Nisha Rathode (Editor)

Lemuel Chenoweth

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
Name
  
Lemuel Chenoweth

Role
  
Architect


Lemuel Chenoweth wwwtraveling219commediachenoweth233x300jpg

Died
  
1887, Beverly, West Virginia, United States

Structures
  
Philippi Covered Bridge

Lemuel chenoweth and the beverly bridge


Lemuel Chenoweth (1811–1887) was a carpenter, legislator and self-taught architect. He is best known as one of 19th century America's master covered bridge builders.

Contents

Lemuel Chenoweth WV084 Lemuel Chenoweth

Chenoweth and his brother Eli constructed 20 bridges during the 1840s and 1850s, most of them covered, on four western Virginia turnpikes, notably on the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike system in what is now West Virginia.

Biography

Chenoweth was born, lived and died in Randolph County, Virginia (later West Virginia). He was an associate of Claudius Crozet, a noted civil engineer who oversaw the design and construction of Virginia's transportation infrastructure of turnpikes, canals, and roads with funding by the Virginia Board of Public Works and the General Assembly of Virginia prior to the American Civil War (1860-1865).

One of Chenoweth's best known surviving bridges is the Philippi Covered Bridge (1852) spanning the Tygart Valley River and carrying U.S. Route 250 in Philippi. The bridge is an outstanding example of a modified Burr truss bridge with two spans totaling 308 feet (94 m). It is also the only covered bridge in the United States currently incorporated into the national primary highway system, although it has been extensively reinforced and reconstructed.

Another of Chenoweth's surviving covered bridges is located at Barrackville in Marion County.

Several homes and the Huttonsville Presbyterian Church in Huttonsville are also among Chenoweth's extant creations.

Chenoweth was buried in the Beverly Cemetery.

Legacy

The Lemuel Chenoweth House Museum operates in the post and beam house that Chenoweth built for himself in Beverly in 1856.

List of Chenoweth bridges

  • Beverly Covered Bridge, 1847, across the Tygart Valley River; Chenoweth's first bridge (destroyed).
  • Middle Fork Covered Bridge, 18??, across Middle Fork River (destroyed).
  • Buckhannon Covered Bridge, 18??, across the Buckhannon River (destroyed).
  • Weston Covered Bridge, 18??, across Stone Coal Creek (destroyed).
  • Philippi Covered Bridge, 1852, across the Tygart Valley River (surviving).
  • Paw Paw Creek Covered Bridge, near Grant Town, West Virginia, 185? (destroyed).
  • Barrackville Covered Bridge, 1858, across Buffalo Creek (surviving).
  • Marlin's Bottom Covered Bridge. 1850s across the Greenbrier River (replaced in 1915)

    • References

    Lemuel Chenoweth Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA