Special
Features / May 2007
Mountain Time Travel
 Chelley Depp
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By Pat Lawrence
Many women find a niche in the workplace but Chelley Depp has carved her niche on the face of a mountain. The Executive Director of Rich Mountain Battlefield Foundation and Historic Beverly Preservation turned her interest into an adventure, transformed a look at the past into a vision for the future.
Though she couldn’t have known what the future held, Chelley made near-perfect choices to support her present responsibilities. A graduate of Pennsylvania’s Puxhatawny High, Chelley majored in history, with a double minor of sociology and anthropology. She says, “Friends and family teased me by asking ‘Where are you going to teach and what are you going to coach?’ “because history majors always teach and history teachers always coach.”
She had no interest in coaching. “I really enjoyed history classes. The teachers were interesting and eccentric, but I wanted to work in a museum!” Instead, she got a mountain–and a town.
When she graduated from St. Vincent’s College, museum work regarding history and interpretation was just coming into play. “In my senior year, the college started offering courses in museum studies, with classes on curating and presenting artifacts and developing catalogs. Around the same time, WVU was picking up cultural resources management programs involving parks with history or art museums, though it wasn’t a major in the 90’s. Still, the field was very limited when I graduated, mostly focused on big museums.” So, she went to work for a newspaper and then into social work. Fortunately, her husband had attended WVU. “We went to the same high school but didn’t start dating until after graduation. When he was offered a position in West Virginia with a private forestry management firm, he jumped on it!”
Chelley started as office manager and visitor center employee for Rich Mountain Battlefield. Efforts by Beverly Historic Preservation were growing alongside interest in Rich Mountain. The two organizations had complementary interests so a partnership evolved. Soon both had outgrown their volunteer boards and were looking for professional help. By fall of 2005, Chelley had a full time mission in two part time positions and a variety of roles-executive director and construction manager, greeter to grant writer, historian and promoter.
The two organizations own four adjoining buildings in Beverly that are being combined to create the Beverly Heritage Center, a museum complex to showcase the city of Beverly, the events and impact of the Civil War, and the role of the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike in the regional history and development. “The Heritage Village will tie it all together,” Chelley says.
Construction on the massive rehabilitation project began in Fall of 2006. The original 1808 Randolph County Courthouse is the core of the center, adjoined by the 1854 Bushrod Crawford building, General McClellan’s headquarters and present Rich Mountain Visitor Center. Chelley works with the architect and oversees the project construction. “It’s been a BIG challenge and I’ve learned a lot about construction. The National Park Services and Federal and State Historic Preservation grants have very specific requirements and provisions. We have to meet fire codes, so we had to add a sprinkler system. But, I love seeing these old buildings come to life! A lot of the artisans and tradespeople all across West Virginia will be represented here,” she says.
Civil War interest has influenced the growth of the project, but numerous organizations and area residents have committed hundreds of hours and dollars to support the effort. According to Chelley, “Nine years ago, we had a tabletop exhibit and maybe 100-200 visitors a year. Now we see 2000 visitors a year and we’re planning a huge grand opening of the Heritage Village for next year”.
According to Chelley, Beverly was one of the earliest settlements in the Alleghenies, county seat of newly formed Randolph County, Virginia in 1790. It was a key crossroads on the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike that provided transportation route across the Alleghenies, and access to the B&O Railroad across Northwestern Virginia. “The city of Beverly fought to get the turnpike into their area. It was a crucial prize in the Civil War.”
When she’s not managing construction, Chelley coordinates ongoing events and fundraisers, goes after grant money, handles the visitor’s center and spends time with her two children. Not surprisingly, her home is in a National Historic District, and she and her husband are active in local preservation activities. On her own time, she says, “I try not to read just history, but, I do tend that way.” An ardent camper who loves to fish, the Puxhatawny transplant tells visitors to “Get out and explore! See for yourself all the reasons people came here!”
For more information, call (304) 637-7424 or email beverly@richmountain.org.
Copyright © 2007 A Woman's View. All rights reserved.
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