BRANDONVILLE — Evelyn Belangia is always amazed that people don’t recognize the little Preston County town of Brandonville for the gem it is.
Brandonville, population 105, according to the U.S. Census’s 2018 estimates, is the most northern of Preston County’s 10 municipalities. She and her husband came to the area from Norfolk, Virginia, after he got a job in Morgantown.
“We said we wanted to buy a house where you could throw a rock and not hit another house,” Belangia recalled. They found their dream property, an unfinished house with 26 acres, in the area. And Belangia found the old building along W.Va. 26 in Brandonville.
The structure was built in 1939 by James Galloway. When Belangia started renovations, they found old newspapers of the era under all the narrow plank hardwood floors.
The building was built by Ellen Galloway’s father-in-law. It housed a grocery that sold a few other odds and ends, like tools. “And this was an oiled floor then,” she recalled. “I’m surprised it cleaned up so well.”
And that spot in the front room where the floor has been repaired? “We had a coal furnace. We used to stand over [the register] to get warm,” Galloway said.
Brandonville had its own post office from 1822 until 1989, when it was consolidated with the Bruceton Mills post office. From 1970 until 1989, Galloway was the postmaster.
“We probably had about 40 families, something like that,” Galloway recalled of the post office. It was a small, closet like room in the old building. Patrons went to a window to do business.
The Galloways lived in the adjacent house. Now all are connected to make one structure.
After its time as a grocery store and post office, the building was used as a furniture store, then a bakery. Belangia and her daughter converted it to the Guardian Angel Childcare Center.
But after 16 years, increasingly cumbersome state regulations led them to close the center, and Belangia turned her background in design to renovating the building for sale.
Now completely renovated, it is on the market with Howard Hanna Real Estate for $449,000. The 4,800 square foot structure includes two kitchens, four full baths, two half-baths and five bedrooms with roomy closets.
With room for a two-car garage, completely enclosed sun porch, outdoor covered pavilion and fenced back yard with a fire pit, it could be a single-family home, a home with an apartment, or used as an entertainment venue.
Belangia maintained the nine and 10-foot ceilings throughout, the original hardwood floor and as much of the original woodwork as possible, while adding modern conveniences.
Framed artwork from the daycare and framed newspapers found under the floor are another nod to the building’s past.
“Everything is just unique about this place,” said Billie Stemple, who came with Galloway for a tour.
Belangia just hopes someone buys it who loves the area and the property as much as she does.
