McMechen, WV

McMechen is a Marshall County city on the Ohio River, part of the Wheeling area and named for pioneer settlers William and Sidney Johnson McMechen. It incorporated in 1905 and remains a Class IV city, with the river doing much of the geographic work: the streets are squeezed between the water and the West Virginia hills, while Wheeling sits up the valley. The most distinctive piece of the old riverfront is the McMechen Lockmaster Houses, two Tudor Revival residences built in 1910 for the staff of Lock and Dam No. 13.

The lock opened in 1911, with one house for lockmaster George Patrick and another for engineer Fred O'Malley. The dam was replaced by Hannibal Dam in 1975, the old works were removed in 1977, and the houses were deeded to the city; they were listed on the National Register in 1992. Today McMechen runs under a mayor-council plan, with city council meetings on the first and third Tuesdays and a volunteer fire department handling another piece of local civic life. Marshall County Schools connect the city to the wider northern Panhandle school map. The short version: river city, working lock history, and a pair of brick houses that outlasted the dam.