ELKINS, W.Va. (WBOY) — Officials at the Kump Education Center are preparing for their special summertime open house weekend on June 25 and 26. The two-day event’s theme is “Something Old, Something New” and features vintage family wedding gowns and memorabilia.
This is the first time Edna Scott Kump’s and Peggy Kump Roberts’s 1936 wedding gowns have been on formal display, in addition to the other 1900s wedding items. The displays focus not only on family weddings but also on the historical significance of the site and the legacy of Gov. Herman G. Kump.
“I’m really looking forward to it because I’ve seen these dressed through all the years now that we’ve been looking through them and working on the project, but it is my grandmother’s dress, and we found it in the trunk soon after our aunt died and several cousins were there, and we had a lot of fun going through, we also found a snake skin and a revolver in the same trunk,” said Kump Education Center Director Heather Biola.
The open house will run from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the afternoon at the Kump Education Center in Elkins. Admission to the event is free, but donations are encouraged. Limited parking will be available behind the Kump House on Randolph Avenue, and in the Kroger parking lot across the street.
The displays and event are partially funded by a West Virginia Humanities Council mini-grant. The WV Humanities Council is the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities and serves West Virginia through grants and direct programs in the humanities.
