STORIES & TRAILS
Robert Higgins House Museum
Opening in the fall of 2025!
Higgins House Publications & Reports
Stories from an 18th Century House
Interpretive Master Plan Report
The museum’s primary story is the life of Robert Higgins and how the evolution of our nation is embodied in the life of this man. A quote, attributed to Robert Higgins, asks, “Must a man be KNOWN to be great?” Higgins did not live a life profoundly different from many other men of his time. He moved with his family to western Virginia where his life paralleled both our country’s revolutionary rise to independence and the challenges brought by the indigenous population’s displacement.
Higgins lived through two wars that directly impacted his life. He was a child during the French & Indian War, a farmer, a husband and father, an officer in the American Revolution and a prisoner of war, the builder of a log house, possibly a merchant, and the founder of a town in the Northwest Territory frontier.
The History of Log Cabins exhibit on the 2nd floor explores the log cabin through time and the Higgins House’s place in that history. Architectural and dendroarchaeology reports provided the basic information about the house, and fortunately, despite the years of renovation, the log interior of the House remained basically intact. Built, possibly burned and rebuilt, renovated, subsumed, revealed, and restored, the Higgins House holds clues from all these stages of its existence. Gerald Milnes provided much of the content for this exhibit.
The entirety of the first floor will be accessible; however, the second floor cannot not be made so. In response to this, the 2nd floor interpretive panels and displays are replicated on the first floor in a video. Stationary iPads on both floors will expand upon the information on the interpretive panels, provide links for further research, and allow for new material to be added as we learn of it.
Historically, the decisions made during the revolutionary period impacted the world, our nation, and Robert Higgins life and, without question, they have ramifications still. This little log house and this man’s life give us an opportunity to connect to that history, making it relevant to our community today.
We greatly appreciate the support by the Town of Moorefield, Hardy County Commission, WV Humanities Council, WV State Historic Preservation Office, Appalachian Forest National Heritage Area, and The WV HUB.
