The Shaw House is significant for its association with Harry Shaw

(1872 - 1952) 

a noted Attorney and jurist of the early 20th century in north-central West Virginia. The house,ancillary structures and grounds are equally significant as well-preserved examples of early 20th century suburban architecture and landscape design.

      Harry Shaw studied at DuquesneCollege (University) Pittsburgh, at FairmontNormal School(Fairmont State College), and at West Virginia University, where in 1895 he earned an U.B. He also earned an A.B. from WVU in 1898. The law firm of Shaw and Shaw was established in 1922, with the addition of Victor Shaw who remained in practice with his father for the rest of his life.

     From 1909 to 1928 Harry Shaw was president of the Union Independent School District, Marion County. In 1905, Governor W.M.O. Dawson appointed Shaw a director of the board of the West Virginia Penitentiary. Prior to that service Shaw was clerk of the House of Delegate of West Virginia (1901 - 1907). As a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1912,

Shaw sat on the Credentials Committee which decided the famous contest between Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. On January 30, 1928, Governor Gore appointed Shaw judge of the Circuit Court, a position to which Shaw was thereafter elected, serving until 1936.

      About 1919, Attorney Shaw, successful in his career, commissed the Fairmont architectural firm of Jones and Nuzum, then practicing at 306 Jefferson Street, to design a fine suburban house above Morgantown Avenue in East Fairmont. Will Palmer Nuzum and Red Jones were prominen among north-central West Virginia architects. They were joined in their efforts by Mr. Alex MacElwee, landscape gardener (architect), who prepared a planting plan for the house's grounds. (The architectural plans, specifications, and landscape plans survive in the hands of the owner, Mrs. Victor [Thelma] Shaw, who has resided in the house since 1928.)

     The house designed by Jones and Nuzum was suitable to comforts and ambience expected by a wealthy client who desired a suburban residence away from the bustle and pollution of downtown, but possessing the refinements of an urban town house. Such houses then rising in America were often designed with large garages to accommodate automobiles and were within

short distances of city streets or street car lines that provided easy access to the inner city. Importantly, such houses were designed in traditional, conservative, period revival styles and were set within expansive, landscaped grounds where dependencies or outbuildings might provide complementary touches. The entrance pavilion and well house is examples of this design practice. The Shaw House complex survives as an excellent and well-preserved example of this early 20th century building tradition in north-central West Virginia.

     Shaw House is a significant example of Tudor Revival or "Sto~kbrocker'~architecture, a style embodying steeply pitched roofs, dormers, high chimneys, and combinations of wall materials such as brick, stucco, and false half-timbering.

     An unusually fine Elizabethian-style landing window, incorporating leaded cames and stained glass rondels, dominates the center front elevation bay adjacent to the front door. The interior features a birch paneled living room beneath a Tudor-style ceiling, patterned after the strapwork of the Long Gallery at Haddon Hall in Derbyshire, England. The ceiling is one of the finest of its type known in West Virginia.