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C+History
History · Marmet

Marmet’s post office opened in 1900, and 19% of its homes were built before 1940

More historic than 38% of U.S. towns. What drives it

Its Register listing is the Ebenezer Chapel. Below: 6 old photos and papers from 1973 on and old-book passages.

1900first post office
1on the National Register
19%homes built before 1940
6old photos & papers
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Marmet’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Marmet began

When was Marmet founded?

1900

The Marmet post office opened in 1900, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Lens Creek (1842) and Brownstown (1876), opened inside today’s city and later closed.

2020 census: 1,504126 years

How historic is Marmet?

C+

More historic than 38% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

What drives the grade ↓
Founding year: the first Marmet post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade

What drives Marmet’s History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Marmet is more historic than 38% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls it down.

C+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Marmet’s overall grade.
Founding era1900, from the first post office: founded 1900–1944, an older era than 9% of U.S. townsDHomes built before 194019.1% of homes (±6.0) · typical WV town 13.0% · U.S. 8.4%B+National Register1 listing, 6.6 per 10,000 residents · typical WV town 29.6 · U.S. 2.4B−
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 38%
NewerOlder

West Virginia towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical West Virginia town has 29.6 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Marmet’s 6.6 sits near the middle of its state (46% of West Virginia towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% of U.S. towns.

How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D to B. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±6.0 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.

Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →

What stands out about Marmet’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

Lost villages2 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Marmet.Old housesHalf of Marmet’s homes were built before 1962.
★ What stands out · Places that used to be

Lost post offices, places now gone and burying grounds

Marmet had its own post office from 1900 to 1961. Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.

Lens Creek
1842–1858
Brownstown
1876–1900
Marmet
1900–1961
18401930today
Gone or out of use
Living Faith Christian AcademyschoolLock 5damMarmet Hospitalhospital
1cemetery inside Marmet
Marmet Memorial Gardens

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

The story

How Marmet came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Marmet.

Read it all →

Marmet was originally named Elizaville after the wife of Leonard Morris, who first settled here in 1773 and founded the town in 1780. The town's name was known variously as Browntown, Brownstown, and Brownsville, after Charles Brown, who was engaged in the Kanawha saltworks business. The town's name was again changed to Marmet after the Marmet Coal Company, owned by Edwin, Otto, and William Marmet, which developed large tracts of coal lands around Marmet in 1899. The post office at Marmet was discontinued on October 20, 1961, and its mail was routed through nearby Charleston.

ChaptersBattle of Blair Mountain

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Marmet in 1911

Passages that mention Marmet, cut from the printed page as they were published.

In that territory there were, or had been, fine old log schoolhouses. At Brownstown, which is now Marmet, the old log schoolhouse had rotted down, and the first school taught there after the war was in the Southern Methodist church.
History of Charleston and Kanawha County, West Virginia1911 · page 241Read the page →
Read the text

In that territory there were, or had been, fine old log schoolhouses. At Brownstown, which is now Marmet, the old log schoolhouse had rotted down, and the first school taught there after the war was in the Southern Methodist church.

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

Marmet, 1842 to 1973

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1842Post officeThe Lens Creek post office opens
  3. 1858Post officeThe Lens Creek post office closes
  4. 1876Post officeThe Brownstown post office opens
  5. 20th century
  6. 1900Post officeThe Brownstown post office closes
  7. 1900Post officeThe Marmet post office opens
  8. 1953Born hereNick Casey is born here
  9. 1961Post officeThe Marmet post office closes
  10. 1973In the archiveMARMET DAM AND THE MIDDLE LOCK OF THREE ON THE KANAWHA RIVER
By decade

Marmet, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1970s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1970s6 items
MARMET DAM AND THE MIDDLE LOCK OF THREE ON THE KANAWHA RIVER1973MARMET DAM AND THE MIDDLE LOCK OF THREE ON THE KANAWH…SMOKESTACKS OF THE DUPONT BELLE WORKS ON THE KANAWHA RIVER. PHOTOGRAPH WAS TAKEN FROM MARMET ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE K…1973SMOKESTACKS OF THE DUPONT BELLE WORKS ON THE KANAWHA …SMOKESTACKS OF THE DUPONT BELLE WORKS ON THE KANAWHA RIVER. PHOTOGRAPH WAS TAKEN FROM MARMET ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE K…1973SMOKESTACKS OF THE DUPONT BELLE WORKS ON THE KANAWHA …SMOKESTACKS OF THE DUPONT BELLE WORKS ON THE KANAWHA RIVER. PHOTOGRAPH WAS TAKEN FROM MARMET ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE K…1973SMOKESTACKS OF THE DUPONT BELLE WORKS ON THE KANAWHA …THE E.I. DUPONT DE NEMOURS BELLE WORKS ON THE KANAWHA RIVER PHOTOGRAPH WAS TAKEN FROM MARMET ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE K…1973THE E.I. DUPONT DE NEMOURS BELLE WORKS ON THE KANAWHA…THE E.I. DUPONT DE NEMOURS BELLE WORKS ON THE KANAWHA RIVER PHOTOGRAPH WAS TAKEN FROM MARMET ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE K…1973THE E.I. DUPONT DE NEMOURS BELLE WORKS ON THE KANAWHA…
1980s–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.

MARMET DAM AND THE MIDDLE LOCK OF THREE ON THE KANAWHA RIVER
Retake this viewMARMET DAM AND THE MIDDLE LOCK OF THREE ON THE KANAWHA RIVER, 1973

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

Retake this view · +15
On the National Register

1 historic place in Marmet

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

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
1
each building in a district counts
first listed
1974
Ebenezer Chapel
Ebenezer Chapel
Buildings
Ebenezer ChapelBuilding

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

Help out

Finish Marmet’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 viewMARMET DAM AND THE MIDDLE LOCK OF THREE…: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10

Questions about Marmet’s history

What year was Marmet founded?

The Marmet post office opened in 1900, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

How does Marmet rank for history?

Marmet is more historic than 38% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.

What is on the National Register in Marmet?

One place: the Ebenezer Chapel (listed 1974).

How old are the homes in Marmet?

19% of Marmet’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.0 points), against a typical 13% for a West Virginia town; the median home was built in 1962.

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).

From Wikimedia Commons (6), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.