Category: Article
Beverly Heritage Center seeks Community Outreach Manager
Opportunity The Beverly Heritage Center is seeking a multi-talented individual to grow with our organization and to help us grow. This Community Outreach Manager position will assist with outreach, communications, and fundraising, while helping operate the Beverly Heritage Center Museum and events and grow capacity for our non-profit organizations. The position is half-time, on site in Beverly. Background The Beverly Heritage Center is a full-service museum and visitor center facility in Beverly, WV, operated through a partnership between Rich Mountain Battlefield Foundation and Historic Beverly Preservation. One full-time Executive Director is responsible for operations for the Museum and partner…
“Words of Love!” Exhibit Opens at the Beverly Heritage Center
Our biggest thanks to everyone who came to the opening event for our newest window exhibit “Words of Love” on Saturday, February 15th! Even with the cold rain, we had a fantastic turnout! During the event, AmeriCorps Member Josie Shaver, lead exhibit developer, delivered a fascinating presentation on the history behind the letters on display and the people who wrote them. “All of these little lines are so powerful, and I wanted to do something to honor that. The way they speak to each other is beautiful,” Shaver said. The universals of love drive this project; even though our ways…
Quilting & Conversation Series 2023
Griffin Nordstrom here in the final days of my Americorps term with the Beverly Heritage Center. In June and July I was very pleased to be able to collaborate with local artists and businesses in Randolph County to share stories and advice about working with fibers arts and its local history during our Quilting and Conversation series. Over the course of a few weeks, we held eight Facebook Live sessions with guests of various backgrounds and experience with fiber arts (for two, it was actually their first time quilting!) All of these videos have been saved on the Beverly Heritage…
Beverly Cooks! : Spoon Corn Bread
With the (relative) success of the 1950 Tuna Fish Loaf recipe, I got a bit more ambitious and took on another 1950 recipe, this one a ‘Spoon Corn Bread’ by Mrs. Willa Hill, also from the 1988 Beverly Presbyterian Church cookbook as a returning recipe from the 1950 edition. It did not work out, but I am not sure whether that was user error or the fault of the recipe. Ingredients 1 cup corn meal, 1 cup boiling water, 1 cup sweet milk, 2 eggs, butter (size of an egg), 1 tsp. sugar, 1/2 tsp salt, 4 tsp (level) baking…
Beverly Cooks! : Tuna Fish Loaf
In our role as a Heritage Center, we aim to not only use traditional history documentation with artifacts and info panels, but provide a living understanding of the community and present the stories of Beverly and Randolph County in alternative methods. As a part of these efforts I will be conducting a mini foodways series using recipes sourced from Beverly’s community. With all this, I want to acknowledge that I am not an experienced cook, and have chosen recipes that require amateur understanding of technique and tools. There are many more complex dishes in this community that better chefs could…
Historic Photographs of Beverly
Here we explore people, places, and the unknown in black and white photographs of Beverly, WV. Includes photographs from the BHC collection.
West Virginia in World War 1
To celebrate the centennial of WWI, in 2018 we inaugurated an exhibit featuring the story of Corporal Vincent Parmesano Jr., an Elkins resident who fought on the front lines in France. Parmesano was the son of Italian immigrants who attended Davis and Elkins College and who was part of the “Blue Ridge Division”. Learn about him and other West Virginians in the First World War.
A New Route Along the Underground Railroad?
The history of the Underground Railroad in West Virginia is still something of a mystery even after all these years. A series of safe points from the Deep South leading into Canada, spirituals such as “Follow the Gourd” were integral to guiding enslaved men, women, and children to a life of freedom up north. While certain routes along the Underground Railroad are well-known in the Northern and Eastern Panhandles and along the Ohio River, the heart of the Mountain State has not been examined in great detail. The Beverly Heritage Center researched the role of the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike, an east-west…
Northwestern Virginia In 1861: The First Campaign
Upon the outbreak of Civil War in 1861, the Staunton-Parkersburg Pike was a vital link between the heart of Virginia and its western counties, as well as a gateway to the B&O Railroad. Richmond was anxious to hold onto all of its territory, and sent Col. George Porterfield to hold northwestern Virginia for the south. The Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike, and its connecting pikes to the north and south, gave the South access into the mountain territory to strike at the railroad. As Virginia moved towards secession from the Union, many in the far western counties were determined to stay in the…