Mount Hope, WV

Mount Hope is a Fayette County city in the southern West Virginia coal fields, about eight miles north of Beckley and close to the New River country. Early settlers came for coal, and the New River Company later made Mount Hope its headquarters and the center of a large industrial network. A devastating 1910 fire destroyed much of the town, but rebuilding produced the brick-and-stone commercial streets that define the place today. The city's Phoenix nickname comes from that rebuilding.

Mount Hope Historic District covers 58 acres on both sides of Main Street, with company offices, churches, two schools, a YMCA, a Masonic lodge, housing, and the old athletic field all folded into the same street grid. The New River Company General Office, repair shops, and foundry remain part of the coal-era story, while the city now points visitors toward its library, DuBois High School Museum, arts programs, and walking tour. Beckley handles larger errands, but Mount Hope keeps its own Main Street scale. Local scoop: the town's history is visible in brick, stone, and the company buildings that survived the mines.