Cord Byrd: “this year marks the 150th birthday of the town of Piedmont, WV. This little town, charted in 1856, is located on the…”

“this year marks the 150th birthday of the town of Piedmont, WV. This little town, charted in 1856, is located on the North Branch of the Potomac River in the northeastern corner of West Virginia. In the late 19th Century, the town of Piedmont bustled with economic activity. A period of prosperous growth began when the Baltimore Ohio Railroad established a locomotive shop complex and switching yard in the area, and the town became an important freight-generating point on the B&O line. When local entrepreneurs persuaded surrounding railroads to turn from wood to coal for firing their locomotives, the coal industry in the region boomed. In the 1880s, William Luke established the West Virginia Paper Company's paper mill--Westvaco--in Piedmont, which became a major source of jobs for Piedmont residents. This included native Appalachians, migrant African Americans, and European immigrants, especially Italians and Irish. Therefore, soon after the opening of the paper mill, Piedmont became a town saturated with ethnic neighborhoods. A resident of Piedmont has written that, ``Piedmont's character has always been completely bound up with the Westvaco paper mill.'' This Town of Piedmont features some unique characteristics. For example, ``Ripley's Believe It or Not'' once pointed out that Kenney House Hill in Piedmont is the only street in the world from which a person can enter all three stories of the same building!…”