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West Virginia » Lower Ohio and Kanawha Valleys » Mason County » Southeast of Point Pleasant » Elm Grove

Elm Grove

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1803, 1884, 1923. West bank of Kanawha River at end of Southside Lane, 1 mile east of U.S. 35 at Southside

Not easily seen from the road, Elm Grove's multibuilding complex contains some of the most significant historic sites in the lower Kanawha Valley. A huge sycamore that George Washington noted on his trip in 1770 later served as a marker for Long's Landing, named for the family who purchased the property from his heirs. The first log house (1803) was followed by a brick house in the 1830s. A year after the flood of 1883, the present house was built on a knoll several hundred feet farther from the river.

Elm Grove is an asymmetrical Italianate brick house with decorative bargeboards, three one-story porches, a two-story polygonal bay, and a shallow-pitched, multigabled roof. The brick was fired on the property, and the ornamental woodwork and marble mantels were shipped from Cincinnati. A Sears, Roebuck bungalow in the yard south of the house dates from the 1920s. Clad in shingles, it has a typically broad front porch with tapered brick piers and wide, overhanging eaves. Other buildings on the property include a barn, remains of the brick kiln, and several frame storage buildings.

Writing Credits

Author: 
S. Allen Chambers Jr.

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