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Purinton House

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1904–1906, J. Charles Fulton. West side of University Ave., opposite the intersection with Prospect St.
  • Purinton House (Rhonda Reymond)
  • Purinton House (State Historic Preservation Office, West Virginia Division of Culture and History, Lynette Jones)

Roundly chastised for being too elaborate and costly when built, the former president's house adds a welcome note of domesticity among its institutional surroundings. University president Daniel B. Purinton, for whom it was later named, commissioned the house, which is faced with regular courses of quarry-faced sandstone and covered with a prominent, dormered, red tile roof. Although the materials relate to Stewart Hall across University Avenue, the Beaux-Arts massing and Colonial Revival details do anything but. A curved, giant-order Ionic portico frames the entrance, and a onestory porch extends across the facade and beyond, terminating in a porte-cochere to the south. Architect Fulton could have designed a Romanesque Revival structure, as his many other West Virginia commissions—among them the nearby Wesley United Methodist Church ( ML4)—amply prove. Here he purposely, and probably wisely, opted for a more traditional domestic approach. In 1967 the university president moved to new quarters on the Evansdale campus, and Purinton House was converted to offices.

Writing Credits

Author: 
S. Allen Chambers Jr.
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Data

What's Nearby

Elizabeth Moore Hall
Colson Hall (Law Building)
Stewart Hall
PRT
West Virginia University: Downtown Campus

Citation

S. Allen Chambers Jr., "Purinton House", [Morgantown, West Virginia], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/WV-01-ML1.7.

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