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Monongalia Arts Center (Morgantown Post Office and Federal Building)

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Morgantown Post Office and Federal Building
1913–1914, Oscar Wenderoth. 1931, James A. Wetmore. 1976, Alpha Associates, Inc. 107 High St. (northwest corner of High and Kirk sts.)
  • (West Virginia Collection within the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)

Supervising Architect of the Treasury Oscar Wenderoth gave Morgantown a grand example of the formal, Beaux-Arts classical style employed for federal buildings in the early twentieth century. Above a sandstone podium, the walls are of Indiana limestone laid in smooth ashlar courses. The symmetrical facade has five bays defined by three-quarter Doric columns with solid, unadorned piers at each end. A 1931 rear addition maintains the same general feel. After new federal facilities were built in the adjoining High Street block in 1973, this building was privately purchased, and in 1976 the original portion became the Monongalia Arts Center. Subsequently renovated, it serves handsomely in its new function, its exterior hardly changed from the original appearance.

Writing Credits

Author: 
S. Allen Chambers Jr.

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