Again in the year 2009, were making our way around the
region, each issue visiting a small town and meeting some of the folks who
make up the heart of electric co-op country. On this year's
last stop,
well be...
Down Home in Low
Moor
Story and photos by Deborah R. Huso, Contributing Writer
Once a thriving company
town, Low Moor is easy to miss these days.
Located between the larger communities of Clifton
Forge and Covington along I-64 in Alleghany County, Low Moor today
seems a sleepy community on the surface, with quiet residential
streets where the employee houses of the former Low Moor Iron
Company still stand in neat rows.
But even as the town holds onto its quiet rural
roots, it is also a community on the move. �I am often amazed at the
number of talented people who live here,� says Louise Belmont, the
owner of The Company Store and Iron Company Restaurant on Church
Street. She says living in Low Moor is, in some ways, like stepping
back into the 1950s.
On the peaceful streets
of this quiet mountain community, the employee houses of the
former Low Moor Iron Company still stand in neat rows.
But it�s a progressive 1950s. Today Low Moor is
home to the newly constructed Alleghany Highlands YMCA, which has
3,500 members and an Olympic-sized indoor swimming pool; the
headquarters of Bacova Guild; Alleghany Regional Hospital; and the
Alleghany County Governmental Complex. Those who thought Low Moor
would likely die with closure of the Iron Company in 1926 could not
have foreseen the lucky chances this community would have in the
coming century.
Shelly Dudley, Alleghany County planner and
zoning administrator and local Low Moor historian, says Low Moor
might have died on the vine with the end of the iron industry in
western Virginia, but the location of old Route 60, once the major
thoroughfare through the area, saved the town in many ways.
�Then, with so many things coming to the area,
like the hospital and Bacova Guild, people started moving into the
community,� she adds. In some ways, Low Moor is experiencing a new
boom.
Iron History
Low Moor owes its existence to a 19th-century
boom � the growth of the iron industry in western Virginia. Low Moor
is, in every respect, a company town. It was formed in 1872 with
establishment of the Low Moor Iron Company, which produced pig iron
using its own locally mined coal, limestone, and iron ore in the
production process. At its height, the Low Moor Iron Company
employed 1,600 people.
Those workers lived in company housing, shopped
at the company store using scrip that was issued as part of their
wages, worshipped at a company-built church, and attended the
company Amuzu Theater.
Low Moor became one of the biggest producers of
pig iron in Virginia, sending its iron to steel plants in Ohio,
Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois. The company�s success, however,
depended to a large degree on the cooperation of the C & O Railroad.
The relationship between the C & O and the Low Moor Iron Company was
a rocky one, with the railroad often failing to provide the reliable
service the company required. Transportation troubles combined with
new competition from iron mines near the Great Lakes ultimately led
to the company�s liquidation in 1926.
Low Moor survived the end of the iron industry in
Alleghany County, however, and the community as a whole has
developed a renewed interest in history. David Kleppinger, executive
director of the Alleghany Highlands Economic Development
Corporation, hopes to see Alleghany County save some of the last
remaining iron furnaces and incorporate them into a community park
adjacent to the Alleghany Regional Hospital.
�We�d like to use the park as a point for
celebrating the area�s rich industrial history and to show the area
wants and supports industry,� he says. The furnaces are the only
physical remnant of the iron company�s history. Today, I-64 covers
the ground the old coke ovens once occupied.
Dudley, who is herself a resident of Low Moor, is
one of the chief preservers of its history. She has accumulated
pages and pages of local history in a collection of three-ring
binders, noting that her interest in the subject began when she was
a small child and her mother told her the old cement pillars in
their backyard were remnants of the railroad that once came through
town.
�The railroad is the only thing that has remained
constant here,� Dudley says. �Everything else is changing.�
Progress and Preservation
Change can be a good thing, however. When the
county decided to locate a landfill across the road from the
historic Oakland Grove Presbyterian Church situated on Old Route 60
between Selma and Low Moor, it spawned efforts to preserve the
c.1845 structure. The church was built using locally produced bricks
from the nearby Haynes plantation. The bricks were all carried to
the site in saddlebags. Originally called �The Church by the
Springs,� it was a non-denominational gathering place for the
faithful in the mid-1900s. The historic cemetery contains the graves
of 12 Confederate soldiers as well as slave graves. The oldest grave
dates to 1819.
Margaret Carter, a former
member of Low Moor's historic Oakland Grove Presbyterian
Church, and Frank Webb, an elder at Low Moore Presbyterian
Church.
�A lot of people got interested in preserving the
church because they were surprised the county located a landfill so
close to it,� says Margaret Carter, a former member of the Oakland
Grove Church. She remembers attending services here as a child when
she was the youngest of 12 children and her mother taught Sunday
school. The church has not held regular services since the 1960s,
but an annual homecoming service is held here each September.
