Charleston, the capital of West Virginia

Wheeling and Charleston

West Virginia’s government first sat in Wheeling, in the Linsly Institute building, from statehood in 1863. In 1870 the Legislature moved the capital to Charleston, into a downtown capitol built by the State House Company. Five years later, in 1875, it voted to return to Wheeling; Charleston residents sought an injunction but could not stop the move. Each time, state officials and records traveled by river steamboat.

The 1877 vote

To end the back-and-forth, the question went to the voters. A statewide election among Martinsburg, Clarksburg and Charleston gave Charleston a majority, and in 1877 Governor John J. Jacob proclaimed it the permanent capital. State officials and records arrived in Charleston by steamboat in May 1885, and the capital has stayed there ever since.

Fire and the Pasteboard Capitol

On January 3, 1921, the downtown capitol burned. As it went up, thousands of rounds of ammunition, seized during unrest in the coalfields, exploded in the flames. The state quickly put up a temporary wood-and-wallboard building, nicknamed the “Pasteboard Capitol,” in just 42 working days.

Cass Gilbert’s Capitol

The architect Cass Gilbert designed the new Capitol, built in three phases: the west wing was finished in 1925, the east wing in 1927 and the domed main unit in 1932. It was dedicated on West Virginia Day, June 20, 1932. Gilbert called the limestone exterior classical, “more correctly” Renaissance, in style. Inside are walls of Imperial Danby Vermont marble and floors of Italian travertine. The gilded dome rises 292 feet, about four and a half feet higher than the dome of the US Capitol, and a 4,000-pound crystal chandelier hangs from it on a 54-foot chain.

Visiting

Guided tours run on weekdays and Saturday afternoons and are booked through Capitol Tours and Information. See the Legislature’s State Capitol information page for details.