Arthurdale, WV

Arthurdale is Preston County's New Deal community, laid out in 1933 after Eleanor Roosevelt visited the coal camps of northern West Virginia. The federal project moved families from hard-hit mining areas onto a planned rural settlement with homes, small acreage, a school, workshops, and community buildings. Richard Arthur's farm supplied the land and the community's name. The experiment aimed to pair housing with the ability to grow food and earn a living, so the settlement was designed as a whole place for families rebuilding after the Depression. That history makes Arthurdale one of the clearest West Virginia communities where national policy is still visible in the street plan and surviving buildings.

Arthurdale Heritage now operates the New Deal Homestead Museum in original central buildings, with a working 1930s homestead, research collections, craft programs, and seasonal gatherings. The old school and business buildings give the community a physical center, while the surrounding Preston County roads lead toward Reedsville and Kingwood. Eleanor Roosevelt's visits, high-school graduations, square dances, and the annual New Deal Festival are all part of the local memory. The shortcut to understanding Arthurdale is to follow the buildings in sequence: houses, school, workshops, and shared spaces still show how the New Deal tried to build a community from the ground up.