Paint Bank - WV Living Magazine

Paint Bank paints the perfect picture. We just wish it were in West Virginia.

written and photographed by NIKKI BOWMAN MILLS

I HAVE A CONFESSION TO MAKE. I’ve been to Paint Bank, Virginia, only once—but I haven’t stopped thinking about it since. Quite honestly, it surprised me, with its colorful, quaint, and meticulously cared-for buildings, and it felt like it should be in West Virginia. It was like running into a cousin at a family reunion you didn’t know you had.

Hidden away in the folds of the Allegheny Mountains, right on the Virginia/West Virginia border where the state line feels more like a suggestion than a boundary, Paint Bank is the kind of place that you can’t just drive through. You have to pull over and walk around. Potts Creek rambles through town. You can straddle it with one foot in West Virginia and another in Virginia. There’s no interstate, no fast food signs cluttering the treeline, and the population hovers around 40 people.

The story of Paint Bank begins with the land itself. The Cherokee gathered the rich red ochre clay from the banks of Potts Creek, using it for pottery, for ceremonies, and for war paint, and in doing so, they gave this place its name. By the early 1800s, that same red clay was being pressed into bricks and commercial paint. A grist mill rose on Potts Creek, and a stagecoach stop brought travelers through on the Sweet Springs Turnpike. Iron ore and manganese were mined from the hillsides. A railroad arrived in 1909, and for a brief, glorious moment, Paint Bank boomed.

And then—as it has happened in so many of our own beloved Appalachian communities— the railroad left and the mines went quiet. The timber thinned. And Paint Bank nearly disappeared altogether. Until 1986, when a Wall Street financier named John Mulheren and his wife, Nancy—both Roanoke College graduates—stumbled upon the little enchanting town and fell in love with it.

The Mulherens began quietly purchasing properties—the old train depot, the general store, parcels of mountain farmland stretching from Paint Bank all the way across the state line into West Virginia. John Mulheren envisioned a working buffalo farm, a restaurant with an indoor creek, a community that could sustain itself and welcome the world at the same time. He was, by all accounts, a man of big dreams and an enormous heart.

Tragically, he died in 2003 at just 54 years old. Incidentally, Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi both spoke at his funeral, and he once helped get Freehold, New Jersey, to donate a fire truck to Paint Bank simply because the little town needed one. He was a man who used his good fortune to lift others up. And when he was gone, Nancy Mulheren rolled up her sleeves and kept building.

Today, the Mulheren family’s fingerprints are on nearly everything beautiful in Paint Bank. There is Hollow Hill Farm—one of the largest buffalo farms east of the Mississippi—where more than 400 bison roam the Potts Creek Valley. There is the Paint Bank General Store, where you’ll find everything under the sun—like glass jars of old-fashioned penny candy, jams, jellies, and homemade baked goods, as well as a year-round Christmas shop. Inside is the Swinging Bridge Restaurant, a one-of-a-kind dining experience complete with an indoor stream, a rope bridge, and taxidermied animals posed along a hand-carved wooden staircase. Meander over to Tingler’s Mill, a Civil War– era grist mill that’s been lovingly restored. There is the Depot Lodge, the elegantly restored 1909 railroad depot–turned–bed and breakfast. There’s even a caboose you can spend the night in.

Interested in glamping? Paint Bank will ruin you forever. There are several luxurious options that include king-size beds and lavish tents, and each morning, a picnic basket arrives at your door filled with muffins, cookies, and treats. There’s outdoor recreation like fly fishing, hunting, and hiking—West Virginia’s Hanging Rock Raptor Observatory is nearby—or take a break and just enjoy some good ol’ fashioned creekside sitting.

The grand dame of Paint Bank—you’ll see her before you even slow the car—is the cheerful Lemon Hotel, a boutique inn that practically glows in broad daylight. The property has lived many lives—hotel, halfway house, private residence, hospital—before Nancy Mulheren spent several years restoring it to its original splendor, reopening it in July 2021. Every room is named after a fruit, and no detail is overlooked. The elegant dining room is set for the morning’s complimentary gourmet breakfast. But don’t rush it. The evenings are just downright magical. Adirondack chairs sit beside Potts Creek as the fire pit glows.

And if that wasn’t enough, just next door is a charming cottage aptly named the Lemon Slice, a private retreat with its own kitchen and soaking tub.

Now, I want to be clear, Virginia has done right by Paint Bank, and we wish them no ill will. But gosh darn it, can’t we claim it, too? The revival of Paint Bank is an illustration of what belief in a forgotten place can do. It teaches us that beauty sometimes just has to be lovingly tended. So, Paint Bank—consider this an open invitation. The border between us has always been a little blurry. The mountains don’t know the difference, and the creek doesn’t care.

Paint Bank, Virginia, is located in Craig County, just off State Route 311 near the West Virginia border. Visit paintbankgeneralstore.com or depotlodge.com to plan your stay.