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History · Institute

Institute’s post office opened in 1899, and 19% of its homes were built before 1940

3 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 10 buildings. Below: 6 old photos and papers from 1935 on.

1899first post office
3on the National Register
19%homes built before 1940
6old photos & papers
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Institute’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Institute began

When was Institute founded?

1899

The Institute post office opened in 1899, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Farm (1886), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

2020 census: 569127 years
Founding year: the first Institute post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
The story

How Institute came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Institute.

Read it all →

The community is the location of the prehistoric Shawnee Reservation Mound, one of three remaining Adena-era earthwork mounds and enclosures found in an eight-mile stretch along the river. Also called Fairgrounds Mound and Poorhouse Mound, it is now located within Shawnee Regional Park. The mound is about 20 feet high and 80 feet in basal diameter, but was originally 25 feet high and greater than 80 feet in diameter.

ChaptersPrehistoric communitySettlement and history

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Institute, 1886 to 1935

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1886Post officeThe Farm post office opens
  3. 1899Post officeThe Farm post office closes
  4. 1899Post officeThe Institute post office opens
  5. 20th century
  6. 1922Born hereMargaret S. Collins is born here
  7. 1935In the archiveDistilling. Distillation tanks where butatiene is purified at the Institute plant at Inst…
By decade

Institute, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1930s6 items
Distilling. Distillation tanks where butatiene is purified at the Institute plant at Institute, West Virginia1935Distilling. Distillation tanks where butatiene is pur…Butadiene production. One of the four butadiene units at the Institute plant at Institute, West Virginia1935Butadiene production. One of the four butadiene units…Shipping butadiene. Butadiene is pumped into tank cars for shipment at the Institute plant at Institute, West Virginia1935Shipping butadiene. Butadiene is pumped into tank car…Storage. Grain alcohol is pumped from tank cars to storage tanks (shown at the left) at the Institute plant at Institut…1935Storage. Grain alcohol is pumped from tank cars to st…Storing butadiene and grain alcohol. Storage tanks for butadiene (in the background) and grain alcohol (at the right) a…1935Storing butadiene and grain alcohol. Storage tanks fo…Conversion. Converters at one of the four butadiene units at the Institute plant at Institute, West Virginia, where the…1935Conversion. Converters at one of the four butadiene u…
1940s–1990snothing yet
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.
Add from your album
Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Distilling. Distillation tanks where butatiene is purified at the Institute plant at Institute, West Virginia
Retake this viewDistilling. Distillation tanks where butatiene is purified at the Institute plant at Institute, West Virginia, 1935

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Institute’s page.

Retake this view · +15
On the National Register

3 listings protect 12 historic buildings

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

places listed
3
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
12
each building in a district counts
first listed
1988
Canty House
Canty HouseEast HallWest Virginia State University Faculty House Historic District
BuildingsDistricts

Architectural styles listings

Neoclassical Revival1
Canty HouseNeoclassical Revival
East HallBuilding
All 3 listings
West Virginia State University Faculty House Historic DistrictDistrict · listed 2021

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

Places that used to be

Lost post offices

Institute’s post office has been open since 1899. Another post office, Farm, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Farm
1886–1899
Institute
1899–today
18801950today

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Help out

Finish Institute’s story

Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewDistilling. Distillation tanks where bu…: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Nitro1 historic placeC+

Questions about Institute’s history

What year was Institute founded?

The Institute post office opened in 1899, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Institute?

Three places: the Canty House (listed 1988), the East Hall (1988) and the West Virginia State University Faculty House Historic District (2021).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

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 the Library of Congress (6), the National Register of Historic Places (3), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.