West Virginia Independence Hall

West Virginia Independence Hall
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
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Location	1528 Market St., Wheeling, West Virginia
Coordinates	40°3′51″N 80°43′18″W / 40.06417°N 80.72167°W / 40.06417; -80.72167
Built	1859 (1859)
Architect	Ammi B. Young; Alfred B. Mullett
Architectural style	Renaissance
NRHP reference No.	70000660
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	January 26, 1970[1]
Designated NHL	June 20, 1988[2]

West Virginia Independence Hall is a historic government building at 1528 Market Street in downtown Wheeling, West Virginia, United States. It was built in 1860 under the supervision of architect Ammi B. Young for the federal government as a custom house, post office and courthouse. It is architecturally significant for its innovative uses of wrought iron as a framing material, and is historically significant for its role in the American Civil War. It housed the Wheeling Convention (1861), as well as the West Virginia Constitutional Convention (1863), which resulted in the separation of Unionist West Virginia from Confederate Virginia. This made it the only state to secede from a Confederate state during the war. The building was originally built as the custom house for the Western District of Virginia, and later became the center of government for the Restored Government of Virginia from 1861 to 1863, with Francis H. Pierpont serving as its governor. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1988.^[2][3] The building is now a state-run museum, housing exhibits on West Virginia history.