Parkersburg Things to Do

Check out the Blennerhasset island. In order to check it out you must arrive by a fairy boat. Then ounce you arrive there is severa things to do like guided tours, narrated wagon rides, hiking trails and even picnic facilities. These events are open between May and October.

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A real time capsule of a pre-Civil War home/plantation...Henderson Hall is unique. Built by the Henderson family in 1836, it was continually occupied by the same family from that time until 2007. Henderson Hall was a 2600 acre plantation that was one of the northernmost to keep slaves. In fact, the view from the front of Henderson Hall looks out across the Ohio River toward Marietta, the first settlement in the Northwest Territory and a place where slavery was illegal. Henderson Hall literally was on the dividing line between the free North and slave owning South.

Not only is the mansion intact, the contents of the home are all there too. Everything has been saved, from letters, shopping lists, and business accounts to furniture, wallpaper, antique light bulbs, clothing, and shoes. More than 200 years of family papers were collected and have been saved.

While these documents are extremely important, they represent only a small part of the household collection. The mansion is furnished with exquisite antiques and wonderful treasures. Family portraits hang in almost every room. There are still working gaslights and gas fireplaces, as well as some original candlelight fixtures. Curtains made in the mid-1800s by the ladies of the house still hang in some of the windows. The dining room is filled with an extensive array of heirloom silver, china, and linens collected by generations of Henderson residents.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Henderson Hall has also been among the sites included on Flight to Freedom: Ohio’s Underground Railroad Tour.

There are just too many wonderful things to detail about this unique historical treasure--do go see it for yourself! The home is now open again for tours, every Saturday and Sunday from noon to 4 pm. The cost is $4 per person for a self-guided tour and includes a movie on the history of the family and the house. Even if you have toured the house before, you will find another visit of interest as the house has been restored to what it would have looked like around 1900 to 1910.

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Trans-Allegheny Bookstore in Parkersburg is well worth visiting--even if you don't like to read and have no intention of purchasing a book. The used bookstore is located in the former Carnegie Library. The building was constructed in 1905 and is listed on the National Historic Register.

Glass floors (yes, that's right, floors made of glass), stained glass windows, a spiral iron staircase with brass railings and carved marble mantelpieces are just some of the lovely architectural features. In addition to the largest selection of used books in West Virginia (and a nice selection of new books of regional interest), the bookstore boasts two cats (Page, a female ginger long haired cat and Jacket--also known as DJ for Dust Jacket--a friendly female tortie) in residence. Find a good book and settle down on the comfy couch and cuddle a cat! Page tends to hang out on the couch, but Jacket is friendly and will follow you around the store if you pet her.

Did you know it's very traditional for bookstores to have cats? Keeps the book-nibbling mice from ruining the books! It think it's wonderful that this bookstore keeps up the old tradition.

In addition to the books, wonderful architectural features and cats, the Trans-Allegheny Bookstore has the reputation of being the most haunted location in Parkersburg. Supposedly it has at least three or four ghosts. Check out the following website for details on how to book your own private ghost tour of the site. http://users.wirefire.com/magick/new_page_18.htm

Now if only they had cappuccino. Borders has cuppuccino and pastries but no cats, no ghosts and no interesting architecture. Decisions, decisions.... Well, I like cats better than cappuccino any day.

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NEWS FLASH: FENTON IS NOT CLOSING! Although Fenton has been struggling for survival for a while, and even announced they were closing earlier this year, orders have increased and other things have been worked out and it appears Fenton will remain in operation.

Fenton Art Glass is both one of the last remaining family owned handblown art glass factories in the United States and the largest handmade glass company in the U.S. The Fenton family started their glass business in 1905, decorating glass blanks provided by other glass makers. In 1907, they began producing their very own handcrafted art glass, and they haven't looked back since. 2007 marks the 100th anniversary of the beginning of Fenton glass production. Check out my VT homepage personal album on Fenton glass for more pictures of their marvelous, beautiful glass.

Fenton offers a free tour of their factory with live demonstrations of the techniques used in producing their glass. The tour is rated one of the top ten factory tours in the U.S. The techniques involved in making Fenton glass items--both glass blowing and glass pressing--are shown. The tour takes approximately 30-40 minutes. The tours begin at 8:15 am. The usual tour schedule is as follows:

AM Tours: 8:15, 9:00, 9:45, 10:30

PM Tours: 12:15, 1:00, 1:45, 2:30

Tours can be cancelled or times changed without notice due to production issues, especially in the late afternoons. I would recommend scheduling your tour early in the day in the summer, to avoid the brutal heat in the factory. In the winter or cooler weather, this will not be an issue and you could take the tour comfortably at any time of the day. The factory closes for vacation for two weeks in the summer, as well as on certain other holidays. I suggest calling ahead to make sure the factory will be open when you intend to visit, if you are making a special trip just to visit Fenton glass.

