Hey fellas,

The missus and I are heavily considering putting our current house on the market here in MD.
My folks have had a 257 acre piece of land south of harrisville that we visit several times a year for the past 15 years running to unplug and get some r&r.
Having said that, the area has grown on us quite a bit.. so much so, we are looking to pretty much start over.

Any of you fellas have any input on the following areas?
Grantsville
Glenville
Smithville
Camden
Weston

Input such as work opportunity, crime info, school info, internet/cell service info, general do/do not go to info would also be appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Go here..

https://www.city-data.com

Thanks!

Some useful info there.

Also interested in any opinions from anyone that has spent some time working in, passing through, or living in any of those areas.

@lcoates33

Don't know if you're still interested, but Weston, Grantsville and Glenville I'm familiar with and any of them have a nice small-town vibe.

Glenville and Grantsville have no four-lane access, but Glenville is about 15 minutes from I-79. Grantsville is probably a half-hour or more.

Glenville is a college town with the attendant college atmosphere. You WILL encounter drunks on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights.

I went to school there myself, and my son graduated from there in 2020. It is primarily a commuter colllege, but even the residential students live close by and go home on weekends, so they get their partying done Thursday night.

I-79 runs just outside of Weston. The area has a Walmart, Tractor Supply, several grocery stores and restaurants, a small but interesting military museum, the old Asylum, etc. And it's 15 minutes from Buckhannon which has some nice WV based restaurants (C.J. Maggies, Mama Roma's, etc). Easy access to the eastern part of the state via Route 48, lots of outdoor opportunities just a couple hours away.  I live about 1/2 hour away from there.

I'm not familiar with Smithville or Camden. Of the choices you posted, I'd go with Weston, especially if you can afford to get outside of town a bit in the Stonecoal Lake area...that's some fine property.



Let me know if you need any more help or have any more towns in the central WV area that you want to know about.

Thank you very much for the input.

I was out there two weekends ago scouting properties.
Spent some time in Grantsville, Glenville, Camden, and Weston.
I'm definitely leaning more towards having a bit of property on the outskirts if possible. The in-town life in the above places (Camden being the exception) is very similar to where i'm at now.
Which isn't a huge deal breaker, but i kinda want to be able to go out in the yard and not have a neighbors house 100 feet away.
Being able to shoot on my own land would be a huge bonus as well.

Found a pretty nice place in Glenville actually. Property wise anyway. The house has too much damage to consider however.
Same with the one i looked at in Camden.

The search continues!

Stay out of Gilmer and Calhoun Counties.  Not much of anything there.  Look at Braxton County (Flatwoods/Sutton/Gassaway) and North on the I-79 corridor.  Braxton is the literal geographic Center.   You are an hour to Clarksburg or Charleston, 90ish minutes to Morgantown or Huntington.  

I have been partial to the Taylor county area around Rt. 50 Just outside Bridgeport.  Low taxes and home costs overall plus close to Clarksburg and Morgantown in either direction.

Anywhere along that corridor from Flatwoods up or even slightly east on 33 from Weston to Buckhannon/Elkins would be fine overall.

Appreciate the insight!

I'll second Taylor County on Rt 50.
Beautiful country out there, big land & gorgeous farms between Bridgeport & Grafton.

OP...plenty of places in Preston County to get off the grid.