Mary Conrad Cabin (The General Store)

This much-moved two-part log house was originally built near Roanoke, eight miles south of Weston. The WPA guide to West Virginia mentioned it briefly, advising readers to “inquire locally” to find it. The state acquired it in 1961 and used it as an exhibit in a roadside park. It was moved in 1988 when construction of Stonewall Jackson Lake inundated the earlier site, and it was eventually rebuilt at Jackson's Mill in 1994. The front half, with shed-roofed front porch, half-dovetailed notching, and sandstone and brick chimney, is the earlier portion, but the rear pen, also employing half dovetailed notching, was constructed soon afterward. The addition stands at a right angle to the original pen, and an open breezeway, or dogtrot, connects the two parts. The first section is now fitted as a country store; the rear is equipped for weaving demonstrations. Built a half-century after the McWhorter Cabin, the Conrad Cabin shows that log construction had hardly changed during the interim.