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Downtown Morgantown from the hills.
Walnut PRT Station and part of downtown
For other places with the same name, see Morgantown (disambiguation).

Morgantown[1] is in Monongalia County, West Virginia and is the county seat. It is home to the West Virginia University Mountaineers. It has been described as the #1 small city in America.

Downtown Morgantown is considered to be the happenin' place. Downtown hosts a lot of events during the year and has many places to dine and shop. [2]


Get in

By plane

  • Pittsburgh International Airport, [3]. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is located 75 miles north of Morgantown.

By car

Major routes in and out of Morgantown include:

  • I-79, which runs in a north-south fashion through the eastern side of Morgantown
  • I-68, which runs in an east-west fashion through the southern side of Morgantown
  • WV 43, a newly-completed section of the Mon-Fayette Expressway connecting the Morgantown area to Fayette County, Pennsylvania
  • US 119, which runs in a north-south fashion through downtown
  • US 19, which runs through downtown
  • WV 7
  • WV 705

Morgantown is:

  • 77 miles South of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania;
  • 208 miles South of Cleveland, Ohio;
  • 385 miles North of Charlotte, North Carolina;
  • 528 miles East of Chicago, Illinois;
  • 225 miles West of Baltimore, Maryland;
  • 327 miles West of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania;
  • 218 miles West of Washington, D.C.

By bus

  • Megabus, [4]. Service from Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C. Buses stop at Mountaineer Station, 1112 Van Voorhis Road.

West Virginia University

West Virginia University [5] is home to more than 30,000 students. The annual tuition for residential students is about $5,500 versus an out of state student whose tuition is approximately $17,000. WVU has 13 colleges and schools offering over 190 degrees. There are three campuses within WVU: Downtown, Evansdale, and The Health Sciences. They also offer a study abroad program for students who are interested. The football and basketball teams promote a lot of school spirit to their fellow "mountaineers" when they are playing.

  • Mountainlair Student Union, 1550 University Avenue. Monday-Thursday 7am-12am, Friday 7am-2am, Saturday 9am-2am, Sunday 2pm-12am. +1 304-293-2702. The Mountainlair, or "Lair" as students like to call it, gives students the opportunity to gather in a controlled environment in order to study, chat, or have a bite to eat. The Mountainlair houses a convenient store and more than 10 different eateries, some of which include: Burger King, Freshens, Quizno's, Hatfields, and Sbarro. The Mountainlair also has a bowling alley and billiard tables on the ground floor.
  • Student Recreation Center is a gym-like facility for students to use at their own leisure. The center includes a swimming pool, gym equipment, running track, basketball and volleyball courts, climbing wall, and provides other fitness services and classes.
  • West Virginia University's Creative Arts Center. Is home to the College of Creative Arts. Our College is comprised of the Divisions of Art, Music, and Theatre and Dance, three professionally accredited and nationally recognized programs in the Arts. There are also 4 theatres and 1 performance hall. An exhibition by current graduate students in the WVU Division of Art's Bachelor of Fine Arts program will be available June 2nd and 3rd. Gallery hours are Friday, 12 Noon to 9 p.m.; Saturday, 1pm to 9pm All exhibitions, lectures, and receptions are free and open to the public. +1 304-293-4841.

Get around

The Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) provides the primary mode of transportation for students, faculty, and staff of the University and residents of the Morgantown area. There are five station stops; Beechurst, Walnut, Engineering, Towers, and Medical. The PRT's transport between Downtown Morgantown, the WVU Downtown Campus, the Evansdale Campus and the Medical Center Complex. Nominal cost to ride across campus (50 cents per ride).
  • Regular hours (during school year): Monday through Friday, 6:30 am to 10:15 pm; Saturdays, 9:30 am to 5 pm. No Sunday service, unless the day before classes begin is a Sunday, in which case PRT runs on Saturday hours. No service on days when class is not in session. Extended hours for special events, most notably football and basketball games.
  • Summer hours: Monday through Friday, 6:30 am to 6:15 pm; Saturdays 9:30 am to 5 pm.
The Mountain Line is a public transit bus system providing service in and around the city of Morgantown. The service is free to students, with nominal fares for the public. The city of Morgantown subsidizes the bus system, making the fares very affordable.
  • Car & Foot
If you do not like to travel by public transportation then driving or walking is another option. Since a lot of recreational activities are in close proximity to one another they are easily accessible by car and foot. There is no need to worry about parking. There are four parking garages with a total of 1,600 parking spots in Morgantown. They are located at University Ave and Chestnut Street, Pleasant Street, Spruce Street, and Wharf Street.

