Heritage Village at Calhoun County Park is where Calhoun’s history has come to be saved. The site includes five historic buildings which have been moved from their original locations in the county to the park to be brought back to life.

    The Village was a dream of historian Lorentz Hamilton and other founding members of the Calhoun County Historical Society over ten years ago. The site now is home to the Stevens School from along Pine Creek, the Jarvis Store from Chloe, the Starcher Blacksmith Shop from Hur, and the Freed Post Office from, of course, Freed. There is also an old outhouse at the location - for display and not for use.

    An open house and dedication ceremony for the Historic Village is planned for the weekend of May 27, 2006.

The Stevens Schoolhouse

    The Stevens School, originally located at the top of Pine Creek Hill above Grantsville, was one of 104 one-room schools in the county. It was built around 1885. It was dismantled between 1994 and 1996, it was stored in the basement of a Main Street store while Boy Scouts pulled nails from boards.

     Many individuals gave money to dismantle, move, and start the rebuilding of the Stevens School. These included many former students and an anonymous donation of $6,000. 

    The first building to be brought to the park, it arrived in many pieces.  There were several natural disasters that prolonged the reassembly. In 1998, the building was almost leveled by high winds. Then, when the school was finally reconstructed, a tree fell against the building just days before the October 2002 dedication. A dedicated volunteer repaired the exterior in time for the ceremony.

     Furnishings within the school (provided by private donations and the Calhoun Board of Education) include a pot-bellied stove, an "attitude adjuster," wall maps, water bucket, school books, an old dictionary on a metal stand,  learner's bench, old maps, pictures and a 48-star flag, and dozens of other artifacts. There is a great assortment of old school desks in lots of different styles, including one with a cane bottom.

The Jarvis Store  

    The Jarvis Store was donated by Irene Gunn of Chloe, whose father had the store constructed and operated it for several years.  It was  moved from Oka, West Virginia in August 2003. 

      Gunn’s father was Spencer “Dock” Jarvis, who had trees cut from his farm on Yellow Jacket (road), and the lumber sawed by his friend, Bee Griffin. The lumber was then placed inside a home made dry kiln for weeks, with the bark slabs used to keep the kiln heated. Lonnie Watkins then built the store building at Oka, upon a stone foundation cut by Mr. Norman on Beech.

     Irene’s Gunn’s sister, Sibyl, wrote the book ‘Mammy Jane’ about their grandmother, Dock’s mother, Labanna Jane Jarvis. The location where the store sat before moved to the park, the intersection of Oka and Beech roads, was the second site for the store. It originally set farther up Oka road.

    For the move, the roof was removed and the store loaded on a flat bed.   Hauling this load over rural roads and then into the park brought sweat to the brow and prayer to the heart of  that truck driver!

    Volunteers leveled and settled the building on the site foundation, then restored wood work of the shelves, walls and floors, and repaired windows. The interior was scrubbed and repaired and fresh paint put in place.

    Some of  the store’s furnishings were donated by Mrs. Gunn. The collection of dry goods, grocery items, hardware, medicinal sundries from the 1800’s and 1900’s were found and donated from throughout the county.

Starcher Blacksmith Shop

    The Starcher Blacksmith Shop and the contents were donated to the Historical Society by Dottie and Lou Slider.

     Opened around 1950 by Charlie Starcher, the shop originally was located up from the right fork of Barnes Run and down the hill from Hur. It was moved to the county park last year—across six miles of winding Calhoun roads.

     When the time came to move the building, volunteers worked two weeks to stabilize the structure for relocation, tightening boards and ensuring the shop would remain square.

    Now the shop holds anvils weighing from 100 to 300 pounds. The original furnace of wood and stone was reassembled inside, now surrounded again by horse and ox shoes, wagon wheels and primitive blacksmithing tools—most were owned by Charlie himself.

 The Freed Post Office

    The old Freed Post Office was the fourth addition to historic village, relocated on September 8, 2005. The town, and thus the post office, was named after the first postmaster, George Washington Freed.

    The post office was originally located on Leading Creek Road, off of Route 16, ten miles northeast of Grantsville.  It was donated by Marguerite Collins Hardman, daughter of Seth and Ivy Collins. Seth built the building in 1886, and Ivy was post master in 1903. The town of Freed once rested on a grassy bottom beside Leading Creek at the mouth of Coal Fork, but no longer exists. Most of the town was erased by a fire in 1933, but the post office was spared

    After the post office closed in 1954, the building was used for storage. Now it has been relocated to a new “town” with the original drop slot still in the front board slats.

    Now within the small building stands a display of post office boxes from the 1930’s and a set of antique sorting shelves.

      James Bell and Donald "Duck" Stevens of Grantsville, members of the Calhoun Historical Society, were recognized as “History Heroes” last year during West Virginia History Day at the legislature. They both received certificates from Gov. Joe Manchin.

     Bell and Stevens have given hundreds of volunteer hours to preserve Calhoun County history, especially on the Heritage Village project at Calhoun County park. What you see at Heritage Village today is mostly due to the labors of these two men.