PARKERSBURG, WEST VIRGINIA: VIEW FROM FORT BOREMAN

UPDATED: 1-28-2023

PARKERSBURG, WEST VIRGINIA: A VINTAGE PORTRAIT

VIEW FROM FORT BOREMAN

The Parkersburg-Belpre ferry crosses the Ohio River toward Parkersburg in 1897.
Photo courtesy of Dan Kemper.

Across the Little Kanawha River, overlooking Parkersburg, stands Fort Boreman Hill. Originally called Mount Logan, it was renamed Fort Boreman after West Virginia's first governor, Arthur I. Boreman, a Parkersburg resident. A Union garrison from the 11th West Virginia Infantry was encamped there during the Civil War because of the promontory's command of the two rivers. Fort Boreman was also where Parkersburg held public hangings until 1868. The photo immediately below shows Parkersburg at the beginning of the 20th century. In the foreground are the Ohio River Railroad bridge (left), built in 1886, and the Juliana Street bridge, built in 1891. The Ann Street station, at Second Street, is just above the railroad bridge. (The ORR linked the W.Va. cities of Wheeling and Huntington.) In the upper part of the right side of the photo are the Wood County Courthouse and, just above its pointed tower, the city water towers, which burst in 1909 (see the Quincy Hill Water Tank Disaster page).

Looking toward the Point in the 1880s. (Courtesy of Nadine Hofmann)

Looking toward the point in 1900. (Courtesy of Dan Kemper.)

Looking up Market Street during the 1913 flood.

Parkersburg during the 1907 flood, the city's fourth worst flood. Note the Quincy Hill water tanks at the top middle of the photo. They collapsed two years later (see the Quincy Hill Water Tank Disaster page). (Photo courtesy of Artcraft Studio, 519-521 Market Street, Parkersburg, WV 26101; (304) 485-5771.)

Looking up Market Street in 1897. (Courtesy of Dan Kemper.)

An artist's view of early Parkersburg, with Marrtown in the foreground, circa 1840.
(Courtesy of Dan Kemper.)

Parkersburg by night, circa 1907.

The Wright Brothers' plane flies over Parkersburg in 1910.
(Photo taken from Ft. Boreman)

The Point during the flood of 1884.

The 1913 flood.

This photo of the Point and downtown Parkersburg was taken in early
October 2006 by Leslie Byers from the new Fort Boreman State Park.

This postcard aerial photograph, taken from above Fort Boreman, shows a fairly modern, post-urban renewal Parkersburg.

Fort Boreman Historic Park was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 17, 2003.