Mount Hope Early Town History

Native Americans used the area of Sugar, Dunloup, and Mill Creeks for hunting until Virginia's governor purchased land south of the Kanawha River in 1770. Raids continued until General Anthony Waynes won a decisive victory in Ohio in 1794, securing peace to land east of the Ohio River. In 1796 William Blake Sr. purchased 3,062 acres, and in 1805 became the first white settler in this area. His family lived in a native-built circular stone fort where Levisee's Camp existed, and he later built a log cabin that Union forces destroyed in the Civil War. He also constructed the Blake Inn for travelers on the Giles, Fayette, and Kanawha Turnpike. William Blake's youngest daughter married C. C. Brown in 1857, and they became known as the Parents of Mount Hope. After the Civil War more settlers came to the area, and in 1867 Luther Warner purchased a tract of land from William Blake known as Warnertown. Mount Hope was incorporated in 1895. A devastating fire on March 24, 1910, destroyed almost the entire town, including 40 businesses, 150 homes, and the new high school, leaving 1,000 residents homeless within four hours. Mount Hope later included the 1915 annexation of MacDonald and Warnertown, received a new charter as the City of Mount Hope in 1921, and by the end of the 1920s its population had reached 3,500. It became known as the Gateway to the New River Gorge, Fayette County's Phoenix City because it rose from the ashes, the Little Town With The Big Welcome, and Gateway to the Summit, the national BSA camp located near the town. Among its famous residents was former Governor Okey L. Patteson. The Depression of the 1930s ended Mount Hope's period of growth, the nation then entered World War II, mines in the area began to close in the 1950s, and by the end of the 1960s the area had lost one-third of its population. In the 2010 census, the population was 1,414 in 1.33 square miles. As businesses declined with the coal industry, the surrounding rolling hills remained a beautiful vista, and the citizens showed a desire to keep Fayette County's Phoenix City alive.

Mount Hope, West Virginia · United States