Historical Markers in Blennerhassett Island, West Virginia
Parkersburg is the county seat for Wood County
Blennerhassett Island is in Wood County
Wood County(114) ► ADJACENT TO WOOD COUNTY Jackson County(26) ► Pleasants County(16) ► Ritchie County(12) ► Wirt County(13) ► Athens County, Ohio(69) ► Meigs County, Ohio(58) ► Washington County, Ohio(164) ►
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Strolling through the island’s “pleasure-ground” (pleasure garden) was made even more restful by its beautiful bowers and arbors of grapevine, honeysuckle, eglantine (sweetbriar), roses, and columbine. Underneath these blooming green roofs stood . . . — — Map (db m178092) HM
This plantation of trees was set out in 1935 by Amos K. Gordon, a wealthy Louisiana oil executive who owned and operated a park on the upper half of the island from 1935 until his death in 1955. — — Map (db m177631) HM
Blennerhassett Island, the most famous of the Ohio River
islands, was for countless generations the home of Native
Americans. It first appeared in written records in 1766
and became immortal in American history as the 1805-1807
base of . . . — — Map (db m177279) HM
The one acre kitchen garden was located on this
site. Here was grown produce for the kitchen and
also herbs. Included in this garden were long glass-covered hothouses where grew orange, lemon, fig,
and citron trees whose foreign, exotic . . . — — Map (db m177632) HM
The wash house was the last estate outbuilding
known to survive. It was still standing after the Civil
War, but shortly thereafter either fell in or was
destroyed. Dairy products were stored in its cellar
to keep them cool and unspoiled. — — Map (db m177573) HM
After settling on this island in spring 1798, the
Blennerhassetts had this inlet dug to serve their estate. It
provided safe docking for the boats of visitors to their mansion
and convenient anchorage for those who came to trade at the
general . . . — — Map (db m177350) HM
The Blennerhassett Well, dug in June 1798,
had an ornate covering probably English in style.
It disappeared early in the 19th Century without
its design having been preserved. — — Map (db m177572) HM
1749 — Pierre J. Celoron de Blainville, French explorer
1750 — Christopher Gist, Explorer, soldier
1765 — George Croghan, Indian trader, agent
*1766 — Nemacolin, Delaware Indian Chief
1770 — George Washington, President, United . . . — — Map (db m177634) HM
Not everything in the Blennerhassett estate's “pleasure-garden” was placed there for pleasure or style. Somewhere within its high wall lay a pond of unknown size, dug out, lined with clay, and maintained for the fish it would provide for the . . . — — Map (db m178091) HM
Even though the estate’s pleasure garden was laid out in the fashionable, late 18th-Century back-to-nature style, it exhibited some features that harkened back to the geometric formality that had ruled previous old style gardens. This fact is . . . — — Map (db m177584) HM
One of the garden’s most exotic features was its long, large hothouses, which sheltered orange, lemon, olive and citron trees from the rigors of an American winter. Such foreign plantings lent the island such an air of otherworldliness that one . . . — — Map (db m178089) HM
Perhaps the most startling aspects of the flower garden to modern imaginations was its English-style maze, also called a labyrinth. It consisted of a section of clipped high hedges, possibly boxwood, filled with twisting, interconnecting graveled . . . — — Map (db m178088) HM
Each of the Blennerhassett estate’s gardens was surrounded by a high paling fence. Made of a durable wood, such as locust (a favorite frontier Ohio Valley fence wood), the fences stood some 10-12 feet tall and were used to keep out predators such as . . . — — Map (db m178093) HM
From 1798 to 1806, the Blennerhassetts created two different
gardens on their island estate: a one-acre kitchen garden that
lay southwest of the mansion growing fruits and vegetables
and. to the northwest, a 2⅓ acre pleasure garden . . . — — Map (db m177575) HM
Covering approximately ten acres and in operation from 1886 to 1912, the first Blennerhassett Island Park was one of the most popular outdoor amusement spots in the Ohio Valley boasting a dance pavilion, a shooting gallery, a bowling alley, and . . . — — Map (db m178094) HM
One of the farmhouses stood on this site (torn
down in 1979). Around the 1880s it was used as a
broom factory. The broomcorn straw, which went
into the making of these brooms, was grown on the
island. — — Map (db m177633) HM
Not everything in the Blennerhassett estate’s “pleasure-garden” was placed there for pleasure or style. Somewhere within its high wall lay a pond of unknown size, dug out, lined with clay, and maintained for the fish it would provide for the . . . — — Map (db m178090) HM
