Submitted photo A large gathering of musicians take part in a jam session, during a past Augusta Heritage Festival, on the porch of Halliehurst Mansion at Davis & Elkins College. In 2026, the Augusta Heritage Center’s Summer Heritage Workshops will move from the campus of D&E to downtown Elkins.

ELKINS — The Augusta Heritage Center recently announced that its 2026 Summer Heritage Workshops will be moving from the campus of Davis & Elkins College to downtown Elkins.

This year’s 52nd annual Augusta Heritage Festival will begin on July 6 and will once again host its Summer Heritage Workshops on the D&E campus. The festivities are set to kick off with Cajun & Creole and Classic Country Week.

“In 2025 we’ll have a vibrant classic Augusta on the campus of Davis & Elkins College,” Augusta Heritage Executive Director Seth Young told The Inter-Mountain. “Then in 2026 we will move to downtown Elkins and make the physical Augusta Heritage Center the heartbeat of the action with our new dance hall, classroom spaces, community hub, and cafe.”

Young said Augusta will be partnering with several community businesses next summer, most notably the Tygart Hotel, Big Timber Brewing, Holiday Inn Express, the Old Brick Playhouse, the Randolph County Community Arts Center, and the new Event Center currently being built behind the Elkins Train Depot.

“When we move (the festival) downtown next summer, we will have jam session locations in our facility and other locations,” Young said. “We will probably have some in the Tygart and Big Timber, and from there we will grow into where the organic jam sessions kind of present themselves. It’s been my experience launching many programs like this, that sometimes participants themselves will find the best jamming locations. We will be following them, in many respects.”

Young said the Augusta Heritage Center wanted to make the announcement before this year’s event, in order to give its future visitors a long lead-in to what’s going to be happening next summer.

“There’s exciting information that is about to come out soon about different artistic advisors that we are bringing on board,” Young said. “And also what the evening cultural activities will hold.”

Seth said moving the workshops downtown in 2026 will integrate Augusta’s programming and the community together in a “very authentic” way.

“This move is also going to be an economic vitality project, as we bring tourists into downtown Elkins and share our town with them and open our businesses to them,” Young said.

He added that, while the physical location of the Summer Heritage Workshops Series is shifting, the “deep and meaningful relationship” Augusta has with Davis & Elkins College remains strong.

“D&E and Augusta have always worked in tandem with each other and we will be moving forward in tandem,” Young said. “We are now pursuing our academic projects, internships and other services Augusta offers that can bring vibrancy to the student experience at Davis & Elkins College. And some of those programs have already been launched.”

The Augusta Heritage Center is located in the old Wilt Building on the corner of Davis Avenue and Third Street in downtown Elkins. Augusta officially purchased the building in November 2023 and began operating out of the building in February 2024.

For more information on any of the Augusta Heritage Center’s events, visit augustaartsandculture.org or its Facebook page.