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Celebration planned at Kump House

If you want to see the inside of historic Kump House before it undergoes changes necessary to meet current codes for public buildings, plan to attend the “Ghost of a Good Guy Celebration” from 3-5 p.m. Oct. 29 at 401 South Randolph Avenue across from the Elkins Kroger.

Halloween will be the 140th birthday of Gov. H. “Guy” Kump, who built the home on South Randolph Avenue for his wife and six children c. 1924-5.

It was given to the city of Elkins by his last surviving child in 2008, and much work has been done to preserve the outside of the structure, but now it is time for internal rehabilitation. Most of the original furniture — even many rugs — are still in the house where they were when Eleanor Roosevelt visited in the 1930s. It is a ghostly reminder of the past, but now the old wiring and heating system need to be replaced before the building will be safe and warm.

Miss Kump directed in her will that the house should “serve educational purposes,” but most of the space is not currently ready for public occupancy. Only the ground level classroom has been prepared to meet building and fire codes, and provide ADA accessibility.

The historic first floor and bedrooms on the second and third floors have not been changed. The plaster is crumbling and the woodwork is beginning to show signs of age, but not much has been moved since the Kump family lived there.

The “Ghost of a Good Guy Celebration” will feature an interview based on the Fresh Air Program format from NPR. In the role of Teri Gross we will have interviewer Tarry Ghost on Magic Air, and she will ask questions designed to encourage our ‘Ghost of a Good Guy’ to tell his own story.

We will hear about Kump’s parents farming near Cacapon River, Guy’s time teaching in a one-room school, playing baseball at UVA, becoming a lawyer, meeting Edna Scott, campaigning for prosecuting attorney, being an officer in WWI, improving the water system as mayor of Elkins, building the Kump House, serving as judge, and becoming the 19th governor of West Virginia.

We plan to share fresh birthday cake and apple cider along with ideas about how politics has changed and how it has stayed the same over the last 140 years since H. Guy Kump was born in rural West Virginia.

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