Henderson Hall to remain open
By DAVE PAYNE Sr., Staff Writer
POSTED: December 28, 2007
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Former owner Mike Rolston, who died suddenly last week, bequeathed Henderson Hall to the Oil, Gas and Industrial Historic Association (Oil & Gas Museum) in Parkersburg in his will. Oil and Gas Museum director Dave McKain, a life-long friend of Rolston, said the hall will continue to operate and be open to the public.
“It’s an awesome responsibility, but we are going to carry on and make sure it is taken care of, manned and open to the public for tours. That’s what he wanted and we accept that responsibility with a lot of humility,” McKain said.
Steve Nicely, president of the Greater Parkersburg Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, said he was pleased by the news Henderson Hall will continue as an attraction.
“It’s wonderful. It is good that asset will be preserved for the area. I’m thrilled,” he said.
McKain said the Hendersons were an important family in national as well as local history.
“Henderson Hall is probably the most pristine heritage asset in the Ohio Valley and West Virginia,” he said.
“There are a lot of heritage assets, lots of old homes, but nothing that has the heritage like Henderson Hall,” McKain said. “The Hendersons were involved in West Virginia statehood, the oil and gas boom of the 1890s and the Civil War. One of the longest-serving commandants of the Marine Corps was a Henderson. Mike donated his uniform to the Marine Corps museum several years ago.”
Archibald Henderson served in the Marine Corps from 1806 until 1859 and served on the U.S.S. Constitution during the War of 1812. A Navy ship, U.S.S. Henderson was named for him as is the Henderson Hall Barracks in Arlington, Va. His long tenure earned him the nickname “Grand Old Man of the Marine Corps.”
McKain said one of his primary goals will be to let people know just how much history is inside the old building.
“Henderson Hall is just so steeped in history and it’s so unrecognized how important it is. We intend to change that. (George Washington Henderson) went to the first Wheeling Convention, Alexander Henderson turned in Blennerhassett and Burr when Blennerhassett tried to get him in the conspiracy. Hendersons were members of the same church and had adjoining pews with George Washington. We’re talking major history. Our intent is to promote that and get it made into a national treasure,” McKain said.
Rolston was a graduate of both Harvard and Yale universities and was doing quite well for himself when he took over Henderson Hall in the 1980s. When the hall’s future was in doubt in the mid 1980s, Rolston left New York to take over the old family lands.
“It was in the process of being dismantled and he moved in to make sure that it wouldn’t be,” McKain said. “He spent all his money on Henderson Hall, it is an expensive place to operate, you wouldn’t believe what it takes to heat the building.”
In 1984, Rolston became the owner of Henderson Hall, built in 1836 by his great-great-grandfather, George Washington Henderson, and a large portion of the remaining land of the original Henderson Plantation, which encompassed some 2000 acres, in and below Williamstown. In 1957, the U.S. Department of the Interior designated some 65 acres of the land surrounding Henderson Hall including the Henderson Family Cemetery as Henderson Hall Historic District and placed it on the National Register of Historic Places.
“We’re looking for volunteers and support,” McKain said. “We will welcome all support from the area. It’s such a marvelous place, we’ll make it fly.”
Rolston was born in 1933, in Greenbrier County, W.Va., the son of the late Julian Kenneth Rolston and Jean Henderson (Rolston) Brady. He was raised in Parkersburg, where he graduated from Parkersburg High School in 1951. He attended Marietta College, Harvard University and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in 1958 from the Department of Art and Architecture at Yale University.
He worked in New York City as a graphic designer for more than 25 years. His design for the book “The Promised Land and Other Poems” was selected as one of the 50 best-designed books of 1958 by the American Institute of Graphic Arts and was awarded the same distinction by Graphis, the Swiss publication on International Design. The book was also selected by the U.S. State Department for inclusion in one of the first exhibition of American design to travel to the Soviet Union in 1960.
Contact Dave Payne Sr. at dpayne@newsandsentinel.com.
