[8][9] This provision was met when the necessary stock was raised, and the Bank of the Valley of Virginia branch in Romney was opened around 1825 in the Wirgman Building.

[6][8][9] In 1845, historian Henry Howe traveled through Romney and described the town as "one of considerable business, and has a branch of the Bank of the Valley, several stores, and about 350 inhabitants".

[4][11][12] Pending his transfer to a military prison in Wheeling where he was to be tried as a suspected spy, Blue was imprisoned in a room on the second floor of the Wirgman Building.

[4][11][12] During the early morning of April 20—Easter Day—Blue disabled the only guard on duty, disguised himself in a Union Army coat and headgear and barricaded the remainder of the prison garrison within the building.

[4][11][12] Blue, unnoticed by the occupying Union Army forces, walked to the periphery of Romney town and reached safety.

[8][13] In 1890 John J. Cornwell—who later became West Virginia's governor—and his brother William B. Cornwell purchased the newspaper, which continued to operate from the second floor of the Wirgman Building until 1895, when the brothers relocated the office and printing plant to the first floor of their new brick building on West Main Street.

[6] The shareholders of the Bank of Romney petitioned the Secretary of State of West Virginia for a charter with capital stock totaling $30,000.

[22] At the time of its documentation by HABS, the building was owned by Mrs. W. F. Wirgman,[22] whose family's surname likely gave the structure its local toponym.

[22] In September 1937, the West Virginia State Road Commission released a state road map highlighting the history of the Potomac Highlands through photographs; the map included a feature on the Wirgman Building and Lieutenant John Blue's escape during its use as a military prison during the American Civil War.

[29] According to Romney Fire Department Chief Eugene Dorsey, the Wirgman Building was uninsured and its damage was estimated at $5,000.

[4][8][32] Existing information on the architectural details of the Wirgman Building are known through the HABS supplementary documentation written by Archie A. Biggs in 1937,[22] and a Cumberland Evening Times article in 1954.

[25] The Cumberland Evening Times averred that the building had not undergone major structural changes since the American Civil War.

[22] The stairway's balustrade in the stair hall featured turned baluster shafts and a newel post crafted from maple.

[22] The Wirgman Building also featured old wooden floors, which the Cumberland Evening Times said emitted "aged groans" when walked upon.

[10] Prior to its destruction, a 1954 article in the Cumberland Evening Times characterized the building as an "aged monument to the Civil War and horse and buggy days, as motorized traffic on U.S. 50 whizzes by its door".

[21] Two commemorative plaques in front of the Bank of Romney are the only reminders of the Wirgman Building at its original site.