New historical markers to be installed in Nitro

A historical marker stands outside Nitro City Hall. The city's Historical Commission plans to install 10 additional plaques around Nitro.Photo byClio

NITRO, W.Va. — There's a lot of hidden history in a historic town like Nitro.

Now, thanks to an effort by the Nitro Historical Commission, some of that history will no longer be hidden.

"There's all kinds of historic areas around town that even the people who live here really don't know about," Rich Hively, Nitro's City Recorder and member of the Nitro Historical Commission, said in a recent "This Week In Nitro" video.

To remedy this, the commission set out to develop a series of roadside markers to memorialize significant locations in the city.

Ten, to be exact.

As of August 2023, nearly 1,000 roadside markers have been installed throughout the state of West Virginia, according to the West Virginia Encyclopedia. Only one has been installed in Nitro.

"There's only one in Nitro at the moment, and it's in front of City Hall on 20th Street," Hively said.

That marker gives an overview of the history of the city's 1917 founding.

"We would like to put 10 additional markers around town," Hively said.

The project, which has been in work for some time -- "we've been working on for several years actually," Hively notes in the video -- is both an educational endeavor and tourism effort. Plaques will highlight everything from a notable local boat lock to a historic lumber company, to the city's former hospital.

Did you know that Nitro once had a hospital?

"We actually had a 400-bed hospital," Hively said.

Yeah, your humble reporter didn't know that, either. And that's kind of the point.

"We want to establish [these] additional historic markers around town for people to know these things," Hively said.

The Nitro Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) is on board with the effort, too.

Joe Stevens, Nitro CVB Executive Director, said his department will "be doing a brochure that people can pick up at the various restaurants and places of business throughout town."

Hively said the brochures can be used by visitors as part of a self-guided tour around the community.

"It's going to be a driving tour, basically," Hively said. "You'll have the brochure in your hand and it will take you around town to different places and explain to you what you're seeing."

Neither Hively nor Stevens announced an exact date of completion in the video shared on social media, only indicating the installations would come "soon" in an accompanying post.

But Stevens was clear on one thing.

"It's going to be an exciting time," the CVB director said.