St. George Academy - St. George, WV - Relocated Structures on Waymarking.com

Even though this building was only moved a short distance, it was the only way to save it from being razed. Since it's move in 1985, it has been added to the National Register of Historic Places and now is home to a museum.

From "National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form: St. George Academy":
George's Academy operated for eight years with the last term ending in 1893. There were two graduating classes while it was still a private school. The first class was in 1889 with three graduates and the second in 1893, with two graduates. The Fourth Catalogue of the academy for the term 1888-89 has as faculty a primary department, music, geography, history and penmanship faculty. There were 53 students registered with the highest numbers as fieshman and sophomores. The courses of study followed the free school study and included physiology. For the advanced students there was a Classical Course and a Literary-Scientific Course. The Classical Course was designed to give a thorough training for admission to college. The three year course included - Arithmetic, Latin, Ceasar, Vergi1;s Aeneid, Greek, Grammar, Conversation, German and Plane Geometry. The Literary-Scientific Course substituted literary and scientific studies for one or both languages. It included Rhetoric, English Literature, Physical Geography, Trigonometry, Physics, Chemistry, Botany and Astronomy. Special instruction was given in Penmanship and Bookkeeping.

The town of St. George had been by-passed in 1889 by the railroad and the county seat had been removed to Parsons in 1 893. This is when the building was sold to the Board of Education for a public grade school. With the proceeds from sale of the two buildings, plus a stockholders loss, the loan was paid off. The dormitory, known as DeGraft Hall, was located directly across the street from the academy building. It was sold to a private owner and was used as a barn. The building was razed in 1978.

The school was used for grades 1-8 with students from the community attending. Electricity was added to the building at the time of the Rural Electric program of the 1930s.

During this time few changes to the building took place. Only in recent years was it necessary to replace the wood floor in one classroom.

In 1975-76 a new brick school building was erected behind the old academy structure. Both buildings wqre used by classes until the old school building was condemned by the state fire marshal1 in 1982. , The Tucker County Board of Education was notified that the old academy must be torn down, moved, or have a wall built around it, since it stood directly in front of the new brick elementary school building. The residents of St. George began to plan to save the academy and were joined by the Tucker County Historical Society and other interested persons. In 1984, the Board of Education gave the building to the historical society with the provision that it be relocated in one year. A nearby landowner, Freda Parsons, donated a lot next door on which to have the building placed. Plans were made to move the school roughly 100 feet.

In August of 1985, Robert Gott Phillips of Elkins, who has deep family roots in Tucker County and was a member of the historical society, brought men and moving equipment to move the building to the new lot. The first effort failed, due to the weight of the building, but the school was successfully moved later that fall to a new foundation. Ironically, while the building was sitting upon the skidding equipment on the new lot waiting for the foundation, the tremendous Cheat River flood of November 1985 occurred. The nearby new school and homes were flooded with roughly four feet of water, while the old academy sat above the waters. Following the flood the only alteration 'for the move was to place the building on a higher foundation, necessitating the flight of stairs to its door and the rear ramp. Today the academy houses a small museum and is maintained by the St. George Preservation Society."

Original Location: N 39° 09.821 W 079° 41.910 How it was moved: Wheels / Dolly / Truck Type of move: Inside City Building Status: Museum Related Website: [Web Link]

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