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…

Here we explore people, places, and the unknown in black and white photographs of Beverly, WV. Includes photographs from the BHC collection.

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.

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…

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…