Page-Vawter House
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Page-Vawter House in the town of Ansted in Fayette County, West Virginia was built in 1898 by company carpenters of the Gauley Mountain Coal Company for the family of William Nelson Page, who was company president. The palatial white 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.
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 the family of Dr. Gene Vawter. In the 21st century, it still stands as evidence of the once-thriving coal business.
The Page-Vawter mansion is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Special Collection William Nelson Page Papers, Duke University NOTE: this Gift of Mary Josephine Page in 1952 may have been moved to UNC-Chapel Hill
- Special Collection William Nelson Page Papers, Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- US Dept. of the Navy, Naval Historical Center
- New River CVB Guide to Ansted, WV
- Hawk's Nest State Park
- Biographical item on William Jordan, an African-American photographer that includes the Gauley Mountain Coal Company startup time frame and information on Ansted WV circa 1889-1909