McDowell County

Wyoming Street, Welch

The McDowell County Courthouse in Welch sits atop a hillside overlooking downtown from Wyoming Street. It is the third courthouse for the county. The first was located in Wilco and the second in Perryville, both of which were log structures. The current courthouse was designed by Frank Milburn Pierce and represents the Romanesque Revival style. The main entrance is recessed beneath a stone frontispiece of Byzantine-style columns supporting a balustraded architrave. Inside, the cast iron stairway takes one to the courtroom, which occupies the entire upper floor of this 1893 building. The steps to the courthouse are infamously associated with the murders of Sid Hatfield and Edward Chambers by coal company agents. On August 1, 1921, Sid Hatfield was shot to death as he approached the building to stand trial for a shooting incident. He had just returned from Washington, D.C. where he had been scheduled to testify in front of the US Senate Committee on Labor and Education. A well-known labor leader and union organizer, he had participated in the May 19, 1920 “Matewan Massacre,” during which seven company guards, the mayor of Matewan and two union men were killed. -- SMP

Introduction

Boone County Courthouse

Braxton County Courthouse

Brooke County Courthouse

Clay County Courthouse

Harrison County Courthouse

Jefferson County Courthouse

McDowell County Courthouse

Marion County Courthouse

Mercer County Courthouse

Pocahontas County Courthouse

Randolph County Courthouse

Tyler County Courthouse

Wood County Courthouse

A History of West Virginia Courthouses

Architectural Styles