« April June »

May
Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
26	27	28	29	30	1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9
10	11	12	13	14	15	16
17	18	19	20	21	22	23
24	25	26	27	28	29	30
31	1	2	3	4	5	6

Vandalia Gathering

Click on the days with a icon to load events for that day

The popular Vandalia Gathering takes place at the state capitol every Memorial Day weekend.

Events for May 2020

• Haymond House Investigation and TALA Daytime Tours

  May 09, 2020 to May 10, 2020 — Weston, Lewis

  Join us on our first visit to the William Edgar Haymond House on Saturday, May 9th and stick around to tour the Trans-Alleghany Lunatic Asylum on Sunday.

  On May 9th, you will have the choice to join us during the investigation or spend the night with us at the house itself. If you don’t want to spend the night at the house, we do have accommodations at the Microtel Inn & Suites in Gassaway, WV reserved. During the course of the investigation, you will be provided sub sandwiches, snacks, and drinks. In the morning, you will be invited down or back for a home cooked breakfast.

  On May 10th, you will have the opportunity to tour all four floors the Trans-Alleghany Lunatic Asylum, the medical building and then finish up with a tour of the Forensics building.

  Below is some information on each location and also available packages

  William Edgar Haymond House

  The Haymond House is a Queen Ann style home built in 1894, which makes it over 125 years old! It still has its original floors and staircase and sits on the original sandstone foundation.

  There have been a variety of occurrences during investigations: a woman’s voice has been captured, being grabbed on the servant’s staircase, footsteps, the front door being unlocked, doors opening and closing, blinds that were closed are opened, and a bell ringing.

  A woman in white has been seen on the landing between the 1st & 2nd floor and the bedroom on the 2nd floor and a child has been seen playing in the basement. At one point, the owners had a psychic come in and said “he could feel the energy of a mentally challenged spirit and…that a death occurred…either by strangulation or…hanging.” He also stated that the spirits are benevolent.

  For more information, visit http://theresashauntedhistoryofthetri-state.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-haunting-of-haymond-house-sutton-wv.html

  Trans-Alleghany Lunatic Asylum (TALA)

  On Sunday we will taking two tours of TALA—one that takes us on all 4 floor plus the first floor of the Medical Center and during the second tour we will be touring the Forensics Building.

  TALA began taking patients in 1864 and was originally designed to house 250 souls; in the 1950’s there were over 2,400 souls living here. Due to changes in care and facility deterioration, the facility closed its door in 1994.

  Thousands of souls have been admitted and passed away while staying here and there are many that still reside within the walls. Did they stay because they have nowhere else to go, because they feel safe here, or because they’re stuck here due to the violence taken upon them? Join us and see what you can discover.

  Apparitions, voices, sounds and other activity has been reported by guests, staff and paranormal teams. For more information, visit Trans-Alleghany Lunatic Asylum’s website
• St. Albans Founders Day

  May 09, 2020 — Saint Albans, Kanawha

  The 15th Annual St. Albans Founders Day will be held on Main Street, Saturday, May 9, 2020, from 10 – 4 pm. Historic Sidewalk Tour begins at noon in front of the Alban Arts Center (free)

  Sponsored by the St. Albans Founder’s Day Committee and the St. Albans Historical Society, this event brings people to Main Street for food, arts & crafts, plenty of entertainment and concerts and helps to celebrate the history of St. Albans, as well as to promote the downtown businesses. Visit : www.stalbanshistory.com/Founders_Day for more information and a vendor application.

  This year the old Herbert’s Music Company Building front porch at 63 Old Main Plaza, owned by Frank McCormick, will be used by bands playing music. Don’t miss this fun day on Old Main Street.

  Come and spend the entire day
• MINCO Music & Arts Heritage Festival

  May 16, 2020 to May 17, 2020 — Keyser, Mineral

  MINCO Music & Arts Heritage Festival May 16th & 17th, 2020 The MINCO (Mineral County) Music & Arts Heritage Festival 2020 will be celebrating Leslie Thrasher, Piedmont native and famous Liberty Magazine illustrator. We are looking for sponsors, monetary donations, and items for our Leslie Thrasher window displays in the downtown Keyser businesses during our MINCO Music & Arts Heritage Festival in May 2020. The idea is to have New York style window displays of scenes in the style of his artwork that were on the covers of Liberty Magazine and have his artwork in the background during the month of May. The Mineral County Museum will also have a display of Thrasher. We are also creating art events with regional artists to painting/drawing/photography in the style of Thrasher. An art display of local artists inspired by Thrasher’s style will be displayed at The Indie on Main during the month of May 2020. It will be a juried exhibit with prizes. The two day festival will also have music performers, car shows, games and competitions, arts and crafts, unique items, workshops, and other events.

  Born in Piedmont West Virginia, Thrasher was well known as an illustrator for Liberty Magazine. In 1912, Thrasher sold his first cover painting to the Saturday Evening Post. His illustrations were known for their light-hearted, humorous reflections of everyday American life, with colorfully animated characters set against a white background. He ultimately completed 23 covers for the Post, as well as covers for Everybody’s, Collier’s, Red Book, Popular Magazine, and many other publications. He produced advertisement illustrations for such companies as Chesterfield Cigarettes, Cream of Wheat, DuPont, and Fisk Tire. In 1926 he agreed to complete a cover a week for Liberty Magazine over a six year period. This series was titled “For The Love o’ Lil” and became a favorite among readers. The series followed the lives of an average middle-class couple, Lil Morse and Sandford Jenkins. The series became so popular it was later made into a movie by Columbia Pictures and is considered the prototype for today’s soap operas. Norman Rockwell, a friend of Leslie Thrasher, wrote in his autobiography that Thrasher “painted one of the most famous Post covers ever published. I still get letters from people who think I did it. It depicts a lady and a butcher standing on either side of a scale in which lay a chicken. The lady was pushing up on the scale; the butcher was pushing down. The cover appeared on 3 October, 1936.”

  The MINCO Music & Arts Heritage Festival delivers regionally inspired entertainment to promote interest and investment in Keyser’s downtown local businesses. For more information on how to get involved with the Thrasher downtown displays or the art show, please call Jill Baldinger at 304-788-1461 or email at mijill@frontier.com.

  MINCO Music & Arts Heritage Festival Highland Arts Unlimited PO Box 63, Keyser, WV 26726