West Virginia Independence Hall in Wheeling is known as the birthplace of West Virginia. Originally built before the Civil War as a U.S. government custom house, it became the location for key meetings where leaders decided to split from Virginia and form a new state loyal to the Union.

Inside this building, the Second Wheeling Convention met and created a loyal "Reorganized Government of Virginia." It also was the site of West Virginia's first constitutional convention and the capital of loyal Virginia, both 1861 to 1863.

Today, it's a museum that explains how West Virginia became a state.