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Whipple Company Store

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c. 1900. Northeast corner WV 612 and Fayette County 15 (Scarbro Rd.)
  • Whipple Company Store (State Historic Preservation Office, West Virginia Division of Culture and History, Rodney Collins)

Justus Collins built this strange behemoth, a frame building hulking on a cut sandstone foundation, as a store for his Whipple Collier Company. It was identical to his store at Glen Jean (no longer standing), built on property leased from the McKells. The form of the building is basically a semi-octagonal first story with a modified Latin cross second story. Diagonal walls are everywhere present, and the building is entered through a cavernous arch. In all likelihood, the form owed something to the now vanished 1896 Glen Jean Opera House, designed by Ohio architect Frank Packard. The Whipple store, now serving various commercial uses, is a testament to a vanished way of life. It is one of the few remaining company stores in West Virginia in anything like its original condition. North of the store, along the Scarbro Road leading up to Oak Hill, are a number of one-story houses formerly occupied by miners.

Writing Credits

Author: 
S. Allen Chambers Jr.
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Data

What's Nearby

Lundale Farm
Oak Hill Baptist Church
Herbert E. Jones Library
Bank of Glen Jean (Former)
New River Gorge National River Headquarters

Citation

S. Allen Chambers Jr., "Whipple Company Store", [, West Virginia], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/WV-01-FY21.

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