Our Blue Ridge Towns: Hinton, West Virginia - Three Rivers and a Railroad

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With one of the largest National Historic Districts in the country, Hinton, West Virginia, is revising its story and its future.

When the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway reached Hinton, West Virginia, in 1873, only six families lived there. Thirty-three years later, the population had blossomed to 6,000. By 1925, the city enjoyed a well-equipped hospital, a $100,000 luxury hotel, a four-story Masonic theatre, many shops and three banks, several newspapers, and one of only four Carnegie libraries in West Virginia.

The Hinton C&O yard employed hundreds. Steam engines pulled coal trains through Hinton, were serviced in the roundhouse, and continued east to Talcott and through Great Bend Tunnel, where legendary steel-driving John Henry went up against the steam drill and won.  Hinton’s Big Four Building was home to four powerful railroad unions.

You can guess the next chapter in Hinton’s railroad story: diesel engines requiring less maintenance came in the 1950s, and the Roundhouse laid off workers. When C&O and Seaboard Coast Line merged in 1980, creating CSX, Hinton’s decline continued. The Roundhouse was torn down in 1983, businesses shuttered, people left.

Today, Hinton has about 2,400 residents. Through the efforts of committed city supporters and native son Ken Allman, Hinton is again coming into its own, its eye on tourism as the driving force.

Twenty years ago, the city was looking in a different direction. Built on the site of the collapsing Parker Opera House, the sprawling Hinton Technology Center was championed by Senator Robert C. Byrd and Congressman Nick Joe Rahall as a hub for computer technology and government contract work. For more than a decade, the Technology Center housed 80 workers…employees who eventually began to work from home, says City Manager Cris Meadows. The Center now houses a fitness center, a daycare center and several small businesses.

Around the corner, near the only traffic light in the county, is the Summers County Convention and Visitors Bureau. This is where you’ll pick up the newly redone Hinton Historic District walking tour brochure, with 40 (!) stops on the 16-block route. If you do nothing else but walk this tour and pay attention to what’s in front of you—as well as to the bold shadows of what once was—you’ll know Hinton pretty well:

  • The elegant 1875 Summers County Courthouse, designed by Frank Milburn.
  • The 1907 Big Four Building, now home to one of the oldest drugstores in West Virginia.
  • The 1907 Hotel McCreery, which boasted electric lights, elevators, and a telephone system back in the day.
  • The 1929 Ritz Theatre, where first-run movies play every weekend and the classic-hits city radio station broadcasts.
  • The 1905 Hinton Department Store, now a two-floor railroad museum featuring 100 native-wood railroader sculptures by the late Charlie Permelia.
  • Stately, century-old Neoclassical and Gothic Revival brick churches.
  • The C&O Freight Depot, now a heavily booked event center.
  • The Passenger Depot, serviced by the Amtrak Cardinal three days a week.

You’ll see new businesses housed in these historic beauties. The Otter & Oak caters to the outdoors set, with clothing and equipment for hikers and river runners. Nearby Rivertown Gallery features local artists. And the Big Four Drugstore has a fine selection of household decorations, toys and clothing mixed in with the usual drugstore items.

Downtown is also home to The Market, a restaurant where the food is varied and delicious, and where the artwork of Summers County native S.L. Jones hangs on the walls. (Jones’ work also hangs in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American Art and the American Folk Art Museum.) A few doors down, the beautifully restored Guest House on Courthouse Square provides five-star lodging for visitors.

Much of what you see in downtown Hinton has been restored with the financial support of native son Ken Allman. He chose to headquarter his successful physician placement company, PracticeLink, in Hinton, and his MountainPlex Properties group has financed much of the restoration work in his city’s National Historic District. 

With ongoing efforts of a strong group of residents, Hinton is moving forward.

Cleo Mathews, elected in 2001 as the first (and still only) female mayor, oversaw creation of the city’s first comprehensive plan and currently is working with Marylou Haley to fund construction of an assisted-living facility. Hinton Area Foundation Director Myra Hogan successfully raises money for education and economic development. City Councilman Jack Scott, who’s lived his whole life in Hinton, stresses the optimism in his city. “We’re seeing the opportunities,” he says.

Most of those opportunities focus on tourism. Located at the confluence of the New, Greenbrier and Bluestone rivers, whitewater rafting and paddling bring thousands of visitors to the Hinton area. The New River Gorge National River, the Gauley River National Recreation area, and the Bluestone National Scenic River are all run by the National Park Service, and Hinton leaders are well aware of the benefits that come from being near some of the best climbing and whitewater rafting in the country.

Also nearby are Pipestem and Bluestone State Parks. And Hinton’s own Wild Water Express water park draws 10,000 seasonal visitors.

Is tourism enough to bring Hinton onto firm ground? Much progress has been made, and many ideas taking root. Stephanie Stiffler of MountainPlex Properties is cautiously optimistic: “We’re taking baby steps,” she says.

In the late 1880s, C&O Railway president M.E. Ingalls was considering where to build the first YMCA, with financial backers promoting Cincinnati. “Why don’t you tackle Hinton instead of an easy place like Cincinnati…it is a rough, forsaken place,” Ingalls told them.

Today, rough and forsaken aren’t words I’d use to describe Hinton. It’s words like historic, river-rich, mountain-beautiful that come to mind. 

And determined, with a capital D.

The story above appears in our March/April, 2020 issue. For more subscribe today or log in to the digital edition with your active digital subscription. Thank you for your support!