Qualla: Avery Street Historic District

Avery Street Historic District: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nyttend, Public domain. Between 1900 and 1910, Parkersburg's middle class did what middle classes in growing American cities were doing everywhere in that decade: they moved out of downtown into the country just beyond it. The country, in Parkersburg's case, was a hillside of farmland east of the original city grid, along a street called Avery. By 1910 it was no longer farmland; it was a neighborhood of about 109 acres, packed with new houses in every fashionable architectural style of the era, plus several that were not quite any of those styles but borrowed from all of them. The result, a century later, is one of the most architecturally diverse historic districts in West Virginia.

Image: Nyttend | Public domain

Avery Street Historic District: Parkersburg's First Suburb

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nyttend, Public domain. Parkersburg in 1900 was one of the largest cities in West Virginia, riding the oil and gas industry that had been booming since the Civil War. The downtown core had filled up. Streetcar lines and the new fashion for single-family homes on individual lots made suburban living poss...

Image: Nyttend | Public domain

Avery Street Historic District: Twelve Styles

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nyttend, Public domain. The National Register survey identified twelve distinct architectural styles within the district. The list is almost a syllabus of late-19th and early-20th-century American residential architecture: National Style, Gothic Revival, Italianate, Queen Anne, Romanesque, Folk Victoria...

Image: Nyttend | Public domain

Avery Street Historic District: The Pattern Book and the Builder

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nyttend, Public domain. The vernacular blending Pauley identified was characteristic of how houses were actually built in early-20th-century American towns. A family commissioned a house. They consulted pattern books and architectural catalogs. They had opinions about what they wanted - a Queen Anne tur...

Image: Nyttend | Public domain

Avery Street Historic District: Churches, Schools, and a Corner Store

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nyttend, Public domain. The district is primarily residential, but as Pauley's nomination notes, it also includes churches, a school, and a small commercial area. The commercial area - typically a small corner store or two, perhaps a pharmacy or a barber shop - was the standard pattern for early-20th-ce...

Image: Nyttend | Public domain

Avery Street Historic District: Preservation

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nyttend, Public domain. The Avery Street Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. The listing is one of three contiguous historic districts in this part of Parkersburg - Julia-Ann Square to the west, Parkersburg High School-Washington Avenue to the north, Avery St...

Image: Nyttend | Public domain