Scrabble - Dam #4
Where do I live? Hard Scrabble Town, Hard Scrabble, Clarksville, or Scrabble??
This little hamlet seemingly unable to name itself is home to the first documented mill in West Virginia dating from 1734 when several men received a patent for 634 acres along a stream originally known as Jones Mill Run and later becoming Rockymarsh Run.
The town at one time had homes, stores, a post office, a mill, a blacksmith shop, a church and cemetery, and a school that eventually ceased operations “because of a deficient number of scholars”.
Most prominent in this village are some larger homes as well as Dam #4 constructed in 1910 by the Martinsburg Electric Company to serve as a power generation station for the growing needs of the county. It played a major role in the industrial development of the area.
The power plant is a tall, one-story building sitting on a stone foundation on the banks of the Potomac River. There are two water driven generator wheels. This plant is still operated by Alleghany Power and still uses African sisal rope in the rope drives and South American guaiacum tree wood bearings. This is the last commercially operated rope-driven hydroelectric plant in the United States.