July 20—FAIRMONT — You don’t have to look far to see what Fairmont’s Beltline neighborhood once looked like.

For decades, the Beltline was an industrial and municipal destination for the Marion County city, always operating at full capacity.

From the early 20th century onwards, the Beltline was a hive of activity day and night, like a Louis Jordan-style bandstand.

Behind 12th Street, factories lined up like LEGO bricks, including the Monongah Glass Co., known throughout the region and the country for its decorative lamps, cups, plates and other beautiful glassware.

Closely packed duplexes for employees did the same on Virginia Avenue.

Coal cars on the B&O Railroad rattled and banged 24 hours a day as they were loaded with West Virginia’s finest export product.

There were breweries, eateries, a municipal swimming pool and the East-West Stadium, a stone wonder built with funds from the Works Progress Administration that served as a major football stadium for a region of seven high schools until the late 1970s.

Today, the stadium also hosts soccer and lacrosse games. As Fairmont City Manager Travis Blosser recently said, that could be a good marketing metaphor for the Beltline.

“We can’t take it back to what it was,” he said of the neighborhood, “but we can reinvent it, for its time.”

Beltline 2.0?

In the same way he reimagined Morgantown’s once-dilapidated Wharf District, Blosser outlines a 21st-century Beltline focused on community commerce, with a proposed network of recreation facilities and playing fields — and the planned extension of the West Fork Rail-Trail — as a starting point.

For a complete overview of the project, including computer graphics and an extensive FAQ section, visit fairmontwv.gov and type “Beltline” in the search field.

Meanwhile, the “hearts and minds” phase began in earnest a few years ago, says city planner Shae Strait, with a series of community forums.

These forums were well attended, much to the relief of the city planner.

This means that more people were present than just the core group of citizens who, regardless of the situation, attend every meeting of the municipal council and the provincial commission.

“We saw a lot of unfamiliar faces and that’s good,” Strait said, “because we have to start somewhere.”

Just climb down from somewhere, he said.

For decades, Fairmont saw its economic fortunes wax and wane, while Clarksburg to the south and Morgantown to the north both flourished.

In 1969, the Middletown Mall, West Virginia’s first indoor shopping mall at the time, opened outside the city in what is now the town of White Hall.

It wasn’t long before all the shops in Fairmont’s once bustling Adams Street business district left.

Often the venerable “Miner’s Bulletin Board” on local radio would repeatedly broadcast “Will not work-will not work” to keep the crews home as demand for coal fluctuated and the mines were running out of steam.

Westinghouse and Owen-Illinois on the East Side? Both closed.

It’s all about marketing…

Why the Beltline as a Marketing Catalyst?

Because it’s still a relatively lively place, Strait said.

Only a handful of businesses remain, he said. People still fill the stands at East-West Stadium, and the neighborhood is now home to West Fairmont Middle School.

Even better, he said, the Beltline was designated as a mixed-use area years ago.

For Strait, it’s Civic Marketing 101.

“If you are a business or a family moving here, or considering moving somewhere else, what is the first thing you look at?” he said.

“Well, you look at the first things that people always say you look at. You look at roads and schools. And housing. You look at medical facilities and recreational facilities.”

“The Beltline is already here,” Blosser said. As he said, it’s much easier to redevelop than to rebuild.

The city is currently in the process of expropriating a vacant factory behind East-West Stadium, which was built in 1902 as part of the Monongah Glass Co. complex.

Once that happens, Blosser said, the structure can be demolished and the first shovels of ground can be broken for the Beltline redevelopment.

He doesn’t want to put any timelines or budgets on the project at this point, he said.

“We’re just at the beginning of the beginning,” he said, “but there are still things we can do.”

This means that the current two-way roads will be temporarily converted into one-way roads, along with other traffic calming measures. This is also temporary, he stressed.

“We can test a lot of it,” he said. “We say to our residents, ‘OK, this is what it could look like, if you really want it.’”

Beyond the Beltline Blosser and Strait are optimistic about the Beltline for now.

Blosser grew up in Fairmont and Strait is from Shinnston, a former coal camp in Harrison County that survived the coal industry recession and the devastation of a devastating tornado in 1944.

As residents of north-central West Virginia, they also know where Fairmont currently stands economically.

The city’s Gateway Connector provides better access to the city from Interstate 79.

WVU Medicine took over Fairmont General Hospital, which closed at the height of the pandemic after years of lack of owners.

Mon Health Medical Center also opened a hospital at Middletown Commons, the site of the former Middletown Mall, which was reimagined by Morgantown developers Richard and David Biafora.

Add to that Fairmont State University, Pierpont Community and Technical College and the I-79 Technology Park in South Fairmont, home to the region’s emerging high-tech industry, the city manager said, noting other civic features.

And, he said, there’s the Beltline, which could be Fairmont’s version of Morgantown’s Wharf District.

“Could be,” was the optimal qualification, he said.

“The possibilities are virtually endless,” Blosser said, “if people want it.”

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