�There are only a handful of Oakland members
still living,� says Frank Webb, an elder at the Low Moor
Presbyterian Church (which is responsible for Oakland�s
maintenance). �The homecoming is really a service for the whole
community.�
Kentucky native Louise Belmont, who moved to Low
Moor in 2004, is glad for the local interest in historic
preservation and has made her own efforts to keep the town�s
heritage alive with her restoration of The Company Store, which she
has turned into a full-service restaurant. Also known now as the
Iron Company Restaurant, The Company Store was once the commissary
for the Low Moor Iron Company and continued to serve as a general
store even once the iron company was gone. �I thought it was a
beautiful building that needed to be fixed, and it�s a local
landmark,� says Belmont.
Alpha "Granny" Averill,
whose family operated The Company Store in Low Moor for
decades, with its current owner, Louise Belmont.
Belmont still keeps in touch with the Averill
family that operated the store for many decades following the iron
company�s departure. Among them is 102-year-old Alpha Averill, known
to locals as �Granny� Averill. She worked in the store for more than
40 years up until she was 100 years old. She waited on customers,
figured their bills for many years without the aid of a calculator
or cash register, and even played the piano for anyone who cared to
listen. �I never took music lessons,� the sprightly Averill says. �I
learned to play on my aunt�s organ.� She attributes her longevity to
a lifetime of hard work. �This place is all I�ve known my whole
life,� she says of Low Moor.
A Town of Many Faces
Low Moor�s dedication to past and future is
evident everywhere and is foremost in the minds of many of its
residents, including Steve Bennett, owner of Bennett Logging and
Lumber and Union Church Millworks in Low Moor. Bennett, who grew up
on Alleghany County�s last remaining working dairy farm, has been in
business in the county for more than 20 years and also serves as
chairman of the Alleghany County Board of Supervisors. Bennett says
he never really considered leaving the Low Moor area. �This is my
home,� he says. �I love the personality of the mountain land.�
As a businessman, he also appreciates the strong
work ethic of area residents. �They�re not afraid to get their hands
dirty,� he says, approvingly. In addition to his logging operations
and sawmill, Bennett also runs a successful millworks company that
specializes in high-end custom flooring. �We specialize in things
you can�t get anywhere else,� he points out. �We�ll make black
walnut plank flooring 12 inches wide if you want.�
The strong work ethic of the local people is one
among many reasons why Bacova Guild moved here in 1996. David Woods,
general manager at Bacova Guild, says it was the first company to
locate in Low Moor�s Commerce Center. Today the guild employs 190
people.
For such a small community, employment
opportunities are many. Even The Company Store employs some 18
people. Louise Belmont is grateful for the help and for the more
than 100 customers who come through the store every day. She says
she wouldn�t live anywhere else. �I like the people,� she says, �and
I like that it�s a place where you feel like you can make a
difference.�
If
You Go...
The Alleghany Highlands Chamber of Commerce on
Main Street in Covington is a good place to get an introduction to
Alleghany County, including attractions and points of interest in
the Low Moor area. Open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., the
Chamber of Commerce has brochures and maps on the surrounding area.
Alleghany County is rich
with railroad history, and there are a number of railroad-related
attractions only a few miles from Low Moor. Among them is the
Covington C & O Depot on Maple Avenue in Coving�ton,
which houses the offices of the Alleghany County Historical Society
and has exhibits and information on local history, including the
mining history of Low Moor. Just east of Low Moor in Clifton Forge
is the C & O Railway Heritage Center, which features an 1895 freight
depot, restored cabooses and a dining car, and large-scale
locomotive models.
Despite its small size, Low Moor has a surprising
array of dining options, including The Company Store & Iron Company
Restaurant, which is located on Church Street, as well as The Cat
and Owl Steak and Seafood House at Exit 21 off I-64 in Low Moor.
24-hour dining is available at the newly opened Penny�s Diner right
next door to the Oak Tree Inn, which offers overnight accommodations
for the engineers and conductors of CSX Railroad.
Low Moor is located in the center of a beautiful
mountainous region that is home to a variety of recreational
opportunities, including fishing, boating, and camping at Lake
Moomaw in the George Washington National Forest as well as at
Douthat State Park. With the Jackson River flowing through Alleghany
County, there are many opportunities for kayaking, canoeing, and
fishing, and if you don�t have your own gear, local outfitters like
Riders Up! in Clifton Forge provide boat rentals and guided river
trips.
Just a few miles northwest of Low Moor on Route
220 is a famous local landmark � the lovely cascade of Falling
Spring Falls, a 200-foot waterfall, and just west of town is the
only single-span covered bridge in the United States that is four
feet higher at its center than at either end with no middle support.
Known as Humpback Bridge, it was built in 1857 over Dunlap Creek
with a design meant to protect it from destruction by flood. Today
the bridge is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and
is also a Virginia Historic Landmark.
