Qualla: Literary Hall https://qualla.com/literary-hall en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:07 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/z/z/literary-hall-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Literary Hall https://qualla.com/literary-hall Literary Hall: Introduction https://qualla.com/literary-hall/ Photo credit Taber Andrew Bain from Richmond, VA, USA, CC BY 2.0. By 1861 the Romney Literary Society had built itself a library of about 3,000 volumes - literature, science, history, art - the intellectual capital of a small Allegheny town that had decided, in 1819, that it was going to take ideas seriously. By 1865 only 400 of those books could be recovered. Just 200 remained on the shelves. Union Army soldiers had used the rest as scrap or scattered them across the South Branch valley. The brick hall on West Main Street, built between 1869 and 1870 to start the library over again, was an act of refusal.

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Image: Taber Andrew Bain from Richmond, VA, USA | CC BY 2.0

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/z/z/literary-hall-wp/dnzz-literary-hall-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Literary Hall: The Polemic Society https://qualla.com/literary-hall/ Photo credit Justin.A.Wilcox, CC BY-SA 4.0. On February 4, 1819, a group of Romney residents adopted a constitution for what they called the Polemic Society of Romney. It became the Romney Literary Society - the first organization of its kind in what is now West Virginia and one of the earliest in the United States. The li...

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Image: Justin.A.Wilcox | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/z/z/literary-hall-wp/dnzz-literary-hall-the-polemic-society.mp3 0:06 2 full Literary Hall: What the War Did https://qualla.com/literary-hall/ Photo credit Quercus montana, Public domain. When the Civil War reached Romney, the town changed hands repeatedly - by some counts more than fifty times - between Union and Confederate forces. The Romney Classical Institute and its library sat right in the path of every passing army. Union troops occupied the building, remo...

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Image: Quercus montana | Public domain

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/z/z/literary-hall-wp/dnzz-literary-hall-what-the-war-did.mp3 0:06 3 full Literary Hall: Building Back https://qualla.com/literary-hall/ Photo credit Justin A. Wilcox from Washington, D.C., United States, CC BY-SA 2.0. On May 15, 1869, the Romney Literary Society reorganized. The members decided to transfer the old Classical Institute campus to the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind, which still occupies it today, and to construct a new brick hall in downtown Romney for the society an...

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Image: Justin A. Wilcox from Washington, D.C., United States | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/z/z/literary-hall-wp/dnzz-literary-hall-building-back.mp3 0:06 4 full Literary Hall: The Masons, the WPA Library, and the Rescue https://qualla.com/literary-hall/ Photo credit Jonathunder, Public domain. After 1886 Literary Hall passed to the Clinton Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons - the first Masonic lodge chartered in Hampshire County, going back to a Grand Lodge of Virginia charter on December 13, 1825. The Masons met in the building, alongside the Order of the Easte...

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Image: Jonathunder | Public domain

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/z/z/literary-hall-wp/dnzz-literary-hall-the-masons-the-wpa-library-and-the-rescue.mp3 0:06 5 full