Grafton is a small rural town in West Virginia yet has come up n several of my reports; it is home to the Mothers Day Shrine, also had a central role in the RR strike of 1877. Also home to a Boy Scout camp, YMCA, Daughters of American Revolution.
The years on these images are mislabeled, they are out of order. There is periods of growth but never any construction, appears to be in decay even in the earliest images. The narrative says the decay is soot from the trains but I think it is patina from age.
Mudflood Clean up train, 1859InheritorsEarlier image, discoloration along the bottom and smoke damage above windowsTitle says “Severe Burn Victim”, looks like a costume to meBoys Industrial School. Note all the broken windowsno year on any of them but the pattern fits the rest, the steeple has been removedanother industrial school, ghost building in decay, scrubby front yardthe repopulation. The whole town was cleaned up, every town in the world. how long do you think that took.Hospital construction by Works Progress Admin. thats the Civilian Conservation Corps, means its probs a fake construction photoNo people. Look how narrow the river is. Note the opening towards the bottom left, could be for sewer but what about when the river rises? The row of trees in a straight line above the town.tunnels, one looks like it could be a simple drain but the other has a keystone.houses overgrown“Public School”, with nothing nearbyMine bosses, pocket-pool players clubMothers Day Shrine. Modern images show the steeple has been removedInverted pentacle alterfreshly planted treessketch, 18001890, note the collapsed building in foreground, ghost town, if all the people are inside there would be the chimneys smoking, only one is smoking at the train depot.Flat Iron Building18591890steeples and other features removedovergrown town and train carsThe train yard is all built on stilts, look how high the building was made, its all backfilled later.this is a continuation of the picture above. See where the tops of the pilings are still exposed, the whole yard is built on stilts. The river/canal is just a trickle. the buildings look burned outThis is another site nearby but the concept is showcased. See the embankment has been modified, like a canal. once the valley was back-filled this is how it was finished.Rivers were modified; straightened, cleaned, widened, deepened. A fine line between a natural canal and a river.Look at the wall under the long building, the banks have been pushed overThis is called the Fire of 1887, Ive looked at a lot of city fire images, I’ve never seen anyone drag everything out into the middle of the street before.1859