Printer-friendly chapter links to our book-length history are posted at the bottom of this page. First, here’s a quick version of Sandscrest’s fascinating past:

For millennia, indigenous Americans enjoyed what is now Sandscrest and its surrounds as hunting grounds and, possibly, as a place of worship. Table Rock, a nearby geological feature, is marked with petroglyphs of celestial symbols that may have been used to observe time or make predictions.

The McColloch family – contemporaries of the Zanes, who founded Wheeling – arrived on the Ohio Valley scene in 1770. Around 1800, the McCollochs cleared untouched forest to begin farming what is now Sandscrest. The oldest surviving building on site – our barn – goes back to this era. Architectural remnants suggest the McCollochs may have built the core of the 1847 main house around their original log cabin.

McColloch descendants sold this nearly 300-acre parcel – originally named Fair View Farm – to Harry and Helen Sands in 1920. Harry Sands – a Cornell University-educated electrical engineer — greatly expanded the main house, built the guest house and launched Sandscrest Farm. The latter was known for using the highest technology of the day for dairy, egg and crop production.

After both Sands died within a few months in 1952, their generous bequests allowed the property to transfer to Sandscrest Foundation, Inc. By the late 1950s, Sandscrest became a retreat ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of West Virginia.

A more in-depth history of the property can by found by clicking on the printer-friendly links below.

Here’s a quick peek at the fun level of detail included in the chapters: A young Kurt Russell once spent an entire afternoon shooting skeet at Sandscrest during the filming of Fool’s Parade in nearby Moundsville. Jimmy Stewart, star of the film, wanted to join Russell and Earl Haddad, son of then Sandscrest Director Nan Haddad, but wasn’t free that day.

• Chapter 1 Early Days, Mysterious Ways 17,000 BC to AD 1770
• Chapter 2: The Frontier Era AD 1600-1800
• Chapter 3: The McColloch/Fair View Farm Era AD 1770-1920
• Chapter 4: The Harry Sands/Sandscrest Farm Era AD 1920-1962
• Chapter 5: First-Person Accounts of the Sandscrest Farm Era AD 1920-1962
• Chapter 6: Sandscrest Conference & Retreat Center AD 1952-present

143 Sandscrest Drive
Wheeling, West Virginia 26003
304-277-3022
sandscrest.director@wvdiocese.org

Sandscrest is a ministry operated by Sandscrest Foundation, Inc. and the Episcopal Diocese of West Virginia.