This area was first developed in the 1890s when former governor William A. MacCorkle and other businessmen assembled 3,200 acres of farmland to “build a new town, to be called Kanawha City.” Access to the town improved in 1915 when the Kanawha City Bridge was built. Kanawha City remained a separate town until 1929, when it was incorporated in the city of Charleston. Many fine homes are located in Kanawha City, including two on the National Register of Historic Places, the Colonel Henry Hewitt Wood House, which is featured in this exhibit with the city’s other antebellum homes, and the Young-Noyes House, owned by University of Charleston.