sporting modillions and
dentilation. A metal balustrade crowns the structure and a keystone arch
adorns the recessed entrance.
Many stories and lore surround the building where, at one time, huge
throngs gathered to watch a telegraphed-in dramatization of the World Series.
Global Outreach is currently restoring the structure.
BUILDING #5
ELKS LODGE AND OPERA HOUSE
405 Raleigh Street
The huge and elegant Elks Lodge is one of Bluefield’s most prized historic
treasures. Built in 1902 and enlarged in 1927, the western portion houses the
fraternal lodge itself and still contains elaborate leather, stained glass and
mahogany in the huge ballroom.
BUILDING #6
LAW AND COMMERCE BUILDING
Federal Street and Raleigh Street
The 1913 erection of the Law & Commerce Building, the first modern
office in Bluefield, marked the city’s entrance into the twentieth century. The
six-story Neo-Classical Revival building was finished in 1918. Stone pilasters,
Doric columns and a projecting stone balcony, combined with ornate triglyths
and modillions on the cornice, make the structure as stately as it was functional. A full bowling alley in the basement provided lunchtime recreation for
busy Bluefield coal and railroad men.
BUILDING #7
HISTORIC COMMERCIAL BANK BUILDING
Federal Street and Commerce Street
A seven story brick building constructed in the Second Renaissance Revival
style, directly adjacent to the West Virginia Hotel. The front elevation is three
bays wide with a recessed arch entrance with a shield over the metal door.
Windows have stone hoods. The cornice is of flat stone. Windows in the shaft
and attic are one over one. The side elevation has paired windows. A cornice
separates the shaft from the attic. A flat cap surmounts the building. It was
originally constructed in 1922. Prominent West Virginia architect Alex B.
Mahood was at one time president of the bank. His mother designed the interior friezes. The structure serves as a conference and meeting venue.
BUILDING #8
WEST VIRGINIAN HOTEL
Federal Street and Scott Street
West Virginia’s Historic
Mercer County
Convention & Visitors Bureau
704 Bland St., PO Box 4088
Bluefield, WV 24701
(304) 325-8438
1-800-221-3206
www.visitmercercounty.com
www.bluefieldhistoricalsociety.org
A six story blonde brick Classical Revival office building erected in 1923,
the Bailey Building housed the offices of the famous Baldwin-Felts Detective
Agency, as well as the Pocahontas Operators Association and a Hudson dealership on the first floor. The Appalachian Power Company (now American
Electric Co.) purchased the building in 1939 and lavished nearly one million
dollars remodeling the structure, whose ornate aluminum and wood first floor
furnishings were widely renowned. This building houses the Bluefield State
College Research and Development Corporation, various offices and the Mercer County Convention & Visitors Bureau.
The east facing portion of the structure held a 500-seat Opera House and was
the center of southern West Virginia culture and quality entertainment. Broadway shows train-bound for the West Coast stopped in Bluefield long enough to
stage renowned performance.
The Elks Building has a grandiose oversize entranceway with flat frieze
limestone entablature, stepped pediment, stone Corinthian columns and recessed portico. The side elevation still proudly displays a huge bronze elks
head.
DOWNTOWN
Bluefield
Walking Tour
Discover architecture listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
Located 5 miles from Exit 1 off I-77
At twelve stories high, the West Virginian Hotel is still the tallest building
in southern West Virginia, crowning the hill above the railroad yards with a
physical symbol of Bluefield’s position of regional leadership. The 1923
opening of the elegant and luxurious hostelry made Bluefield, with its mild
summer climate, an instant convention center.
The magnificent hotel, a showpiece of the region, boasted superb service, a
barbershop, newsstand, huge ballroom for civic functions, dances, and a Paristrained chef stolen from The Greenbrier Resort.
The ashlar limestone Second Renaissance Revival structure, in the shape of
a column, has elaborate mezzanine facades, dentilated cornices, arched windows, projecting balustrades, and twelfth-story ornamental cartouches of exquisite detail.
BUILDING #9
KEE BUILDING
601 Federal Street
Named for Elizabeth Kee, one of Bluefield’s powerful Kee family of Congressmen, the Federal building houses the United States District Courthouse
and post office. Its 1911 construction rewarded Bluefield after it had lost the
county seat to nearby Princeton. The beautiful three-story blonde brick Revival
structure features an entranceway marked by a frieze with triglyths and bracketed coronas, exceedingly ornate for the period and place. The Kee family—
John, his wife Elizabeth, and their son James—held a seat in Congress from
1932—1972, a feat unmatched by ANY American clan.
“Discover Historic Downtown Bluefield”
Photo Courtesy Steve Jesse
and its fascinating past.
Bluefield’s Natural Gravity Switching Rail Yard
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1
Bailey
Building
2
2
3
Old
City
Hall
Perry
Building
BLAND STREET
RAMSEY STREET
FEDERAL STREET
SCOTT STREET
The site of Bluefield was a sleepy cattle farm before the 1882 arrival of the Norfolk
& Western Railroad (now Norfolk-Southern Corporation). The railroad chose the lovely
valley as the location for the headquarters of its mighty Pocahontas Division, which has
hauled the world’s finest coal for well over one hundred years. The East
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River valley soon bustled with the noise and smoke of a thriving railroad town, where warehouses stocked the company stores throughout
the coalfield. Soon Bluefield emerged as the industrial, financial,
administrative, medical and corporate center of the coalfields,
whose residents rode the train to Bluefield for entertainment
and business.
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The striking architecture of the city was built in the
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Kee
1920’s and reflects the optimism and confidence of the
Building
era. Most of the prominent structures were built in
a very short period of time from 1921 to 1925,
after World War One sent coal tonnages
soaring. The city’s first planning comPARKING
mission supervised the construction,
BUILDING
making sure that all the buildings
were esthetically compatible.
Bluefield boomed throughout
SCOTT STREET
the twentieth century until
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mechanization replaced
WV Hotel
coal miners. Today
downtown Bluefield
Historic Commercial Bank 7
has underground
COMMERCE STREET
conduit which
allows for
quick and
6
inexpensive
Law & Commerce
installation
of high
RALEIGH STREET
speed data
networks
5
and is
PARKING
emerging
NORFOLK
BUILDING
as a
SOUTHERN
downtown
OFFICE
Arts
Center.
BLAND STREET
VISIT HISTORIC BLUEFIELD
3
4
PARKING
Bluefield
Daily
Telegraph
5
4
Elks Lodge
and
Opera
House
U.S. ROUTE 19
PRINCETON AVENUE
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