WHIPPLE, W.VA. – Standing tall along State Route 612 just south of Oak Hill, the Whipple Company Store is an intriguing remnant of Fayette County’s coal mining past.
Built in the early 20th century by coal operator Justus Collins, the two-story wooden structure once served as the commercial and social hub for the mining town of Whipple and its surrounding communities.
Constructed as part of the Whipple Colliery Company, which Collins founded in the late 1890s, the store played a central role in daily life for miners and their families.
It is one of the last wooden company stores still standing in West Virginia along with the Babcock Coal & Coke Company Store in Clifftop.
The building housed not only the company’s offices, but also the community’s post office and medical office.
Inside, residents could find everything from basic groceries to household furniture—an essential one-stop shop in an era when coal towns were often isolated from larger cities.
In 1906, the New River Company acquired several coal operations in Fayette County, including Whipple.
The store was renamed New River Company Store No. 4. Its distinctive architecture has helped it remain one of the most memorable landmarks in the area.
Built on a foundation of cut sandstone, the first floor is six-sided and supports an octagonal second floor. A large arched doorway leads to a circular central space, from which smaller rooms branch off.
This layout, along with its size and design, made the store the most prominent building in town.
The Whipple store is the last surviving example of four nearly identical stores built in the New River region during the coal boom of the early 1900s.
The first was constructed in Glen Jean in 1893 for the Collins Colliery Company, though it burned and was rebuilt in 1900. Another was erected in Prudence, and the final store—the one at Whipple—was the only one not lost to time.
Operations at the Whipple mine ceased in 1957, and the store closed with it. It later reopened as a trading post, serving the community until the late 1980s.
In the years that followed, the building was used as a private residence. Recognizing its historical significance, the Whipple Company Store was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.
In the early 2000s, the building was restored and operated as a museum, welcoming visitors eager to learn about the coal heritage of southern West Virginia.
Today, though the museum is no longer open, the Whipple Company Store remains a powerful visual reminder of the coal industry’s influence on the region and the communities it shaped.
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