The tours begin and end in the Fenton gift shop.

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First go to the Blennerhassett Museum at Second and Julianna Streets and purchase your tickets for the Sternwheeler ride (totally necessary since the mansion is on an island and the sternwheeler is the only public transportation to the island) and tickets for the mansion tour. You may also purchase tickets for a horse drawn wagon ride around the island--or you may want to walk or bike to explore the island.

The current Blennerhassett mansion is a re-creation of the original mansion (which burnt down in 1811). It was errected on the foundation of the original building and is a very accurate replica based on careful historical and architectural research.

The mansion is a lovely Palladian style building, very reminescent of George Washington's residence, Mount Vernon. At the time it was built, it was the largest and most elegant homes west of the Alleghany mountains and one of the most beautiful in the entire country. The Blennerhassett mansion was the social hub of the (then) American frontier.

The mansion boasted rare plants, Oriental carpets, wood paneled rooms, Venetian mirrors, oil paintings, gold and marble clocks, silver doorknobs and a 2.3 acre flower garden and huge lawns, furniture purchased in London and Baltimore, and porcelain made in Paris. Alabaster lamps were suspended from the ceilings by silver chains. The house was the epitome of style and elegance of its time and place.

Even were the mansion not so lovely, the site would be worth visiting just to learn about the interesting (and largely tragic) history of the Blennerhassett family. The island and mansion are closed from November through April but the museum is open year round.

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The MOV is the Mid-Ohio Valley. Some of the oldest known burial sites in the country are located in this area. No, I'm not talking about the cemeteries of the early settlers--I'm talking about the burial mounds left by the Adena and Hopewell Indians. The Adena/Hopewell Culture was centered in the Ohio valley in southern Ohio--right around our area. They existed from around 1000 BC to around 700 AD. They were obsessed with the afterlife and built huge funeral mounds to house their dead. Like many other cultures, they buried rich funeral offerings with the bodies.

The largest, most prominent mound in the area is located atop a hill in Marietta--and is surrounded by one of the oldest cemeteries in the Mid-Ohio Valley which contains the burials of the founders of Marietta. The cemetery is known as Mound Cemetery. The Indian mound is 30 feet tall. There are stairs in the mound so you can climb to the top--it's strictly forbidden to climb the mound except by going up the stairs. The Mound itself is a National Landmark.

Besides the inhabitants of the Indian Mound, there are more than 25 veterans of the Revolutionary War buried there. More Revolutionary War officers are buried here than at any other cemetery in America. Most of the original settlers of Marietta are interred in Mound Cemetery. Mound Cemetery one of the oldest pioneer burial grounds west of the Appalachian Mountains and the oldest in the Northwest Territory.

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Parkersburg has some beautiful buildings in a variety of architectural styles--certainly more than you would generally expect to find in a small town/city in West Virginia. The reason it is blessed with such an abundance is because after the Civil War, due to its location on the river and its proximity to the newly discovered oil and gas fields in West Virginia, many beautiful and expensive homes and commercial buildings were built in Parkersburg by the people who profited from the oil and gas boom.

Juliana and Ann streets contain the most concentrated grouping of Italianate, Second Empire, and Queen Anne mansions in the entire state of West Virginia, all typical of upscale Victorian-era design. Many of the homes are listed on the National Register, as is the Julia-Ann Square District as a whole. Several times a year, the Julia-Ann Square Association sponsors home and/or garden tours and visitors can get a closer look at some of the homes. There is usually a Christmas tour in early December, showing the homes decorated for the season. Brochures for a self-guided walking tour are available in local businesses and the visitors center.

Parkersburg has some lovely homes built in a wide variety of architectural styles: Federal, Italianate, Second Empire, Gothic revival, Victorian, Arts and Crafts, Tutor revival, Colonial revival, etc. In addition, some churches and civic buildings in the Richardsonian Romanesque and Beaux Arts styles are located in the downtown area.

Check out the website link below for a downloadable brochure of the self-guided walking tour and more pictures of the Julia-Ann Square Historic District.

If you like to go bowling, then this is a great place to go! The only draw back is it is not a smoke free place so, you will often be overwhelmed with cigarettes sometimes, but they have a really cool laser bowling.