Welcome to Pocahontas County...

Pocahontas County was created by an act of the Virginia General Assembly on December 21, 1821 from parts of Bath, Pendleton and Randolph counties. It was named in honor of Pocahontas (1595-1617), the Indian princess who was the daughter of Chief Powhatan, the King of the Confederated tribes of Atlantic Virginia.

The original courthouse was built at Huntersville, the first county seat. In 1891, with great plans for the coming of the railroad and a new town at Marlinton, the citizens of Pocahontas voted to move the county seat six miles west to Marlinton. Thus, construction was begun in 1893 on the present courthouse, on property which occupies a full city block on Tenth Avenue in Marlinton. The name Marlinton was changed from Marlin’s Bottom only seven years before. At that time there were only five families there. The settlement and establishment of Marlinton is closely related to the development of the railroad and timber industry in the region. And the courthouse itself was the focus for this rapid expansion of the county and the town. The courthouse is a two story, brick, Victorian Romanesque structure. It has irregular massing with a central block that has a steep hip roof. On the front elevation, there are two dissimilar towers, one at each corner. The east and west side have projecting gabled pavilions, as well as gabled dormers in the roof on each of these elevations in the Southern portion. Inside, a major feature is the vertical board hardwood wainscoting in all the rooms. Doors are original hardwood, as well as the stairs and balustrade with handcarved newel posts of the main staircase.

A two story brick jail in simple Romanesque style is located back of the courthouse. While M.F. Giesey of Wheeling, West Virginia was the major architect, he teamed with Joseph Warren Yost, a prominent Columbus architect of courthouse structures in Ohio. At completion in 1895, cost of the courthouse was about $28,000.