Lowell is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

Summers County Summers County is a county located in the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 11,959. Its county seat is Hinton. The county was created by an act of the West Virginia Legislature on February 27, 1871, from pa ...

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

, United States. Lowell is located on the

Greenbrier River The Greenbrier River is a tributary of the New River, long,McNeel, William P. "Greenbrier River." ''The West Virginia Encyclopedia''. Ken Sullivan, editor. Charleston, WV: West Virginia Humanities Council. 2006. . in southeastern West Virginia ...

, east of Hinton and southwest of Alderson. The community was first settled in 1770 and is the oldest community in Summers County.

Geography

Lowell is located at . It is situated in the

Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians The Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians, also called the Ridge and Valley Province or the Valley and Ridge Appalachians, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian division and are also a belt within the Appalachian Mountains extending ...

at an elevation of . Lowell is located on the

, which runs north-south through the community; other streams in the area include Kelly Creek and Wind Creek, both tributaries of the Greenbrier. The nearest post office to Lowell is in Talcott, which is west of Lowell and has ZIP code 24981. The nearest incorporated town to Lowell is Alderson, located to the northeast in Greenbrier and Monroe counties. Lowell is west of Hinton, the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

of Summers County.

History

Lowell was first settled in 1770 by Colonel James Graham; it was the first settlement in what is now Summers County. Samuel and James Gwinn, longtime neighbors of Mr. Graham, soon settled in Lowell as well. The Keller family, another prominent family in early Summers County, also settled in Lowell soon after the Grahams and Gwinns. In 1777, Lowell was attacked by Indians, who killed three members of Mr. Graham's household and kidnapped his daughter, whom Graham did not recover for eight years. In 1871 or 1872, the brothers A.C. Lowe and Erastus Preston Lowe settled in Lowell, built a hotel, and entered business in the community. The settlement, which was unnamed prior to then, was ultimately named Lowell after the Lowe family. Lowell was an important point of commerce during this period, as it was the shipping point for the Red Sulphur Springs until 1904. Lowell once had a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

, which had been established by 1908 and is now closed.

Historic sites

Lowell contains two sites listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

, the Col. James Graham House and the Samuel Gwinn Plantation. The Col. James Graham House was built by Graham upon his settlement in Lowell in 1770. It is a

log cabin A log cabin is a small log house, especially a less finished or less architecturally sophisticated structure. Log cabins have an ancient history in Europe, and in America are often associated with first generation home building by settlers. Eur ...

and was considered one of the finest houses in the area upon its construction. The Samuel Gwinn Plantation was established in 1770 as the home of the Gwinn family. It consists of a manor house built in 1868 and eight other buildings, which together encompass .

Transportation

The main roads through Lowell are the

concurrent Concurrent means happening at the same time. Concurrency, concurrent, or concurrence may refer to: Law * Concurrence, in jurisprudence, the need to prove both ''actus reus'' and ''mens rea'' * Concurring opinion (also called a "concurrence"), a ...

West Virginia Route 3 West Virginia Route 3 is a state highway in the U.S. state of West Virginia. It runs from West Virginia Route 10 in West Hamlin in a general easterly direction via Beckley to West Virginia Route 311 at Sweet Springs, most of the way across ...

and

West Virginia Route 12 West Virginia Route 12 (WV 12) is a north–south route located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of West Virginia. The southern terminus of the route is at U.S. Route 219 in Peterstown, Monroe County, less than from the Virginia s ...

on the west side of the Greenbrier River and Summers County Route 15 on the east side. Other county roads in the community include Route 3/42, Route 3/44, Route 3/46, Route 15/1, and Route 15/2. Route 3/42 is a bridge over the Greenbrier River and connects the eastern and western parts of Lowell. The nearest Interstate Highway to Lowell is

Interstate 64 Interstate 64 (I-64) is an east–west Interstate Highway in the Eastern United States. Its western terminus is at I-70, U.S. Route 40 (US 40), and US 61 in Wentzville, Missouri. Its eastern terminus is at an interchange w ...

, which has an exit in

Sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

to the northwest of Lowell. A

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

line runs through Lowell, crossing the Greenbrier River on a bridge in the community. This line also carries

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to: Animals * Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae **''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...

service; its nearest stations to Lowell are in Alderson and Hinton.

References

{{Authority control Unincorporated communities in Summers County, West Virginia Unincorporated communities in West Virginia