Fairmont, West Virginia, United States

🇺🇸 Fairmont is a city in Marion County, West Virginia, United States. It is the county seat of Marion County in North Central West Virginia. Fairmont is also a principal city of the larger Morgantown-Fairmont combined statistical area.

History In the eighteenth century, the earliest development of Fairmont consisted of subsistence farming settlements.

In 1789, Boaz Fleming, a Revolutionary War veteran, migrated to western Virginia and purchased a 254-acre farm from Jonathan Bozarth. In 1808, Fleming made his annual trek to Clarksburg to pay his brother's Harrison County taxes. While in Clarksburg, Fleming attended a social gathering that included his cousin Dolley Madison, wife of President James Madison. Fleming complained to Mrs. Madison about having to travel over a hundred miles each year from his home to pay his Monongalia County taxes and his brother's Harrison County taxes. Mrs. Madison supposedly suggested that he create his own county to save him all that travel. In 1814, Fleming circulated a petition to do precisely that, naming the proposed county Madison County in honor of Dolley and James Madison.

Milford, now Rivesville, was the only town within the borders of Fleming's proposed county, so Fleming decided to make Milford the seat of Madison County. However, Milford's citizens preferred to remain part of Monongalia County. As a result, Fleming's petition failed to gain sufficient support to be presented to the Virginia General Assembly. Fleming then focused on creating a new town near his farm, which was located on the west side of the Monongahela River. In 1817, Fleming's sons—William and David—began to clear land on a part of their father's farm to make way for the new town; this part of the farm would later become downtown Fairmont.

Modern history In 1819, Fairmont was founded as Middletown, Virginia. It was named Middletown because either it was in the middle of two cities, Morgantown and Clarksburg, or Fleming's first wife, Elizabeth Hutchinson, was originally from Middletown, Delaware. That same year, a road was built between those two cities. Fleming's new town was about halfway between the two cities, which made it a resting point. The town was incorporated as Middletown on January 19, 1820.

The current borders of Marion County were established in 1842, and Middletown was named the county's seat. At that time, William Haymond Jr. suggested that the town's name be changed to Fairmont because the town had a beautiful overlook of the Monongahela River, giving it a "fair mount". The Borough of Fairmont was incorporated in 1843 by the Virginia General Assembly.

In 1863, during the American Civil War, Confederate General William E. Jones and his men raided Fairmont and cut the Union's supply lines to take food and horses. They also burned the books from the personal library of Governor Francis Harrison Pierpont.

Many of the first buildings in Fairmont were poorly constructed. By 1852—little more than 30 years after the city's founding—a large portion of Fairmont was reported to be run-down and dilapidated. Reports from 1873 indicate that these buildings had continued to fall into disrepair. On April 2, 1876, a fire destroyed a large portion of the city's business district, as well as many houses in the area. The continuing dilapidation of the city's buildings may have contributed to the fire; the large number of coal mines under Fairmont may have also played a role.

Between 1891 and 1901—in a span of only 10 years—Fairmont's population had increased from 1,000 to 7,000. The City of Fairmont was chartered in 1899; as a result of the charter, the city absorbed the surrounding towns of Palatine (also known as East Side) and West Fairmont. By 1901, Fairmont was an important commercial center. Many railroads—including the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad on its way from Cumberland, Maryland to Wheeling—traveled through the city. By this time, Fairmont was also the leading centre of the coal trade industry in northern West Virginia, employing some 10,000 workers in the coal mines around Fairmont.

By 1978, an issue with Fairmont's land experiencing subsidence appeared because the remains of Fairmont's 19th-century coal mines were crumbling. As a result, over the following years, the federal government along with other institutions spent money to fix the subsidence issue to prevent damage to the town.

Geography The Tygart Valley River and the West Fork River join in Fairmont to form the Monongahela River. Buffalo Creek, a tributary of the Monongahela River, flows through the northern part of the city.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 9.00 square miles (23.31 km²), of which 8.62 square miles (22.33 km²) is land and 0.38 square miles (0.98 km²) is water.

Demographics As of the 2020 census, there were 18,416 people and 7,903 households residing in the city. There were 9,045 housing units in Fairmont. The racial makeup of the city was 84.2% White, 7.3% African American, 0.6% Asian, 0.3% Native American, 0.5% from other races, and 7% from two or more races. Hispanics or Latinos of any race were 2.2% of the population.

There were 7,903 households, of which 37.1% were married couples living together, 30.6% had a female householder with no spouse present, 23% had a male householder with no spouse present. The average household and family size was 2.83. The median age in the city was 34.4 years. With 18.3% of the city being under 18. The median household income in the city was $47,618 and the poverty rate was 19.9%.

Arts and culture Fairmont is home to Country Club Bakery, which is where the pepperoni roll snack originates. The bakery continues to serve the roll along with their various other baked goods. Fairmont has considered itself to be the "pepperoni roll capital of the world".

The city is home to multiple offices for national agencies. Fairmont's National White Collar Crime Center provides nationwide support to law enforcement agencies involved in prevention, investigation, and prosecution of economic and high-tech crime. The NASA Katherine Johnson Independent Verification and Validation Facility, governed by the Goddard Space Flight Center, houses more than 150 full-time employees and more than 20 in-house partners and contractors. The NOAA Robert H. Mollohan Research Facility, which receives weather data from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites, houses more than 100 full-time employees.

Government Fairmont has a Council-manager government, whereby the mayor serves as chairman of the city council and the city manager takes care of the day-to-day operations.

Education Fairmont Senior High School is a public high school that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The school was established in the late 1800s, and the school was relocated in 1905 and 1928. The current iteration of the school, which is located on Loop Park Dr, was designed by the architect William B. Ittner.

Fairmont State University is a public university with an approximate enrollment of 3,800 students. The institution offers master's degrees in business, education, teaching, criminal justice, and nursing, in addition to 90 baccalaureate and 50 associate degrees. Originally established as a school for teachers, the college was named Fairmont Normal School, and was located on the corner of Fairmont Avenue and Second Street and moved to its present location in 1917.

Dunbar School is a historic building in Fairmont, West Virginia, that used to be an all-black high school. The school was designed by the architect William B Ittner. The school was built in 1928.

Transport: Road Fairmont is located in the North-Central region of the state, along West Virginia's I-79 High Tech Corridor. Major highways include: • Interstate 79 • U.S. Highway 19 • U.S. Highway 250 • West Virginia Route 310 • West Virginia Route 273.

Transport: Air Fairmont Municipal Airport (Frankman Field) is a public use airport located two nautical miles (4 km) south-west of the central business district of Fairmont. It is owned by the Fairmont-Marion County Regional Airport Authority.