A Peek into Summers County’s Past: Postcards

PENCE SPRINGS W.Va. (Hinton News) – Forgive my lack of detail in this week’s series, but while at this month’s meeting of The Ballengee Farm Club, I realized it is Thursday and my story is due tonight. So, after rushing around the house after I got home, I pulled out an album of old local postcards.

These three postcards of Pence Springs I ran across are of the same area; the second and third are part of a larger panoramic view looking from Pence Springs proper, facing the depot with the river behind it.

The first one was made from a much earlier photo, prior to the bridge being constructed across the Greenbrier River in the early 1900s. The guests staying at the hotel would get off the train at the depot and were taken by horse and wagon in the early days to a ferry to cross the river and continue up the dirt road over to the hotel and the spring.

Note the “Pleasure Lea Camp” written in quotes along the bottom with Aug. 7- 27, 1916 after it. I have never seen a reference to this camp in Pence Springs except for this postcard. It also says 1916, which is roughly around 15 years after the bridge was constructed. It is interesting that photos that were this old were still being used for postcards at that time.

The large wood-frame hotel can be seen in the upper left-hand corner. Rhodes and Pyles Store and Post Office on the right-hand side. The Lahey Boarding House is touching the white line of the postcard. The brick yard in Pence Springs would have been somewhere across from that long, skinny island on the right.

The two other postcards were printed from a long panoramic photo. The large house you see in the center of the photo was the home of a Rhodes brother who owned Rhodes and Pyles Store. It was built by my great-great-grandfather, L. W. Thompson. Remember in one of my previous stories, I mentioned the three Rhodes brothers who built stores and homes in Talcott, Lowell and Pence Springs.

The large home you see on the bank of the river on the right-hand corner was the Lahey Boarding House. It sat within walking distance of the depot. Which can be seen in the bottom left-hand corner of the other postcard. Rhodes and Pyles Store can be seen to its right.

The ferry or toll house that was used prior to the bridge being built. And then after it was built to raise the funds to complete its construction sat behind the store. And it is still there to this day, it is currently being used as a camp.

The bridge is completed in this view, and as you can see, there is nothing visible along the road that goes next to the river from that time to the hotel and the spring. Remember, at this time, the community of Valley Heights was thriving above the spring and had its own store and post office. So it could function separately from the town of Pence Springs and even had its own hotel and spring called The Valley Heights Hotel.