MT. HOPE, WV (WOAY) – After decades of wear and tear, the City of Mount Hope suspects that the storm from over the weekend was the final straw to knock over a 100-foot area of the giant walls surrounding the Mt. Hope Municipal Stadium.
An insurance claim has been filed and now the city is in talks with Thrasher Engineering to have it repaired.
The sense of urgency comes from not only its local history but as Mt. Hope’s PAWV AmeriCorps Member Carrie Kidd says, it was a Depression-era public works project, so it is also a piece of American history.
“It was part of the New Deal,” Kidd said. “It was one of the projects that helped build America, and that is one of the big things that gives it such a feature is that it is just iconic. It has this iconic structure. The castle towers are unique, the engineering and everything that went into it is reminiscent of a time that’s long past.”
For Patty Logan, a Mt. Hope graduate from the class of 1972, it is more than just a stadium. Her dad helped build it, her brother played football there, and she worked the concession stands for over 15 years.
When she found out about the damage, she felt heartbroken.
“I know anything can be repaired, but when they closed our school, it didn’t stop us from caring about our heritage and our football field and our Mustang traditions, and that’s what it means to us is our Mustang traditions,” Logan said.
The stadium is used now for little league sports and city events and Mt. Hope plans to have it back to its original form soon. And the people of Mt. Hope hope to get to a point where they can all gather again in their nostalgic stadium.
“Everybody knows it because it has been here since 1938, and a lot of people have played on this field, and it doesn’t matter if you’re from Mt. Hope or Wyoming or from wherever in Southern West Virginia, you know this field,” Kidd said.
