Wood County is a county in the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 84,296, making it West Virginia's fifth-most populous county. Its county seat is Parkersburg. The county was formed in 1798 from the western part of Harrison County and named for James Wood, governor of Virginia from 1796 to 1799.
Parkersburg is a city in and the county seat of Wood County, West Virginia, United States. Located at the confluence of the Ohio and Little Kanawha rivers, it is the state's fourth-most populous city and the center of the Parkersburg–Vienna metropolitan area. The city's population was 29,749 at the 2020 census, and its metro population was 89,490. The city is about 14 miles (23 km) south of Marietta, Ohio.
Blennerhassett Island Historical State Park is a state park located on Blennerhassett Island, a small island in the Ohio River, located in Wood County, West Virginia, USA. The property was the site of a Palladian mansion owned by Harman Blennerhassett, a participant in some of the alleged intrigues of Aaron Burr, and his wife Margaret Agnew. While the original mansion burned to the ground in 1811, a detailed replica, which can be toured, was built on its foundations in the 1980s. The Blennerhasset mansion greatly resembled George Washington's Mount Vernon, due to its Palladian style.
Blennerhassett Island is an island on the Ohio River below the mouth of the Little Kanawha River, near Parkersburg in Wood County, West Virginia, United States.
The W.H. Bickel Estate is a 2+1⁄2-story stone mansion built between 1928 and 1930 on the outskirts of Parkersburg, West Virginia. The 1,800-square-foot (170 m2) building has a rectangular main section and a wing to the East. It is known for its architecture and a ghost that reportedly haunts the area. The main house is rich with woodwork, including intricately inlaid walnut and maple floors with geometric patterns, wood mantels, partial wainscoting on all three floors, 15 light French doors on the first floor, solid maple arched doors on the second floor, built-in china cabinets, crown molding in all main rooms, and original finish wood casement windows with roll down screens and brass hardware. There are five gas fireplaces with marble or stone hearths in the main house and two staircases, including a circular walnut and maple main staircase. The ceilings are coved on the second and third floors, and the third floor contains a ballroom or “dance hall” stretching twenty eight feet.
The Parkersburg–Belpre Bridge is a four-lane cantilever bridge that connects Parkersburg, West Virginia, to Belpre, Ohio, across the Ohio River. The bridge was completed in 1980. The bridge had been signed U.S. Route 50 (US 50) until June 13, 2008, when that highway was re-routed to the Blennerhassett Island Bridge a few miles to the west, as part of the completion of the Corridor D project around Parkersburg. The American Discovery Trail uses the bridge to cross the Ohio River.
The Parkersburg Bridge crosses the Ohio River between Parkersburg, West Virginia, and Belpre, Ohio. Designed by Jacob Linville, the bridge has 46 spans: 25 deck plate girder, 14 deck truss, 6 through truss, and 1 through plate girder. 50,000 cubic yards (38,000 m3) of stone were used for the 53 piers. The bridge was constructed from May 1869 to January 1871 by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. At the time of its completion, the bridge was reportedly the longest in the world at 7,140 feet (2,180 m).
The Wood County Courthouse is a public building in downtown Parkersburg, West Virginia, in the United States. The courthouse was built in 1899 at a cost of $100,000 in the Richardsonian Romanesque style by local contractors Caldwell & Drake, according to the plans of architect L. W. Thomas of Canton, Ohio. The current courthouse is the fifth to be built in the county replacing one built in 1860. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 for its architectural significance. During his 1912 presidential campaign Theodore Roosevelt stopped in Parkersburg and spoke from the Market street entrance of the courthouse. On 2 July 2020 a new steeple was added to the bell tower replacing one that had been removed in 1952. With the new steeple the courthouse is now the tallest in the state at 164 ft.
The Peter G. Van Winkle House was a historic home located in the Julia-Ann Square Historic District in Parkersburg, Wood County, West Virginia. It was built between about 1880 and 1899, and was a two-story duplex in the Queen Anne style. It featured a deck hipped roof with intersecting gables, turrets, and dormers. It was built on property once owned by former United States Senator Peter G. Van Winkle, who died in 1872.
First Presbyterian Church, also known as the Calvary Temple Evangelical Church and St. Patrick's Priory Church, is a historic church at 946 Market Street in Parkersburg, Wood County, West Virginia. It was built in 1894, and is a two-story, brick and stone church building in a combined Romanesque / Gothic Revival style. It features a corner bell tower.
The Masonic Temple is a historic Masonic Lodge building located at Parkersburg, Wood County, West Virginia. It was built in 1915, and is a three-story, three-bay wide, red brick building with stone trim in the Classical Revival style. It features elliptical bays flanking the central bay on the front facade. The building was designed by Columbus architect Frank Packard with local supervising architect Theodore T. Sansbury.
The Captain Jonathan Stone House is a historic residence in the city of Belpre, Ohio, United States. Built just ten years after Belpre's 1789 establishment on the north bank of the Ohio River, it is the oldest existing building in the city.
Parkersburg Women's Club is a historic clubhouse located at Parkersburg, Wood County, West Virginia. It was built between about 1860 and 1879, as a private home in the Italian Villa style. It is a two-story, frame building with a very low-pitched hipped roof. It features a one-story wraparound porch. It has housed the Parkersburg Women's Club since 1921.
George Neale Jr. House, also known as the Pence Building, is a historic home located at Parkersburg, Wood County, West Virginia. Built in 1840, it is a two-story structure with a stone foundation and walls of handmade orange-red brick in the Greek Revival style. The house was converted into law and real estate offices in the 1880s. Additions to the original building were built in 1958 and 1973.
Tavenner House is a historic home located at Parkersburg, Wood County, West Virginia. The main house was built about 1812, and is a two-story, brick house coated in stucco in the Federal style. It has a gable roof and sits on a foundation of cut stone slabs. The property includes a 1+1⁄2-story frame dependency with a gable roof and covered in novelty siding. It is the oldest remaining building in the Parkersburg area and is associated with Colonel Thomas Tavenner, a prominent early settler of this area.
The Oeldorf Building, also known as Wetherell's Jewelers, was a historic commercial building located at Parkersburg in Wood County, West Virginia, United States. It was built in 1906 and was a four-story, two-bay, brick building with a stone foundation and trim in the Classical Revival style. It had an intact first floor storefront and sidewalk clock.
Parkersburg High School–Washington Avenue Historic District, is a national historic district located at Parkersburg, Wood County, West Virginia. The Parkersburg High School was built in 1917 north of the Avery Street Historic District in the Jacobethan Revival style. It was designed by Ohio architect Frank Packard (1866-1923).
Henderson Hall Historic District is a National Register of Historic Places (NRHP)-listed historic district in Boaz, Wood County, West Virginia. The primary contributing property is Henderson Hall, a home in the Italianate style from the first half of the 19th century. Other residences at the site are a tenant house from the end of the 19th century, and "Woodhaven", the 1877 home of Henry Clay Henderson. Additional structures include a smokehouse, two corn cribs, a carriage barn that also served as a schoolhouse, a scale house used for storing agricultural equipment, and two barns. Also included within the district are the 19th-century Henderson family cemetery, a wall, a mounting block, and three mounds associated with the pre-Columbian Adena culture.
Margaret Agnew Blennerhassett was an English-American poet and aristocrat.
Historic Hotels of America is a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation that was founded in 1989 with 32 charter members; the program accepts nominations and identifies hotels in the United States that have maintained their authenticity, sense of place, and architectural integrity.
