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I've noticed that most urban areas of West Virginia look very Midwestern, at least more so than it's split identity in the mid-Atlantic region and the south. Whenever I go in google Earth to view their towns I see a lot of the same grittiness you find in other rust-belt/Midwest regions. I've found there to be a lot more older architecture, with denser packed, 2 story homes closer to the street in comparison to places like Florida or North Carolina which lack a lot of that same sort of density or older architecture. I mean, when it comes to architecture I don't really think of West Virginia as being in the same line as states in the sun belt. I won't argue though that West Virginians are probably more southern than people from Alabama.
WV certainly has the ambiance of the Mid-West/Rust Belt. That is due to the industrial nature of the state, as opposed to the agricultural south. The coal mines of WV fueled the rise of the Rust Belt, and naturally the character of those states bled into the Mountain State. Also the lack of flat land, forced WV to build denser and in some cases higher. Small towns like Welch have buildings that are 10 floors because the crammed the town into a valley.
Morgantown, Fairmont, Clarksburg & on down toward eastern WV to southern WV are not as western. Charleston is, & maybe Logan is, a bit more. Bluefield is southern as in more like VA/TN/Carolinas,
as I feel it.
The eastern panhandle like Charles Town, Sheps-town, M-burg, etc, are very east coast -- & not fitting southern, or western at all. Ok, just IMHO.
Maybe midwestern rust, but Eastern density, seems typical of WV cities/large towns. Not flat in WV, and not much room to spread out.
Western PA through about Chattanooga, TN (possibly even to Birmingham, AL, but I only got the train side look there) seems similar, for similar reasons.
Dubuque, IA, hemmed in by bluffs (they even have an inclined plane, like Johnstown PA) likewise compresses the Midwestern brick-rust pattern.
Since West Virginia was settled first, wouldn't it be more accurate to say the Midwest looks like West Virginia?
WV actually industrialized later than much of the Midwest. Huntington (although there were earlier settlements on its site) wasn't founded until years after the Civil War.
I've noticed that most urban areas of West Virginia look very Midwestern, at least more so than it's split identity in the mid-Atlantic region and the south. Whenever I go in google Earth to view their towns I see a lot of the same grittiness you find in other rust-belt/Midwest regions. I've found there to be a lot more older architecture, with denser packed, 2 story homes closer to the street in comparison to places like Florida or North Carolina which lack a lot of that same sort of density or older architecture. I mean, when it comes to architecture I don't really think of West Virginia as being in the same line as states in the sun belt. I won't argue though that West Virginians are probably more southern than people from Alabama.
Like the Midwest many of West Virginia's cities along the Ohio and Kanawha Rivers relied greatly on heavy industry...steel mills, aluminum and nickel plants, some of the world's biggest power plants, railroad facilities (rail yards, car shops, a large locomotive maintenance plant, a CSX dispatching facility that controlled CSX train traffic in much of the eastern US), river barge firms and associated loading and repair facilities, glass factories, and chemical plants, etc. A lot of supporting and value added work to resources procured throughout the state and parts of neighboring states was performed in these cities.
Last edited by robertbrianbush; 11-27-2017 at 10:35 AM..
WV actually industrialized later than much of the Midwest. Huntington (although there were earlier settlements on its site) wasn't founded until years after the Civil War.
The Kanawha salt industry was already alive and well by the 1820s. Clarksburg was founded in the late 1700s. Parkersburg was well established in the 1830s before the boom of the railroads and oil industry (late 1850s to 1860s). Wheeling likewise took off in the 1870s and 1880s, but was already a transportation hub thanks to the National Road and the river. Huntington, while incorporated in 1871, was settled long before that and had several industries when Collis P. came to town.
Morgantown, Fairmont, Clarksburg & on down toward eastern WV to southern WV are not as western. Charleston is, & maybe Logan is, a bit more. Bluefield is southern as in more like VA/TN/Carolinas,
as I feel it.
The eastern panhandle like Charles Town, Sheps-town, M-burg, etc, are very east coast -- & not fitting southern, or western at all. Ok, just IMHO.
There is a unique style for these towns, row houses in bigger communities, and the "rowstreet" in smaller ones; Literally two rows of houses nearly all connected to each other that meet at an important crossroads, and otherwise surrounded by fields and forest. Think Littlestown, PA. Taneytown, MD, Shep-town, WV. The style is replaced by more SW PA style building patterns, like duplexes and free standing homes on small sloped lots once you get west of South Mtn and the land gets more rugged.
I would call it more Mid-Atlantic than North East, but I am certain we are thinking of the same style.
You find row houses like that in southern towns that were settled in the late 18th century and early 19th century, Savannah has row houses, Charleston, SC, etc.
You also have to take into account the urban renewal of the 1950s-70s, even small and medium sized towns went through this. Pittsburgh was the poster boy for this and it erased the unique character of many towns in the US.
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