"West Virginia's architectural history and engineering heritage have not been fully explored and assessed until now." "Buildings of West Virginia divides the state into ten regions, beginning with Charleston, and fans out to encompass the whole panoply of development from prehistoric times to the present. Readers will find within its pages both familiar images and many surprises. Included here are buildings ranging in type and date from the earliest remaining log houses and churches to mid- and late-twentieth-century designs by Walter Gropius and The Architects Collaborative; Skidmore, Owings and Merrill; and Michael Graves. Reflecting the diversity of the state's built environment, attention is paid to vernacular as well as high-style buildings: from the Washington family houses in the Eastern Panhandle to cottage rows at the numerous antebellum spa complexes: from the Wheeling Italianate houses, which reflect that city's nineteenth-century industrial prosperity, to a Charleston church considered so architecturally significant that it was published in one of the first issues of American Architect: and from rustic structures in one of the nation's most impressive state park systems of Cass Gilbert's monumental West Virginia State Capitol." "In addition to individual buildings, S. Allen Chambers, Jr., surveys historic districts, residential neighborhoods, and even entire towns." "In this comprehensive volume, Chambers records West Virginia's architectural treasures in a text that is accompanied by 45 maps and approximately 370 illustrations. It introduces regions, cities, and towns with essays, many of them extensive, and pays careful attention to the historic and geographic elements that shape various settings in the Mountain State."--BOOK JACKET.