Lemuel Chenoweth
Lemuel Chenoweth (1811–1887) was a carpenter, legislator and self-taught architect. He is best known as one of 19th century America's master covered bridge builders.
Chenoweth and his brother Eli constructed 20 bridges during the 1840s and '50s, most of them covered, on four western Virginia turnpikes, notably on the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike system in what is now West Virginia.
Biography
Chenoweth was born, lived and died in Randolph County, West Virginia. He was an associate of Claduies Crozet, a noted civil engineer who oversaw the design and construction of Virginia's transportation infrastructure of turnpikes, canals, and roads with funding by the Virginia Board of Public Works and the General Assembly of Virginia prior to the American Civil War (1860-1865).
One of Chenoweth's best known surviving bridges is the Philippi Covered Bridge spanning the Tygart Valley River and carrying U.S. Route 250 in Philippi. The bridge is an outstanding example of a modified Burr truss bridge with two spans totaling 308 feet (94 m).[1] It is also the only covered bridge in the United States currently incorporated into the national primary highway system, although it has been extensively reinforced and reconstructed.
Another of Chenoweth's surviving covered bridges is located at Barrackville in Marion County.[2]
Several homes and the Huttonsville Presbyterian Church in Huttonsville are also among Chenoweth's extant creations.
Chenoweth was buried in the Beverly Cemetery.
Legacy
The Lemuel Chenoweth House Museum operates in the post and beam house that Chenoweth built for himself in Beverly in 1856.
List of Chenoweth bridges
- Beverly Covered Bridge, 1847, Chenoweth's first bridge (destroyed).
- Middle Fork Covered Bridge, 18?? (destroyed).
- Buckhannon Covered Bridge, 18?? (destroyed).
- Weston Covered Bridge, 18??, across Stone Coal Creek, (destroyed).
- Philippi Covered Bridge, 1852 (surviving).
- Paw Paw Creek Covered Bridge near Grant Town, West Virginia, 185? (destroyed).
- Barrackville Covered Bridge, 1858 (surviving).
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