The home of Alfred Beckley, the founder of Raleigh County and Beckley, West Virginia, has been restored to its late-19th century appearance and is managed as a city historical museum, through which the life of Beckley and his family is revealed.
Wildwood was first built as a double log cabin in about 1835 on what was then a wilderness trail. A foresighted engineer, Beckley predicted the trail would become an important throughfare through which commerce would pass. The son of American bureaucrat John Beckley, he understood the nuance of governmental affairs that would help him establish a town, a county, and the road system that ensured growth. Beckley was named a brigadeir general in the Confederate army during the Civil War. In 1875, Wildwood was expanded and sheathed in clapboard, the condition to which it was restored in the early 1970s. Beckley died in 1888 and was buried at Wildwood Cemetery, located across present-day Kanawha Street from the residence.
