West Virginia Independence Hall

About

West Virginia Independence Hall in Wheeling, WV.

Story

The birthplace for the state of West Virginia, West Virginia Independence Hall is now a museum dedicated to the history of statehood and the Civil War.
Construction began in September 1856, and the building opened in April 1859. The three-story structure was built to be the federal Custom House for the Western District of Virginia. The building also housed the post office and federal district court.
On June 13, 1861 the Second Wheeling Convention began and declared the Confederate state government in Richmond illegal, and so created a Reorganized Government of Virginia loyal to the United States, elected Francis Harrison Pierpont, governor of Virginia, and called for the western counties to be formed into a new state.
The legislature of the Reorganized Government met in the court room on the third floor from July 1861 to June 1863, and the constitutional convention for the new state met there in late 1861 through early 1862. Governor Pierpont and other state officials used offices on the second floor of the Custom House from June 1861 through early 1864. Thus, the Wheeling Custom House served as the capitol building for Reorganized Virginia, although it was never the capitol of West Virginia.
In 1970, the National Parks Service placed Independence Hall on the National Register of Historic Places.
In 1979, West Virginia Independence Hall was opened as a museum, administered by the West Virginia Division of Culture and History.
And in 1988, the birthplace of West Virginia, Independence Hall, gained recognition as a National Historic Landmark.


Visit this webpage by the West Virginia Independence Hall Foundation for more information:
http://www.wvindependencehallfoundation.org/wvihf/