Bluefield in Vintage Postcards

By Mary Margaret Spracher Annett

Nestled at the foot of East River Mountain in the southern tip of West Virginia, Bluefield calls itself "Nature's Air-Conditioned City" and is a place of great cultural, industrial, and natural wealth. The early to mid-1900s were a booming time for the city, thanks to coal mining and the Norfolk and Western Railway. For the many people who lived in or traveled through the region during that era, postcards provided a simple and convenient way to send both personal correspondence and business communications. Today, Bluefield continues to change and evolve but maintains a strong sense of history, with many of its buildings and homes listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Sep 8, 2004
• ISBN: 9781439612750

Mary Margaret Spracher Annett

Mary Margaret Spracher Annett, whose family shares a long and continuing history with Bluefield, has collected nearly 200 postcards of the area that highlight scenes of downtown, the rail yard, coalfields, schools, churches, homes, businesses, natural riches, and much more.

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Spracher.

INTRODUCTION

When Bluefield was officially incorporated in 1889, only several hundred citizens called the community home. But with its prime location near the booming Pocahontas Coalfield and along the busy tracks of the Norfolk & Western Railway, Bluefield was a burgeoning city in the early half of the 20th century. The city was the commercial, industrial, and social center for the coalfields of southern West Virginia and southwestern Virginia, as well as the home of Norfolk & Western’s Pocahontas Division headquarters. According to the 1950 United States Census, more than 21,000 people called Bluefield home at its peak population.

Located in the southern tip of West Virginia at the foot of East River Mountain, Bluefield is the highest city in the state—and, in fact, in the eastern half of the United States—at 2,655 feet above sea level. But Bluefield can claim many other distinctions. Bluefield and its neighbor, Bluefield, Virginia, are reportedly the only two places in the country that claim that name. In 1921, Bluefield became only the second city in the United States to adopt a city board system, and the city reportedly had the highest per capita automobile ownership in the country at one point in the early 1900s. The Scott Street Parking Garage, built downtown in 1947, was only the third such structure in the country.

The city’s railyards feature a large natural gravity switching yard or hump, allowing entire trains to be moved by gravity alone. The city’s West Virginian Hotel, which opened in 1923, is still the tallest building in the southern part of the state. And Bluefield, dubbed Nature’s Air Conditioned City for its mild summer weather, has provided free lemonade since 1941 whenever the thermometer climbs past 90 degrees.

Since the 1950s, the city’s population has continuously declined due to industrial and economic changes. The 2000 Census put Bluefield’s population at 11,451—approximately half of what it was half a century ago. But Bluefield continues to remake itself as a business locale, cultural center, historical resource, and a haven for nature-lovers, tourists, and retirees. In addition to the area’s many attractions, several special events also draw visitors to the area, including the biennial Bluefield Coal Show, annual Comcast Mountain Festival, annual Better Living Show, and the annual Blue-Gray Horse Show. And many of the city’s buildings and homes, several of which were designed by noted architect Alex B. Mahood, are now included on the National Register of Historic Places.

During the city’s heyday, countless postcards were published and distributed, providing the many people who lived in or passed through Bluefield a convenient way to send a quick message to friends, business associates, and loved ones. Today, these postcards provide snapshots of Bluefield as it was then—the busy Avenue and the rest of the bustling downtown, the powerful railroad, the rich coalfields, schools, churches, homes, hotels, businesses, natural riches, beautiful scenic views, and much more.

GREETINGS FROM BLUEFIELD, C. 1943. Billing itself as Nature’s Air Conditioned City, Bluefield has been providing free lemonade since 1941 on the rare days that the summer temperature tops 90 degrees. The campaign was the brainchild of local newspaperman Eddie Steele, who was secretary of the Greater Bluefield Chamber of Commerce when he thought of using the city’s mild summer temperatures to promote local business opportunities. On the rare occasion that the thermometer does climb above 90 (Bluefield’s average July high temperature is 70.2 degrees), Lemonade Lassies, female students from the two Bluefield area high schools, give out the free beverages. The views seen in the large letters of this postcard are, from left to right, the Federal Building, the Municipal Building (two views), Westminster Presbyterian Church, Bluefield Country Club, St. Luke’s Hospital, Federal Street, Fairview Public School, and Bluefield College.

One

COAL AND THE RAILROAD

A POCAHONTAS MINING TOWN, C. 1908. From the time of its discovery after the Civil War, the Pocahontas Coalfield would be the impetus of great change in southern West Virginia and southwestern Virginia. As a result of the booming coal business and the coming of the Norfolk & Western Railway, the city of Bluefield was born and would become the gateway to the Pocahontas coal field. (Courtesy of Paul Cole Jr.)

POCAHONTAS COALFIELD, C. 1909. Word began to spread in the 1870s about a 13-foot-thick seam of coal in blacksmith Jordan Nelson’s yard in what is now Pocahontas, Virginia. In 1882, the Southwest Improvement Company opened the first mine in the area to harvest what would be dubbed Pocahontas #3 coal. In addition to Pocahontas in Tazewell County, Virginia, the Pocahontas Coalfield would quickly grow to include neighboring West Virginia counties,

Mercer County and McDowell County, and beyond. As the nearby coalfield fed the growing city of Bluefield in Mercer County, Bluefield fed and supplied the surrounding coal mining

Reviews for Bluefield in Vintage Postcards

[debherter · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A good collection of photos and postcards showing Bluefield's history from the early 1900's to the 1940's. I would have liked to have seen some images from the 1950's and 1960's included.