Page-Vawter House
National Register of Historic Places

Page-Vawter House

Ansted, Fayette County, West Virginia
Listed
August 20, 1985
Type
Building
Period
Industrial
Ref No.
85001813

About this property

Page-Vawter House in the town of Ansted in Fayette County, West Virginia was built in 1889-90 by company carpenters of the Gauley Mountain Coal Company for the family of William Nelson Page, who was company president. The palatial Victorian mansion is located on a knoll in the middle of town. William and Emma (née Gilham) Page raised their four children there, attended by a staff of 8 servants. Architect William Minter designed the house in a Gothic style. It has 15 regular rooms, plus a butler's pantry and a dressing room. There are 11 fireplaces with hand-carved wooden mantels; most are in different styles. Even the doors have ornately decorated hinges. The exterior features 52 8-foot-tall windows According to author and railroad historian H. Reid in his book The Virginian Railway (Kalmbach, 1961), it was in this mansion that Page developed the plans for the coal-hauling Virginian Railway, which was financed by industrialist Henry Huddleston Rogers and became the "Richest Little Railroad in the World" after its completion in 1909. The nearby railroad town of Page was named for him. The mansion was later occupied by several generations of the Vawter family. In the 21st century, it still stands as evidence of the once-thriving coal business. It underwent a ground up restoration in 2007 by Jim and Debbie Campbell who are the current owners. The Page-Vawter House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

Location

Ansted, Fayette County, West Virginia
38.13698, -81.10138

Categories

INDUSTRYARCHITECTURE
National Register nomination ›
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Nearby Historic Sites

Contentment
Early Republic
0.2 mi
Halfway House
Early Republic
0.4 mi
New Deal Resources in Hawk's Nest State Park Historic District
Industrial
1.7 mi
New River Gorge Bridge
Pre Contact
4.7 mi
Gauley Bridge Railroad Station
Civil War
5.5 mi

Questions about this property

When was Page-Vawter House listed on the National Register?

Page-Vawter House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 20, 1985.

What type of historic resource is Page-Vawter House?

Page-Vawter House is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Page-Vawter House?

The period of significance for Page-Vawter House is recorded as the industrial era, specifically around 1889.

Can I research the history near Page-Vawter House?

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