Hinton Depot

Hinton Depot

Mark Bollinger

Quick Facts

Location:

100 Second Ave, Hinton, WV

Amenities

1 listed

Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits

African American Heritage Driving Tour Stop 19: Migration of African Americans to WV

If using the NPS app, to listen to the audio narrative, press the green button below or read the audio narrative text below.

Audio Narrative

Written by: James Welt
Narrated by: Adrienne Jenkins

In the years before coal, West Virginia’s economy was based primarily on subsistence farming and timber harvesting. Without big industry, the region was sparsely populated and the workforce was small. During the late 1800s, the construction of railroads through southern West Virginia created the need for a much larger workforce. Recruitment by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Company and others brought thousands of Blacks to build and maintain their railroads. As the railroads opened up the large coal fields of Central Appalachia, even more African Americans came to fill hundreds of coal mining jobs.

For nearly sixty years, 1870 to 1930, African Americans migrated to West Virginia through major rail centers like Hinton, WV. They came in search of jobs as well as economic and political opportunities denied them in other states. They also came to escape Jim Crow laws that segregated them and denied them voting rights. They came because West Virginia provided better education opportunities for their children.

In 1870, there were nearly 18,000 African Americans living in West Virginia.  By 1910, the black population had grown to over 64,000 residents and eventually reached a high of 115,000. Then came the Great Depression of the 1930s. During these years, African Americans suffered from high unemployment and hard times in West Virginia. With the advent of World War II, new technologies and mechanization transformed the coal industry. These technologies doubled coal production and vastly cut the need for manpower. Coal companies were also reluctant to train and use blacks workers to operate the new machinery. This led to substantial layoffs of black coal miners. The result of these events stimulated a massive out-migration by African Americans in the post-war years.

Between 1930 and 1980, the number of African-American coal miners fell from 22,000 to less than 1,500. By the end of the 20th century, black miners had dropped to less than three percent of West Virginia’s work force. African Americans left West Virginia for the same reasons they came almost 150 years earlier, to find better jobs and economic opportunities elsewhere.


Additional Information
The Hinton station was built for the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway (C&O) in 1905 as a division terminal. The station and tracks lie along a bend in the New River; in a quirk of engineering, the eastbound trains pass southwest through the station and westbound trains pass northeast. The otherwise two-story depot has a middle section that stands at three stories and is built entirely from red brick with a rock-faced stone belt course that runs at the window heads. The porch coverings are supported by heavy wooden brackets that feature a wood-fan pattern trim. Currently, the station is largely unoccupied except for an Amtrak waiting room opened and closed by a caretaker. Along the hillside bordering the platform, a neighbor maintains a lush garden for the enjoyment of rail passengers.

Other nearby places of interest:

Hinton, WV
Hinton Railroad Museum

Driving Directions

Physical Address: 100 2^nd Avenue, Hinton, WV 25951
GPS Coordinates: N37.675011 -W80.892184

From Beckley, WV: Take I-64 east to Exit 139 (Hinton/Sandstone, WV). Turn left onto Highway 20 south and travel 10 miles to Hinton, WV. Route 20 will become Summers Street (one-way) through town. Turn right onto Second Avenue and park along the curb. Tour Stop #19 is down the hill at the Hinton Railroad Depot on the left. There are exhibit panels on both sides of the Depot. STAY OFF THE TRACK.

Directions to the next tour stop:

Quinnimont Missionary Baptist Church
Physical Address: Stanaford Road (Highway 41), Prince, WV 25907
GPS Coordinates: N37.855641 -W81.045615

From the Hinton Depot, travel up Second Avenue to the stop light at Temple Street (Hwy 20) and turn left. Travel approximately 22 miles on Hwy 20 north to Meadow Bridge and turn left onto Meadow Bridge Road (Route 31). Travel approximately 6.5 miles to Danese and turn left. Travel approximately 11.5 miles on Hwy 41 south to Quinnimont. At Quinnimont, you will turn right at the first gravel road at the African American Heritage Tour sign. Tour Stop #1 and parking are at the church buildings on the left.

 

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