Charleston, West Virginia

Where Charleston is

Charleston is the seat of Kanawha County, at 38.35°N, 81.63°W, where the Elk River flows into the Kanawha in the hills of southwestern West Virginia. The Kanawha continues northwest about 60 miles to the Ohio River at Point Pleasant. The valley floor is about 600 ft above sea level, and the surrounding Allegheny Plateau is steep and dissected, so the city stretches along the rivers rather than spreading out. Interstates 64, 77 and 79 meet in the city. Charleston is on Eastern Time. It should not be confused with Charleston, South Carolina.

How it became the capital

West Virginia broke away from Virginia during the Civil War and was admitted on June 20, 1863, with its capital at Wheeling in the northern panhandle. The legislature moved to Charleston in 1870, back to Wheeling in 1875 after the Charleston capitol proved inadequate, and finally, after a statewide vote in 1877 in which Charleston beat Clarksburg and Martinsburg, returned to Charleston in 1885. The city had grown around the salt works and coal fields of the Kanawha Valley.

Population

Charleston had 48,864 residents in 2020, the largest city in West Virginia; Huntington, 50 miles west on the Ohio, had 46,842. They are the only cities in the state above 30,000. The Charleston metropolitan area, covering Kanawha, Boone, Clay and Lincoln counties, has about 255,000 people out of the state's 1,793,716, and both the city and the state have been losing population for decades.

The capitol

After the 1885 capitol burned in 1921, the state hired Cass Gilbert, who had already designed the Minnesota and Arkansas capitols. The West Virginia State Capitol was built in stages and completed in 1932, on the north bank of the Kanawha east of downtown. It is Indiana limestone with a dome 292 ft high, covered in gold leaf and about five feet taller than the dome of the US Capitol. The chandelier in the rotunda weighs two tons and is made of Czech crystal.

Distances to other cities

Lexington, Kentucky, is about 185 miles west on Interstate 64.

Related maps

• West Virginia map — the whole state with borders, cities and counties.
• West Virginia county map · blank West Virginia map · printable West Virginia map.
• All 50 state capitals on one map, and the state capitals quiz.
• South region · South Atlantic division · Eastern Time Zone.