The Glen Ferris post office opened in 1908, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Falls Of Kanawha (1839), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
2020 census: 174118 years
Founding year: the first Glen Ferris post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
What stands out about Glen Ferris’ past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first permanent building to be constructed in Glen Ferris was the Glen Ferris Inn (originally a private residence) which was built in 1810. It served as a private home from 1810 until 1839 when it began operation as a hotel [1]. In 1839, the home was purchased by Aaron Stockton who acquired a license from Fayette County to "open a common room", at which point, the building began to serve as an inn. The inn received several famous guests: Andrew Jackson, John Tyler, Henry Clay, and John James Audubon. During the Civil War, the inn, at different times, served as the host to officers from both sides including Confederate generals Henry A. Wise and John B. Floyd. Two Union generals stayed at the inn—Jacob D. Cox and William S. Rosecrans. At one point during the war, Rutherford B. Hayes and William McKinley, who were encamped across the Kanawha River, spent time at the inn.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Glen Ferris. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1910Fayetteville sheet · 1:62,500
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Glen Ferris.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Glen Ferris in 1926
Passages that mention Glen Ferris, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of fayette county west virginia1926 · page 608Read the page →
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The town of Glen Ferris was known as Stockton until 1895, when the location of the depot was changed, and the post office and town was named Glen Ferris.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of fayette county west virginia1926 · page 581Read the page →
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During the eighties, the Stockton Lumber company operated a large water power saw mill, at the site of the Electro Metallurgical company’s plant at Glen Ferris. Saw logs were conveyed by water to Kanawha Falls and held in a large log boom in the basin below the falls. Frequently this boom would break during floods, releasing the confined logs into the open river below the boom and causing great property loss. M. A. and A. W. Cheeney, H. A. Frink and others of Michigan, and Robert Stowers of Kanawha Falls, were
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Glen Ferris, 1839 to 1973
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (6), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
1973
1973
1973
1973
2011