Published: March 29, 2009 04:19 am      

Marion County’s past on display

Courthouse among attractions during History Expo 2009

FAIRMONT — For a quarter of a century, Marion County Circuit Judge Fred Fox has listened to testimony and meted out sentences from beneath an eight-paneled dome of stained glass.

Two additional stained glass windows in the ceiling — rectangular in shape — are etched with the scales of justice and an eagle, helping to oversee cases even before Fox took over the courtroom on the third floor of the Marion County Courthouse in 1984.

The most famous, Fox said Saturday during History Expo 2009, probably was the McCarthy-era trial for Luella Mundel, a Fairmont State College art professor accused of being a Communist. Her case landed in the courtroom when she sued a state education official for slander, but her politics ended up on trial, according to online accounts.

On Saturday morning, Fox discussed the historic aspects of the courtroom and cases that had been tried there during an event that allowed visitors to tour the turn-of-the-last century, Beaux Arts Classic building on Adams Street in downtown Fairmont.

Sometimes, Fox said, jurors have been a bit distracted by the large courtroom — which also features a balcony reminiscent of the film “To Kill a Mockingbird” — that they spend some time looking around.

“The first day when jurors come in, they do that for a couple of hours,” Fox said. “After that, they get used to it.”

And in spite of its beauty, until attorneys and witnesses began using microphones, the acoustics were a bit flawed for the spectators.

“It was difficult to understand them,” Fox said. “The spectators needed to be in one of the first rows and on this side,” he said, motioning to the right.

Kathy Hanko, for one, was glad she and her husband made the trip from Morgantown to learn more about the county seat of their neighbor.

“I’ve wanted to see the courthouse for a long time,” she said. “When you work during the week, you can’t get to these things.”

In addition to the woodwork and the stained glass, Hanko also appreciated the view through the courtroom’s long, vertical windows.

“My husband and I didn’t realize Fairmont is such a hilly town,” she said.

Fox’s presentation was just one offering during the event, presented by the Marion County Historical Society and the Marion County Commission, which allowed people to tour around and visit various information booths to learn more about the area.

“We wanted to give people the opportunity to see the historic courthouse and to be able to view how absolutely magnificent it is inside,” said Dora Kay Grubb, the president of the Marion County Historical Society, which is headquartered in a house next door to the courthouse.

Visitors also could see that the stained glass — which also can be found in the ceiling and in the primary courthouse dome outside of Fox’s chambers — needs some cleaning and upgrading. To that end, Richard Walton, the planning and development director for the Marion County Commission, was on hand to discuss how officials hope to be able to get the work done sometime in the future.

“It’s a project that’s on the horizon,” said Walton, who said that a budget has not been set for the restoration.

In addition to needing a cleaning, Walton said, another condition needs to be rectified.

“With stained glass, I guess the main thing is gravity,” he said. “You have a 100-year-old building and 100 years of gravity pulling down on the glass.”

The lead used to keep the glass together does not harden over time, which has allowed the slippage. Also, some water damage has occurred.

Other work has taken precedence over tending to the stained glass, Walton said, including tackling some structural items.

“The upgrades started, best as I can tell, in 2000,” Walton said.

Dressed in garments from around 1897 — the date on the cornerstone of the courthouse — Jo Ann Lough showed visitors some of the work that took place last summer when a restoration artist cleaned up three murals on the upper walls of the third floor. New York City firm EverGreene Painting Studios sent an artist who, with the help of some scaffolding to reach the murals, took off years of coal dust and nicotine as well as some varnish that had been applied to the paintings.

Using a red light, Lough pointed out the different features of the paintings, one of which represents industry, including mining, and another agriculture, featuring a border of corn husks. The third one depicts David Morgan, son of Morgan Morgan, the state’s first white settler, fighting an Indian.

“They were all done by different artists and are dated back to 1900,” Lough said of the paintings, which were executed on canvas. “‘They were painted away from here and installed,” she said.

Visitors also could stop a table to see some Civil War-era rifles and talk to re-enactors about the Battle of Fairmont, which took place April 29, 1863; as well as learn more about the history of the Dunbar School, the area’s high school for black students in the times of segregation. Romelia Hodges was on hand to discuss some of the school’s well-known graduates, including Rose Cousins, who was one of the first women to fly with the famed Tuskegee Airman during World War II.

The Dunbar representatives also had some old yearbooks for people to peruse.

“Some people have come by and asked, ‘Can you show me a picture of the Rev. Wesley Dobbs of Morningstar Baptist Church?’ or of Stevie Holloway, who was with the sheriff’s department and who passed away recently,” Hodges said.

Dorothy Hoffman of Fairmont decided to check out the event because she likes history. She especially enjoyed seeing Fox’s courtroom, which she had not visited “since elementary school. Back then, I was not too impressed with it. Now I appreciate it.”

E-mail Mary Wade Burnside at mwburnside@timeswv.com.