White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia: Coal House

Built in 1959 from 30 tons of hard, shiny anthracite coal. It has served as a West Virginia visitors center.

At this moment, April, 2023, Coal House is still apparently unoccupied but in good condition.

Coal House [as a visitors center] is closed. There is a dog grooming business in the building now. Also, you can't get right back on I-64. It's about 4 miles through the town of White Sulphur Springs.

It is historically known that the Coal House structure was originally owned by Tip Myles and built in 1959. What is less known is who built it. My father, Ray Young, was one of three men who built this unusual building; the other two men were Joe Crookshanks and Sammy Idell. I have in my possession the actual news clipping and staff photo from the Covington Virginian newspaper, dated June 11, 1959, showing these men building the structure. The men who actually labored to build this structure should not be forgotten. Any documents or other references which do not properly attribute their effort and skill in the building of the structure are incomplete and fail to give credit to three men who were instrumental in this endeavor.

We visited the Coal House - sad to say it is empty, closed, but it is for sale as a "valuable investment property."