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Montgomery, West Virginia: What happens when the government operates as a business!
A long time ago in the county I now call home a college was founded. West Virginia’s only state operated specialized technical college was established by the West Virginia Legislature in 1895. It was opened 1/4/1897 as Montgomery Preparatory School. Operated as a branch of West Virginia University it was renamed the West Virginia Trades School in 1917. It began building a reputation in technical and business offerings and offering 4 year degrees in 1929. In 1931 it was renamed New River State College which it remained until another act of legislation in 1941 gave it the title West Virginia Institute of Technology. (West Virginia Blue Book Vol. 81, 1999, pp.580-581)
Montgomery, WV itself was incorporated in 4/1/1891 and named for James Montgomery who was one of the first settlers. West Virginia like many places derives a majority of its city and street names from families who settled there and owned land. It is a small town of just around 2,449 in the 1990s. (West Virginia Blue Book Vol. 81, 199, pp.914-915)
The area benefited from the proximity to Charleston, WV which was experiencing a boom in salt mining at the time. This lead to the nascent chemical industry developing a foothold. The explosion of coal production in the 20th century for steel production and eventually electrical production catapulted the area into a thriving hub in the 1950s. The population peaked in the 1950s at around 3484 residents. It peaked again in the 1980s at 3104. The Kanawha river is still navigable down to Kanawha Falls and allows transit through to the Ohio, Mississippi, and beyond.
Today 1200 people call the town home. It is the fourth largest incorporated city in Kanawha county which is the most populous county in West Virginia and home to the state capital. The Charleston, WV metro is approximately 250,000 as of 2010.
This school was always operated as a thorn in the side of the two land grant institutions in West Virginia. West Virginia State College in Institute, WV on the other side of Kanawha county was already offering some of the same programs. However, as a Historically Black College and University WVSC was forced to give up its land grant status after desegregation. Losing both it’s historically black student population and faculty once it was made clear West Virginia would have to fund the other in state land grant institution equally to it’s HBCU land grant institution. That other institution being WVU. Twice WVU’s budget was more than the state could afford so rather than cuts to the flagship institution, it was decided West Virginia State College would forego its land-grant status.
As time went on and WVSC and later WVSU regained their land grant status the funding issues were never resolved. By that time WVU had grown tired of the engineering program at Montgomery, WV competing with it’s program in Morgantown. To be fair, the state of WV also appeared to want WVU to be the flagship engineering school and did not want to spend the money on upgrades to the WVU Tech campus to have a competing program. By this time WVU had wholly swallowed up the branch college and began making plans to relocate the campus. So while WVSU was not powerful enough to be a threat to WVU Tech, they had more to gain by the school’s demise.
This was further complicated by WVU Tech having access to the world class labs of Dupont and Union Carbide also in Kanawha county at the time. In fact Dupont, WV is just across the river and down a little ways. The rest of Bridgevalley Community and Technical College has its headquarters at the former Union Carbide laboratory in South Charleston, WV. This gave many engineers looking at careers with two of the largest players in the chemical industry from the 1980s-1990s a difficult decision to make. Once again WVU needed to allocate as much funding to the Morgantown campus as they could. The last thing they wanted was to fund their biggest local competitor. They would make more money off having those kids in Morgantown using existing facilities. This made the decision not to rehabilitate the existing Montgomery campus an easy call for WVU.
It was a smart business decision. One that left an undeniable daily impact on the thousand or so people that call Montgomery home. The surrounding communities of Smithers and Glasgow are all a stunning dichotomy of natural beauty and economic poverty. Beautiful landscapes marred by abandoned houses of families that fled for greener pastures. How many of the graduates of our state’s universities are now living abroad. Taking their whole families with them. The elderly relatives that remain will either relocate into their progeny’s homes abroad or remain in nursing homes should they be lucky to live long enough. There is nothing left here but the two faces of God’s divine work and Man’s destruction.
The community of Montgomery had already suffered the losses from the manufacturing and mining industries in the 1980s. The loss of the college was buffered by leaving the community college behind. It occupies one building on campus as near as I can tell. Much of the campus today is derelict and sporting “No Trespassing” signs. An odd aside is the plethora of For Sale signs giving a dollar amount for the property up front. Just something interesting I saw along the way.
The state of West Virginia attempts to operate its schools on as much of a for profit model as they can. Understandable in a state that exports all of its wealth at a loss. I don’t know if it would have been worth saving the school when it moved to Beckley. I am from Beckley myself and was happy to see the college take over our own defunct Beckley College. Once that for profit college was denied it’s accreditation after years of tuition gouging and mismanagement thank goodness WVU and the state government were there to save the day on the private for profit college. That way the people that lost all that money didn’t have to walk away with nothing.
As for Montgomery, I will let the video speak for itself. It is my opinion government and health entities should be run for the public good. They should not be run as a business where every dollar is extracted. When things get rough for a business it goes away. What is left behind are people and communities that need government resources. We need to import more people and resources to the state; not export them to where they are more profitable to others. Do you think something could be done to save Kanawha Counties eastern municipalities?
As always… thank you for riding with me!
Recorded: 2/19/2025
Visibility: Cloudy / Snow
Destinations in chronological order:
South Charleston, WV: B-4:26, 2:01:06-E
Thomas Hospital Rear Entrance, US60/MacCorkle Avenue, I64, Riverwalk Plaza
Charleston, WV: 4:26-14:50, 1:45:36-2:01:06
I64, I64/I77, US60/Midland Trail, WV61/US60/MacCorkle Avenue,
Belle, WV: 14:50-22:56
US60/Midland Trail/Dupont Avenue
Chelyan, WV: 22:56-37:30, 1:18:20-1:34:56
US60/Midland Trail/Dupont Avenue, WV61/2nd Avenue/MacCorkle Avenue
Montgomery, WV: 37:30-1:18:20
US60/Midland Trail/Dupont Avenue, WV6/Montgomery Bridge, WV61/Deepwater Mountain Road/2nd Avenue/MacCorkle Avenue, Harding Street, 5th Avenue, 3rd Avenue, Lee Street, 2nd Avenue, WV61\27/Fayette Pike, WVU Tech/WV Institute of Technology (Defunct), Montgomery General Hospital, Bridgevalley Community and Technical College
Marmet, WV: 1:34:56-1:45:36
WV61/MacCorkle Avenue
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