Week 4: Eastern Regional Coal Archives 22nd, 23rd & 24th of June 2015

Eastern Regional Coal Archives 

@ Craft Memorial Library

Bluefield, Mercer County, West Virginia 

http://craftmemorial.lib.wv.us/Coal%20Archives.htm

Craft Memorial Library Building in which the Eastern 

Regional Coal Archives Exist in a Section of the Top Floor

(Photo retrieved from http://www.coalwoodwestvirginia.com/erca.htm ) 

Week 4:
22nd, 23rd and 24th of June 2015
22nd:   7.5 hours
23rd:   7.0  hours
24th:   6.0  hours
Week 4 Total Hours: 20.5

This fourth week of my archival practicum has brought a momentary end to my work at Eastern Regional Coal Archives.  I now look forward to two weeks of working with the history team at West Virginia State Archives in Charleston, our state's wonderful capitol city.  That being stated, it was truly a bittersweet week at ERCA.  Curator Becky George and I were able to finish all the goals we had set, and got ideas of what to do when I return for the last week and a half of my practicum.  It was still sad to walk out the door...in only four weeks, I feel like I've been blessed with experiencing some unique and invaluable primary historical resources.  This is something that not everyone has done and it is something that isn't for everyone, yet it was extremely rewarding to me.  This regional archives holds the memories of the boom days of my home of southern West Virginia.  Not just memories, but, proof of the memories...proof of the history...proof of the people...and proof of the fleeting grand power which was wielded with the extraction of fossil fuels.  In this case, it was bituminous coal, high in BTUs and low in Sulphur, making it the finest metallurgical coal in the known world.  This coal was distilled into coke, an almost pure carbon substance, and used in the iron foundries of the Industrial Age in order to make iron and steel, which became the physical skeleton of our "modern" society...think 'railroads' and 'urban development'.

Special Section Welch Daily News - 1952?  Grand opening of the top of the line bus terminal in Welch, funded by Jack Craft, namesake of Craft Memorial Library, Bluefield

(Photo taken by author.  All ownership rights belong to Eastern Regional Coal Archives) 

The above newspaper photograph, of the bus terminal opening in Welch, is very special to me, being from that city.  The whole newspaper/special section is folded up within a scrapbook put together by, either, A.B. Mahood, Sr. or someone close to him.  This scrapbook forms a collection of materials elucidating Mahood, Sr.'s constructions.  The, now gone, bus terminal must have been quite a site to see...top of the line with neon lit, Art Deco flair.  This brought me face to face with the man who Craft Memorial Library was named after...a man who started his business with one bus, where he was the sole driver, which developed into a booming entrepreneurship with a fleet of transport.

The below photograph is one of the exciting finds within the ERCA's Mahood Collection.  Becky found a small cache of flattened materials at the bottom of a drawer, under nondescript brown packaging paper...which was totally camouflaged from me!  She uncovered it to find artwork done by A.B. Mahood, Sr., while studying at Beaux-arts de Paris, an alternate rendering of what is now the West Virginian Hotel, and two unlabeled matted photographs.  After careful inspection, the labyrinth-style frieze surrounding the building at the top of the first story gave it away to me.  Notice that only five floors had been completed.  Whether the sixth and Mahood's seventh-level penthouse office were completed in this initial construction, or at a later date, is open for investigation.

Rare Matted Photograph of the Law and Commerce building being constructed in downtown Bluefield, WV.  This building would come to be home of A.B. Mahood, Sr.'s (and Jr.'s) architectural firm.

(Photo taken by author.  All ownership rights belong to Eastern Regional Coal Archives) 

So this final week, for the first stint of my practicum with ERCA, has been successfully completed. Except two, all of my goals were met.  We were not able to address two preservation issues: one for a letter of correspondence which had been annealed with the envelope's glue; and, the other is what to do with the scrapbook.  Perhaps these issues can be addressed when I return later on in July.  What was successfully completed is as follows:

• Unarranged box of Mahood Family memorabilia was separated into files and then into archival quality boxes.  
• Associated folders had associated lists and commentary which was typed onto acid-free paper and placed with the corresponding folder/item.
• Larger flattened items were housed in an archival quality newspaper box.
• Miscellaneous blueprints were identified, organized and recorded into the blueprint master list.

Now, I will be spending next week off from any practicum site in order to continue getting my wife and I moved into our new house.  Beginning week after next, I'll begin my two weeks (40 clock hours) working with the West Virginia State Archives.  I look forward to seeing how things are done there, as well as, focusing on furthering the knowledge contained withing the architectural blueprints of Hassel T. Hicks, Welch, WV's premier architect (who came onto the scene about 10 years after Mahood, Sr.).

For additional informational reading about downtown Bluefield, including all her buildings designed by Mahood, please download the following PDF of the State Historic Preservation Office's Bluefield Historic District Application.  http://www.wvculture.org/shpo/nr/pdf/mercer/87000630.pdf 

ERCA Trademark 

(Retrived from http://craftmemorial.lib.wv.us/images/archivelogo001.jpg )