The Johnston-Truax House is one of the remaining early resources in Hancock County. Constructed in 1785, the log core of the house was the cabin of Benjamin Johnston, Jr. who was an early homesteader in the Weirton area. The home later passed through several hands before being owned by the Truax family for over 100 years.
The property is located on the northeast side of Weirton's downtown and mill area, north of the main Pennsylvania Avenue throughfare and east of 20th Street. The house lies on the north side of Seneca Street on a large lot with the rear sloping down to trees and hillside. The neighborhood around the house which was part of the Johnson and Truax farm appears to have been subdivided into lots in the 1940s or 50s.
The house is currently a one-and-a-half story home with a one-story wing to the west. The cabin appears to have originally been a Hall and Parlor floor plan with the door opening into a main room with a side parlor or bedroom, and an overhead sleeping loft. When the Campbells made improvements about 1950 they added two rooms to the east side as well as a second floor- for bedrooms across the entire length of the house. The stairs lead from the small side room in the log structure to the bedroom over the main room of the cabin. In 1886, the one story wing on the west side of the log cabin was added by the Truax's and contained three rooms.
The front or south elevation is five bays on the main section of the house and three bays on the west wing. The house has log walls probably covered with clapboard when the first frame addition was made in 1850. The home was covered with insul-brick at some point in the early 20th century and recently has had some vinyl siding over this. A full porch across the front of the house was added after the 1850's with a shed roof and a trap door in the porch floor to the cellar under the east rooms of the house. The west end of the porch was enclosed and now has a side door- leading onto the porch decking and a large multi-light window facing the street. The size of the window openings vary on the house with multi-light double-hung windows on the first floor and short 1/1 double-hung openings on the second floor. The 1856 wing has a center door leading out to concrete steps with a 1x1 sliding window to the left and a 1/1 double-hung opening ta the right. The gable roof of the house is corrugated metal on two levels with a shed porch roof.
The house appears to be in good condition and continues to serve as private residence.