After fire destroyed West Virginia’s capitol in 1921, leaders decided to create a magnificent new building to replace it and who better to design it than America’s first star architect, Cass Gilbert. Around the nation, his structures graced town squares, capital cities and skylines. Gilbert’s Woolworth Building in New York set the standard for the American skyscraper.

So, when he came to Charleston, he guided everyone to a large plot of land in the city’s east end. There he could build his latest masterpiece, a lasting monument to his reputation and a testimony to the people of the Mountain State.