Imagine standing in the heart of the Pocahontas Coalfield region of southwest West Virginia, surrounded by the rugged topography of the mountains. Amidst this landscape lies the abandoned Algoma Company Store and Offices.
Imagine standing in the heart of the Pocahontas Coalfield region of southwest West Virginia, surrounded by the rugged topography of the mountains. Amidst this landscape lies the abandoned Algoma Company Store and Offices, a powerful symbol of a bygone era. The building’s Art Moderne style stands out majestically against the rustic wooden structures that are scattered around it. It’s a magnificent structure that stands the test of time, built with the strongest materials – steel, concrete, and brick.
Designed by the brilliant architect Hassel T. Hicks, this magnificent two-story edifice was erected in 1948, replacing an older wooden structure that dated back to 1894. The ground floor boasted an all-in-one dry goods store and a revolutionary self-service grocery store, ahead of its time. The upper floor housed the company’s offices and medical clinics, creating a microcosm of community and innovation within its walls. It’s a place that tells a story of a time when life was simpler, yet full of hope and progress.
5 Comments
Add Yours →Hi. Thank you for your photographs. I think you have a fine eye and I love perusing them. If your only transgression is the thoughtless comment about “cheap and temporary,” you will be fine. Many of the dwellings are indeed crumbling before our eyes. You obviously researched. Did you find photographs of it in pristine order? Coal company stores had built into them many tricks: to overhear consumers talk about pending strikes and other camp business; nooks for the Pinkerton thugs to hold weapons on the shoppers; rape rooms where women and children paid off the “family” debts. We are a bruised lot; we take offense easily. However, I very much love the pictures you take. Don’t fret. Be charitable with us. Do better. Sincerely, Cynthia
The only thoughtless comment was from someone who spent so much time to be offended that buildings, hastily built by coal barons to be as cheap and temporary as possible, were… cheap and temporary. These buildings were designed to last perhaps the lifespan of the mine; why invest in money for your miners when they were at best temporary?
I am sorry for your suffering. Why do you visit this site?
“A region more known for its cheap and temporary wood framed buildings”
Clearly you haven’t spent much time here and have no idea what we are known for. Maybe the next time you write something, you should consider being more respectful and less condescending. That’s something we are known for.
Grew up in Appalachia, thank you very much for your condescending comment. And yes, company houses were cheap – designed to last only the lifespan of a mine, and were often prefabricated elsewhere and shipped in. What a legacy of abandonment and rot the coal companies left Appalachia – an era of quick wealth and gain only to leave a wide swath to essentially be in ruin.
But hey, why not bury the history of Appalachia like what the coal companies have tried to do with Blair Mountain?