West Virginia 2008 Official State Travel Guide - (Page 33) Wonderful West Virginia REPORTS ADAPTIVE REUSE by Juliet A. Terry Martinsburg Roundhouse Center f. WEST VIRGINIA Finds New Ways to Make Use of its Historic Assets The New River Gorge Bridge is featured on the West Virginia quarter and almost everyone has seen photos of the gold-domed State Capitol. But the state is full of other sites and structures whose present use has evolved from its past. From rehabilitating industrial buildings for new attractions to taking land used to cultivate natural resources and giving it new life, West Virginia is inventive in its adaptive reuse. I n downtown Wheeling, former electric company buildings were renovated and joined together to house a bar/restaurant, banquet hall and the Wheeling Artisian Center and its associated store and museum. Heading to the Eastern Panhandle, Martinsburg has reinvented a former Baltimore & Ohio Railroad facility as the Martinsburg Roundhouse Center. What was once a train depot and shopping center in the 19th and 20th centuries survived near destruction to become a premier example of adaptive reuse. The structure is on its way to becoming a historic attraction of national significance and a community center for public events. Bricks and mortar businesses aren’t the only sources for ways to reuse West Virginia’s land. In Mingo and Harrison counties, developers have taken former surface coal mines and turned them into premier golf courses. Twisted Gun Golf Course in southern West Virginia offers mountaintop vistas and a glimpse at nearby coal mining operations, while the Pete Dye Golf Club in Bridgeport gives golfers the chance to drive their carts through old mine shafts while hitting the links. Keeping with the sporting theme, five southern West Virginia counties are laced with trails that make up the Hatfield-McCoy Trail System. Developers turned hundreds of miles of former mine and logging roads into exciting trails open to all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), dirt bikes, select utility vehicles, mountain bikes, horses and hikers. Close to the trail system and the Ashland KOA is the Ashland Company Store. The renovated original coal company store has an assortment of homemade crafts, furniture and food items as well as the Coal Camp Café. West Virginia continues to be resourceful in its use of its existing infrastructure, which may be why film, television and commercial producers are looking more and more to the Mountain State for its combination of pristine, natural beauty and innovative features. W W W . C A L L W VA . C O M Ashland Company Store and Coal Camp Café . h 33 http://www.callwva.com
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