See

  • Core Arboretum, ☏ +1 304 293-5201. Monongahela Boulevard. Daily, dawn to dusk. 91 acres of forest with 3.5 miles of trails and 3 acres of lawns planted with specimen trees. 
  • Dorsey's Knob. An excellent view of the Rolling Hills of West Virginia at no cost. 

Museums

  • The Royce J. and Caroline B. Watts Museum, 401 Evansdale Drive, ☏ +1 304-293-4609. Mineral Resources Building Room 125. Open by appointment. Admission is free. Dedicated to preserving the social, cultural, and technological history of the coal, oil and natural gas industries of the state of West Virginia. 
  • Cook-Hayman Pharmacy Museum, 1132 Health Sciences North, ☏ +1 304 293-5101. Built to resemble a 19th-century drugstore, the museum includes texts, medicines, furnishings, apothecary jars, mills, bottles, scales and other devices used by pharmacists over the past 100 years. Free. 
  • Morgantown Glass Museum, 1628 Mileground Road, ☏ +1 304-291-2957. 2PM-5PM W-F, 12PM-5PM Sa. Displays thousands of glass pieces from the late 19th century to around 1980, made in factories that once existed around Morgantown. Free. NOTE: As of 12/15/2007, this phone number has been disconnected. The alternate phone number given on the museum's Web site goes to a private individual's cell phone who is not affiliated with the museum. 
  • Riverfront Museums, Inc., 709 Beechurst Avenue, +1 304-296-3933, [6]. Established as a way to preserve the history of Monongalia County, the Riverfront Museums currently have one display room devoted to the glass and crystal heritage of the area; more galleries are planned as resources permit. A glassworking studio is under construction. The RMI museum in Seneca Center opened in 2000 and closed in January 2005.[7] NOTE: As of 12/15/2007, this phone number does not appear to be functional.
  • Scott's Run Museum, exit 155 from I-79, Osage, +1 304-599-1931. 1PM-4PM Sa, 1PM-5PM Su. Celebrating and preserving the history of coal and the coal boom area in Morgantown. Free. NOTE: As of 12/15/2007, this phone number has been disconnected.

Do

Shopping

  • Adventures Edge, 131 Pleasant Street; Monday-Friday 11am-7pm, Saturday 10am-5pm. +1 304-296-9007. Clothing and apparel for any outdoor adventure. [8]
  • Fig Leaf, 491 High Street; Monday-Wednesday 11am-5pm, Thursday-Saturday 11am-6pm. +! 304-292-1114. Small boutique for women's clothing. [9]
  • The Book Exchange, 152 Willey Street; Monday-Friday 9am-5pm, Saturday 10am-4pm, Sunday 10am-2pm. +1 304-292-7354. Campus store supplying textbooks,clothing,school merchandise and memorabilia. [10]
  • Old Stone House Gift Shop, 313 Chestnut Street; Monday-Saturday 10am-2pm. Closed Sundays. +1 304-296-7825. Historic building turned shop selling handcrafted goods and crafts. [11]

Spectator sports

  • West Virginia Mountaineers, WVU Coliseum, 3450 Jerry West Blvd. (between Blue and Gold Gate entrances), toll-free: +1 800 WVU-GAME (988-4263). M-F, 9–5. WVU sports teams are undoubtedly Morgantown's highest-profile attraction. The Mountaineers field teams in seven men's sports, 10 women's sports, and one coeducational sport (rifle shooting), mostly as members of the Big 12 Conference. As at most other big schools, the football and men's basketball teams are the biggest draws. Notably, when WVU fills Milan Puskar Stadium for football games, the stadium becomes the largest "city" in the state by a healthy margin. While some WVU fans aren't exactly friendly to opposing fans, serious violence is largely nonexistent, and neutral visitors should have no trouble. Like the WVU campus, the school's main athletic venues are disjointed—the football stadium is at the Health Sciences campus; the WVU Coliseum (several indoor sports, most notably basketball) and some other venues are at the Evansdale campus; and the baseball stadium is at University Town Centre in Granville. 
  • West Virginia Black Bears, Monongalia County Ballpark (University Town Centre, Granville), ☏ +1 304 293-7910, . The Black Bears, which moved from Jamestown, New York after the 2014 season, play in the New York–Penn League, a short-season Class A league, and share WVU's new baseball park. The season runs from mid-June to early September. 

