Walk in the footsteps of one of West Virginia’s founding fathers at Kingwood’s McGrew House.
In the late 1980s, the Preston County Commission purchased a piece of land in the county seat, a 45-minute drive from Morgantown. This property, just shy of three acres on Kingwood’s Main Street, was home to a humble brick house. But the commission wasn’t in the market for a 150-year-old structure—rather, it was searching for a blank slate for new office space.
Around that same time, the city assembled a tourism committee, which included the late William “Bill” Williams. Williams was a local historian with a nugget of knowledge that was about to transform the future of Kingwood: That worn-down house slated to be razed by the commission was teeming with city and state history.
To living memory, the house had a humble past. Before it caught the commission’s eye, it was a senior citizens’ center. Before that, it had been an apartment complex, and, earlier still, it was home to the Gibson family.
But originally, the house was built by one of West Virginia’s founding fathers: James McGrew. He was a prominent businessman and a statesman, one of two representatives of Preston County at the 1861 Virginia Convention. When votes were taken for Virginia to secede from the Union, McGrew was a naysayer. And in the years that followed, he was a leader of the movement to admit West Virginia as the 35th state in the Union.
Until the late 1980s, the McGrew family home’s rich history was almost lost to time. But when Williams regaled the tourism committee with stories of McGrew, the group knew they couldn’t allow the house to be bulldozed. From that resolve, the Society for Preservation of McGrew House was formed.
Preserving a structure weathered by time wasn’t a small task.
“It took removing 16 truckloads of debris off the property just to get to the house,” recalls society president and founding member Rosemary Bernatowicz. The society was met with rotted floors, broken windows, and a generally unsound structure. With the help of fundraisers, grants, local sponsorships, and thousands of volunteer hours from the community, the McGrew House was restored to its former glory—and took on a new life. “It has become an educational, cultural, historical center, not only for Kingwood and Preston County, but for the entire state,” says society secretary Susan Hardesty. “We have put Mr. McGrew back in the pages of history.”
The house is now the site of community gatherings like the Souper Taste of Christmas, planned for December 7 this year, an annual holiday celebration featuring homemade soups, craft workshops, flower sales, tours of the home, and more. Besides the home itself, there’s plenty to see—the property is home to five champion trees recognized by the West Virginia Division of Forestry’s West Virginia Big Tree program. Donated collections like the Bill Williams Gallery, Bill Prince Photo Gallery, Dr. Leo Kotchek Museum, and various period household items and antique clothing are testaments to McGrew House’s modern foundation: the support of the community and the society’s members.
111 East Main Street, Kingwood, @mcgrew.house.kingwood on FB
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