Our history as passed on from Parishioner to Parishioner. 

On Saturday evening, June 6, 1874, the first service of the Protestant Episcopal church was held in charge of Charles M Callaway. The next day, Sunday, June 7, services were held both in the morning and evening and following the service all interested in organizing a church were asked to remain. About 25 remained and this new Episcopal church was formed with 13 communicants. At this time, it was decided to organize a parish and build a small building.

On July 31, 1874, Bishop Whittle of Virginia made the first official visit of a Bishop to Hinton for Confirmation and confirmed Mary Ann Atkinson, Margaret Rose Atkinson, Mrs. Alice Dunn and Mary Chilton Fontaine.

Through the efforts of Major B.S. Thompson, the Honorable W.W. Adams and others, in 1881 a neat brick church, capable of seating 200 was completed and furnished. This church was located at Temple Street and Third Avenue, the present site of the Big Four Drug Store. Many of the leading residents of Hinton worshipped in this Episcopal Church which was destroyed by a severe storm on July 23, 1897. Only the organ, the Holy Bible and an alms basin were saved and the alms basin is now in secured and no longer used.

Reconstruction of a new wood structure was started immediately with a large parish room and vestry room added at the back. The new church was used for the first time on Easter Sunday, April 10, 1898 and is the same one in use today.

A rectory, or ministers residence, was built in 1890 but proved too small and was later sold and a new one built in 1892 on Third Avenue where the Hinton Hospital used to stand next to the Big Four Drug Store on Third Ave.  Erected at a cost of $2000 the home was later moved to 209 Fifth Ave.

During the summer and fall of 1907, the church was moved intact, two blocks to the present location at Temple Street and Fifth Avenue. When one considers that at the time machinery used today was not available, the greatness of this project is evident. In order to locate the church on the corner, it was necessary to move back a house on Fifth Ave, which is now the church rectory.

On Wednesday, February 5 1908, at a meeting of the Kanawha Convocation, Bishop William L. Gravatt consecrated the Ascension Episcopal church and presented a Holy Bible to the church. Present for the consecration were the Rev. Arthur M . Lewis, rector, Dr. W.S.Barksdale, Charles S. Falconer and Thomas N. Read, all vestrymen of the church.

In the years that followed many improvements have been made to make the Church one of the prettiest in the area. A raredos behind the altar was erected in memory of the first Bishop of West Virginia, George W. Peterkin, and in 1929 when the Rev. George J Cleveland was rector, the entire exterior of the church was covered with red brick.

In 1948 a new Moller pipe organ was installed in the church under Captain W. A. Smith of the Church Army.   

One of the major additions to the church was accomplished during the ministry of the Rev. J. W. Ware Jr. when with much of his own labor, a basement was dug underneath the entire church and when completed in 1952 offered a Fellowship Hall named in his honor (Ware Hall), a kitchen and church office.

One century as a church and in the Lord’s service has now passed and while the membership has remained relatively small, the years of worship and service have played an important role in the lives of its communicants and of this community.