Country Lawyer in Historic Town
Larry L. Rowe has been a leader in the preservation of Old Malden and promotion of the Midland Trail Scenic Highway. See www.wvmidlandtrail.com.
Larry and his family live in Malden. Their grown son, John, lives in Charleston.
Booker T. Washington's African Zion Baptist Church, circa 1872
The African Zion Baptist Church was organized as the first black Baptist Church in western Virginia in the 1850s, by the Wayne, Isaac and other African-American families during the horror of slavery. They were respected workers in the salt industry.
Reverend Rice built the present church building in 1877 while Booker was a teenager and he was soon to walk to college at Hampton Institute near the Chesapeake Bay. In 1875 he returned to Malden with a degree from that school. He began his teaching career here.
Reverend Paul Gilmer, Sr. is its current pastor, and Cabin Creek Quilts has helped preserve the building, largely though the vision and work of James Thibeault, its director. (For tours call 304 925-9499)
circa 1866 Booker T. Washington Cabin and School
A 1998 reconstruction of a Salt Village prototype is located behind the African Zion Baptist Church. The village contains a reconstruction of Booker T. Washington's childhood home and early school in the old salt works. The cabin was rebuilt to match a photograph of his home. (For tours call 304 925-9499)
circa 1847 Norton House
This is the oldest frame house in Malden.
The home was built by Moses Norton and James G. Norton. They were father and son businessmen in Malden. James' daughter Llewellyn married Robert Peel Shrewsbury of the salt making family.
During the Civil War, confederate soldiers stayed in the home.
Norton House was renovated in 1994 by Cabin Creek Quilts by its visionary director James Thibeault, with federal and state highway grant funds.
One of its life long residents, Mary Frances Norton, was a school mate and best friend of the mother of Pearl S. Buck, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature for her book "The Good Earth." (For tours call 304 925-9499)
Hale House
Home of Dr. John P. Hale, a physician who became Malden's best known saltmaker. He built Charleston's elegant railroad hotel, Hale House.
In 1871, Dr. Hale became Mayor of Charleston, succeeding Henry C. Dickinson, a founder of Kanawha Valley Bank and Confederate War hero who was son of the Malden salt making family. Dr. Hale helped move the State Capitol from Wheeling to Charleston, and he financed the world's first brick street, in Charleston on Summers Street.
1840 Kanawha Salines Presbyterian Church
This church was organized in 1819 by the wealthy Ruffner Family, Malden's first salt industrialists. Its current building was constructed in 1840 with a balcony for African-Americans although its first minister became a published abolitionist.
Dr. Henry Ruffner was later President of Washington College, which later was renamed Washington and Lee College, after its most famous president, retired Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
In 1847, Dr. Ruffner published his controversial paper known as "The Ruffner Pamphlet" to advocate pragmatically for abolition of the horror of slavery in America.
