Fifty years ago this month, on May 4, 1974, a large crowd gathered on the lawn of the Stulting Farm for the Grand Opening of the Pearl S. Buck Birthplace in Hillsboro, West Virginia. The Birthplace Museum was the first house restoration completed in West Virginia under the Historic Preservation Act of 1966. Among those on the stage who spoke at the dedication were Mrs. Marie Orndorff Leist, Pearl S. Buck Birthplace Foundation President; Maxine Scarbro, President of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs; U.S. Sen. Jennings Randolph (D-WV); Former West Virginia Governor Cecil Underwood; John D. Rockefeller, IV, President of West Virginia Wesleyan College; Robert S. Jacobson, Pearl S. Buck Birthplace Foundation Director; Houston Simmons, President of the Pocahontas County Commission; and Dr. William Mortagh, Keeper of the National Record of Historic Places. The restoration sponsors were the Pearl S. Buck Birthplace Foundation, the West Virginia Federation of Women’s Clubs, and the U.S. Department of the Interior (National Park Service and Bureau of the National Register). The Department of the Interior placed it on the National Register of Historic Places. (The Pearl S. Buck Birthplace Collection; ID: PSB000346)
Access the “Preserving Pocahontas” Digital Library at www.pocahontaspreservation.org or www.preservingpocahontas.org
If you have historical records or photographs to be scanned for the county Historical Archive contact Preservation Officer B. J. Gudmundsson at 304-799-3989 or email info@pocahontaspreservation.org Prints of photographs are available.
