Preston County History Day

On the last Preston County History Day of 2026, you can appreciate that history isn’t just in books or on the Internet.
Talk with volunteers at Arthurdale Heritage, open 10 a.m.-3 p.m.; the Aurora Area Historical Society Museum, 1-4 p.m.; the McGrew House in Kingwood, 1-3 p.m.; Heart, Hands & Health Museum in Reedsville from 2-4 p.m.; the Szilagyi Center museums in Rowlesburg from 1-4 p.m.; and the Tunnelton Train Depot from 1-4 p.m.
Find out more about Arthurdale’s unique purpose and its past at the five-building museum commemorating the nation’s first New Deal subsistence homestead community championed by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Why were those 165 homesteads built by the federal government?
Connect with the good old days when Aurora’s clear mountaintop air made it a summer resort town for wealthy city residents, servants included, who came by train to get away from the cities that were thought to be much less healthy.
Did you know that Kingwood businessman, James McGrew, participated in the momentous events that resulted in West Virginia becoming the 35th state in 1863? His two-story brick home shows the lifestyle of the era, along with other historic exhibits from county residents.
As many know, the 4-H program has been part of county life for over 100 years. The Reedsville museum contains mementos of the varied projects young people undertook. Initially related to farm life, working on their own or in teams, members learned as they worked and built character for generations of Prestonians.
Thanks to the efforts of many volunteers, the Szilagyi Center in Rowlesburg provides insightful connections to World War II and its many heroes, our county’s own high school star athletes and their teams’ history, and the important engineering of railroad bridges.
The 113-year-old Tunnelton Train Depot, now a museum, gives you a chance to sit in the spacious B & O waiting room and learn more about railroad life and commerce during the 20th Century. A shopping trip to Grafton on the train cost 10 cents. A kid-friendly working railroad exhibit is on display also. There are two historic rail tunnels nearby.
Also, three outdoor Civil War Trail sites near Aurora and Rowlesburg commemorate the Jones-Imboden Raid and its effect on those areas of the county. The Confederates lost the confrontation in Rowlesburg and had to withdraw from the area. Visit the 1854 Virginia Iron Furnace located along Rt. 26 near Albright to see how iron was smelted in a blast furnace powered by a water wheel.