Movie Theaters


Arts & Entertainment

Outdoors

  • Boparc. Recreational activities. Includes parks, swimming, summer camps, trips, and other special events. 
  • Cooper's Rock State Forest. A West Virginia State Forest Managed cooperatively by WV State Parks and the WV Division of Forestry. Just outside Morgantown on the border of Monongalia and Preston counties. 
  • Dorsey's Knob. An excellent view of the Rolling Hills of West Virginia at no cost. 
  • Mon River/Decker's Creek/Caperton Trail, 48 miles of trail for biking, walking, jogging, etc. Converted from the former B&O Railroad. [12]

Night Life

  • Karma Nightclub, 335 High Street; Tuesday and Thursday-Saturday 9pm-3am. +1 304-292-9593. Dance club with bar; must be 18 to enter, 21 to drink.
  • Lola's Cocktail Lounge, 491 High Street; Tuesday-Saturday 8pm-3am. +1 304-225-LOLA. Upscale cocktail lounge
  • Bent Willey's, 471 Chestnut Street; Tuesday-Saturday 8pm-3am. +1 304-292-9590. Two level night club with food, drinks, DJ, and deck. Nightly drink specials. Must be 21 years to enter. [13]
  • de Lazy Lizard, 345 High Street; Wednesday-Saturday 9pm-3am. +1 304-296-0004. Two level night club including eight bars, DJ, and dance floor. Weekly specials. Must be 21 years to enter.
  • The Cellar, 376 High Street; Wednesday-Saturday 9pm-3am. +1 304-284-9969. Drink specials until midnight. Dance floor and DJ. 18 to enter, 21 to drink.
  • Ky's Lounge, 491 High Street; Thursday and Friday 9pm-3am, Saturday 9pm-2:30am, Sunday 10pm-2:30am. +1 304-413-0214. No cover charge.
  • Vice Versa, 335 High Street; Thursday-Sunday 8pm-3am. +1 304-292-2010. Local LGBTA club. [14]
  • X-Hale Hookah Lounge, 218 Walnut Street, ☏ +1 304-241-1537. Open seven days a week starting at 9pm. Relaxing hookah lounge with more than 70 different flavors of shisha tobacco. Private parties available. 

Buy

  • Appalachian Gallery, 44 High Street, ☏ +1 304 296-0163. Handcrafted works by artists and artisans in West Virginia and neighboring regions, including baskets, books, fabric art, folk toys, framed art, glass, jewellery, metal works, mosaics, music, pottery, thumb pianos, wildlife portraits and wooden items. 

Glass

The Morgantown area has been home to over 30 glass factories over the past 100 years, including Seneca Glass, Monongahela Valley Cut Glass, Mississippi Glass, Pressed Prism Glass, Beaumont Glass, and others. Currently there are only two glass factories left in the area:

  • Davis-Lynch Glass, Boyers Avenue, +1 304-599-2244. Most of their output is sold to lamp distributors, but some is offered for sale to the public at the L & G Lamp Shop.
  • Gentile Glass, 425 Industrial Avenue, ☏ +1 304 599-2750. Star City. Glassworking hours 8AM-3PM M-F, shop hours 8AM-4PM M-F and 8AM-12PM Sa. The only place in the Morgantown area where you can watch glass being worked. 
  • Seneca Center, 709 Beechurst Avenue. Offers a collection of vintage Morgantown Glass, among other things. 

Malls

Stores include: Aeropostale, American Eagle, Bath & Body Works, Finishline, Forever 21, Gamestop, Gap, Hallmark, Hollister, JCPenney, Kay Jewelers, New York & Company, Pacific Sunwear, Payless, Radio Shack, Sears, Sepencer's, and Victoria's Secret.

  • University Town Centre at Granville (Located off I-79, Star City Exit), 5001 University Towne Center Drive.

Stores include: Sally’s Beauty Supply, Maurice’s, Petco, TJ Maxx, Old Navy, Target, Giant Eagle, Goody's, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Best Buy, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Barnes & Noble, Sam's Club, Super Wal-Mart, Olive Garden, Cheddar's, Longhorn Steakhouse, Chili's, CiCi's Pizza, Evergreen Buffet. The development is also home to Monongalia County Ballpark, home to WVU baseball and the Black Bears.

