article 3

The prettiest grounds there is in the State, at the head of Market and Juliana streets - 10 acres - has been tendered by Messrs. T.A. Cook, Bennett Cook and T.S. Conley. It is a lovely spot. $10,000 is ready to put the grounds in order and as much more if necessary to make the grounds and buildings creditable to the State. As the steamers come up the Ohio of the cars come over the bridge ( note: apparently the writer is speaking about the railroad bridge that at this time had only been proposed ), we hope to point out to the stranger that beautiful building as the capital and these public buildings of West Virginia, a state born but yesterday, conceived with the fire on Fort Sumter and born amid the strife of legions. The very respect that men will give to it who will see it by the hundreds of thousands should prevent our placing the capital back in the interior where men will forget it and God remember it only to think what a dry specimen of man has made.

  The city of Parkersburg is at the junction of the Little Kanawha and Ohio rivers, the former navigable for sixty miles. It is the centre of the the west line of the State of West Virginia - practically the centre of the State.
  The city is located on the north bank of the Ohio and the east bank of the Kanawha river and is founded on two plateaus, one of which is about forty and the other about sixty feet above the low water of the river.
  Between the plateaus the rise is very gradual, requiring but little grade, and the whole surface of the city is such that with slight grading the water will pass over the surface to the two rivers. The soil is a rich sandy laom, interspersed with large beds of excellent clay for brick, while a very superior sandstone for building purposes, in a convenient position for quarrying, is found within the limits of the city. The surface is also under laid with a clean sharp sand, rarely equaled for building purposes.
  The view from and near the landing at the junction. and the upper plateau, of the long strech of the two rivers winding their silvery way to the fathers of the waters, the fertile Ohio shore, 'mong "the orchard, the meadow and the deep tangled wildwood." of the classic island on Blennerhassett, the plains, hills, trees and fields that border the Kanawha, with the tall spires and shining roofs of the city, around us, is as beautiful as the traveler finds in his most restless wanderings.
   Since the settlement of the town no tornado or hurricane, those scourges of many parts of the west, has ever visited us.
  The limits of the city, wholly or partially, occupied with buildings, extend about two miles South and East from the Ohio River, and one and a half miles from the North and East from the Little Kanawha, embfacing three square miles of territory, and immediately adjoining the dity are found about a hundred of gentle slopes and small hills, adapted to elegant residences, and all the land is eligible for buildings.
  The facilities of the city for the ordinary use by road and communication with the interior are rarely equaled in the West. We have the Winchester turnpike graded and Macadamized, the Staunton road graded and Macadamized, turnpike to Charleston graded, Elizabeth pike graded, St Mary's pike graded.
   The wharves of the city are neatly paved with boulders, and will be completed early in the spring, when there will be about sixteen hundred feet of wharf space available,
  There are in the city over 1,000 houses. Streets and houses are well lighted with gas. Lumber and coal is abundant, and on the prettiest grounds in the State, just north of the city, 10 acres are offered free for the Capital. Street railroads are in preparation to run from the Point or junction of the rivers near these grounds.