When George Washington and his surveying party came through what is now the western portion of Putnam County in the 1770s, they observed that the area had been ravaged by a severe storm and named one of the streams they crossed Hurricane Creek. The name stuck and was taken by a settlement that became a station on the C&O Railway. In recent years Hurricane, located in the level Teays Valley alongside I-64 between Charleston and Huntington, has become such a focus of residential development that the community has adopted “getting our second wind” as its motto. With so much recent construction, it is difficult to decide which buildings will be of lasting importance, though the Forrest Burdette United Methodist Church is a likely candidate. Designed by ZMM and built in 1974, the large suburban church is distinguished by a huge stained glass window of dalle de verre, or faceted glass, from the nearby Blenko factory at Milton.
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