Eat

  • Black Bear Burritos, 132 Pleasant Street; Monday-Saturday 11:30am-10pm. +1 304-296-8696. Burritos of all Ethnic Cuisines, served in a unique Appalachian atmosphere.
  • Boston Beanery, 265 High Street; Sunday-Thursday 11:00am-12:00am, Friday and Saturday 11:00am-1:00am. +1 304-292-0165. Catch the spirit of Old Boston! Salads, entrées, clam chowder and more available. [15]
  • Buffalo Wild Wings & Bar, 268 High Street; Monday-Saturday 11am-2:30am, Sunday 11am-1am. +1 304-292-2999. Chicken wings, sandwiches, burgers, salads and appetizers available at reasonable prices. [16]
  • Glasshouse Grille, 709 Beechurst Avenue; Lunch M-F 11-2, Dinner M-Saturday beginning at 5:00. +1 304-296-8460. Fine dining located in the refurbished Seneca glass factory.[17]
  • Maxwell's, 1 Wall Street; Friday-Saturday 11am-10pm. +1 304-292-0982. A Morgantown tradition featuring everything from appetizers to desserts.
  • Oliverio's, 52 Clay Street; Monday-Saturday 4pm-10pm, Sunday 4pm-9pm. +1 304-296-2565. Italian dining along the rail trail.[18]
  • Ali Baba (formerly Voyagers), Morgantown Airport (Hart Field), 110 Hart Field Road. Monday-Thursday 11 am-8 pm, Friday and Saturday 11 am-9 pm, Closed Sunday. +1 304-292-4701. Mediterranean and American menu, lunch buffet. Quiet atmosphere, ample free parking.
  • Yama Japanese Restaurant, Downtown, +1 304-291-2456. Authentic Japanese cuisine.
  • Drangonfly, 341 Chestnut Street, ☏ +1 304-241-4305. Asian fusion restaurant. 
  • Blue Moose Cafe, 248 Walnut Street; Monday-Thursday 7am-10pm, Friday 7am-11pm, Saturday 8am-11pm, Sunday 8am-10pm. +1 304-292-8999. Breakfast, lunch, and live entertainment. [19]
  • Chico's Fat, 456 High Street; Monday-Saturday 11am-11pm, Closed Sundays. +1 304-241-4712. California style burritos and tacos. [20]


Drink

Because Morgantown is home to a major University, downtown Morgantown nightlife thrives for those in their twenties to early thirties. High Street is the main center for bar activity. Similar student activity can be found adjacent to the main WVU campus in "Sunnyside". Don't expect this to apply to the summer months, however.

  • Mario's Fishbowl, 704 Richwood Ave; Monday-Wednesday 11am-12pm, Thursday-Saturday 11am-1am, Sunday 12pm-10pm. +1 304 292-2511. Morgantown's best known bar among students and alumni.[21]
  • West Virginia Brewing Company, 1291 University Avenue; Tuesday-Saturday 11am-2am, Sunday 3pm-2am. +1 304-292-6959. Brewing 24 beers, ales, stouts, bitters and lagers. Serves good pub food. Try Ned's Pale Ale and the Appalachian Ale. Catering and private parties available. [22]


  • Richwood Grill, 318 Richwood Avenue, ☏ +1 304 292-1888. Local, organic dishes updated seasonally. Huge microbrew and liquor list. 20-30 per entree. 

Bars & Pubs

  • The Backdoor Bar and Tavern, 485 N High Street; Monday-Thursday and Saturday 8pm-3am, Friday 5pm-3am. +1 304-292-5936. Weekly drink specials including a happy hour buffet and live entertainment with karaoke. [23]
  • McClafferty's Irish Pub, 1301 University Ave; Monday-Sunday 4pm-3am. +1 304-292-1110. Weekly drink specials. Food, Darts, Pool Table, Trivia.
  • 4th & Goal, 234 Walnut Street; Monday-Friday 5pm-3am, Saturday and Sunday 11:30am-3am. +1 304-225-2663. Weekly drink specials. Food, Pool Table, Darts, Beer Pong. Inquire for private parties.
  • The Sports Page, 325 High Street; Monday-Friday 5pm-3am, Saturday 11am-3am, Sunday 12pm-2am. +1 304-284-0996. Happy hour everyday from 5pm-8pm. Weekly drink specials. Food, Pool and Foosball Table, TV and Dance floor.

Sleep

  • Residence Inn-Morgantown, Full amenities directly across from Ruby Memorial Hospital and Milan Puskar Stadium.
  • Hotel Morgan, Historic hotel in downtown Morgantown, directly beside the historic Warner Theatre.[24]
  • Best Western, 366 Boyer's Avenue. +1 304-599-5399. Indoor pool, continental breakfast, high speed internet, coffee maker, and iron. Conveniently located near 1-79.
  • Comfort Inn, 225 Comfort Inn Drive, ☏ +1 304 296-9364. Free continental breakfast. Pets welcomed. Indoor hot tub and fitness center. Located off of 1-68. 
  • Euro-Suites Hotel, 501 Chestnut Ridge Road, ☏ +1 304 598-1000. Upscale "green" facility. Internet and breakfast are free. 
  • Friend's Inn, 452 Country Club Road, ☏ +1 304 599-4850. Located close to West Virginia University campus. 

Go next

  • Prickett's Fort State Park [25]State park located in Fairmont, WV. 15 miles south of Morgantown on I-79.
Routes through Morgantown
END ←  W  E  → Grantsville → Cumberland
Washington ← Waynesburg ←  N  S  → Fairmont → Charleston
New Stanton ← Uniontown ←  N  S  → Grafton → Weston



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