Qualla: Philippi Historic District

Philippi Historic District: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Valerius Tygart, CC BY-SA 3.0. After the Confederate retreat from Philippi on the morning of June 3, 1861 - the panicked dawn rout the press would dub the 'Philippi Races' - the town that the Union now held was a single Main Street running down to a covered bridge. By the time of the 1990 National Register listing, that town had layered onto itself a hundred and thirty years of commercial, civic, and residential building. The Philippi Historic District today encompasses 113 contributing buildings and one contributing structure, dating from the mid-nineteenth century through the early twentieth century. The district is, in effect, the architectural record of a county seat that grew into and out of every American style of its era.

Image: Valerius Tygart | CC BY-SA 3.0

Philippi Historic District: Three Styles, One Town

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Valerius Tygart, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Philippi Historic District contains representative examples of three of the most popular American architectural styles of the nineteenth century. Greek Revival buildings, with their columned porches and severe symmetry, recall the period when American towns aspired to classic...

Image: Valerius Tygart | CC BY-SA 3.0

Philippi Historic District: Four Listed Anchors

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Valerius Tygart, CC BY-SA 3.0. Within the historic district sit four separately listed National Register properties. The Barbour County Courthouse anchors the civic core - the building where county business has been conducted since the nineteenth century. The Philippi B and O Railroad Station marks the moment ...

Image: Valerius Tygart | CC BY-SA 3.0

Philippi Historic District: Commercial, Ecclesiastical, Civic

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Valerius Tygart, CC BY-SA 3.0. The district was nominated in April 1990 by students at Alderson-Broaddus College working under Professor James W. Daddysman. Their work documented the commercial buildings along Main Street, the churches scattered through the residential areas, and the civic structures clustered...

Image: Valerius Tygart | CC BY-SA 3.0

Philippi Historic District: Living in a Listed Place

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Valerius Tygart, CC BY-SA 3.0. National Register status does not freeze a district. Buildings still change hands. Roofs still get replaced. Businesses still come and go. What the listing does is acknowledge that the collection of structures, taken together, tells an architectural and social story that matters....

Image: Valerius Tygart | CC BY-SA 3.0