An Ornament To The City: Historic Architecture in Downtown Fairmont, West Virginia
Debra Ball McMillan
Through fire, flood and war, bolstered by the wealth of its natural resources, Fairmont began as a town of wooden houses and progressed to a city of skyscrapers. Over 150 structures in the historic downtown of Fairmont, West Virginia are documented in this volume, the first-ever researched work of the city’s architectural history. Highlighted are those structures from Fairmont’s period of astronomical growth, 18980 to 1930.
The evolution of the city is revealed through 82 photographs, 29 line drawings, five maps, as well as documented material from numerous historical sources, mixed with anecdotal stories of the life and times of “The Friendly City.”
For those who remember its past, to those who wish to shape its future, this book provides an important historical view of the city through its architectural heritage. Go back to a time when a new building was “an ornament to the city.”
Cover Illustration: Map Drawn by T.M. Fowler and James Moyer, 1897
ISBN: 0929915186
From the Back Cover
A Dynamic History…A Treasured Keepsake
From its start as a handful of humble structures on the beautiful rolling hillsides of the Fleming farm in 1819 to its historic rebirth amid the ashes of the Great Fire of 1876, the city of Fairmont has stubbornly borne the pride of generations of West Virginians. Now, Debra Ball McMillan, AIA, associate professor and program coordinator of the architecture program in the Division of Technology at Fairmont State College, has compiled a comprehensive and meticulously researched history of the city’s architecture. An Ornament To The City: Historic Architecture in Downtown Fairmont, West Virginia presents a dynamic history of the city’s people and places in a very special collector’s edition book.
Headline Books, Inc.
West Virginia Proud
ISBN 0-929915-18-6
About the Author
About the Author
Historic preservation is the life’s work of author Debra Ball McMillan. A graduate of the University of Michigan, she holds a joint Bachelor of Science/Bachelor of Arts degree in architecture and history of art, and a Masters of Architecture degree with a specialization in historic preservation and restoration. She is an associate professor of architecture at Fairmont State College, from which she received the Boram Award for Teaching Excellence in 1994. A resident of Fairmont since 1986, her interest in historic preservation has been spurred by the downtown’s wealth of significant architecture, which led to this first literary effort.
Debra is active in Main Street Fairmont, an organization dedicated to economic revitalization through historic preservation; the American Institute of Architects, West Virginia Chapter; the Marion County Historical Society; and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Her husband, Todd S. McMillan, a residential designer, shares her interest in architecture; and Barney, their golden retriever, rounds out the family.
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