*On November 24, 1851, Institute, West Virginia was founded. Originally an all-Black town, Institute is an unincorporated community on the Kanawha River in Kanawha County, West Virginia.

The town was founded by a Black former slave woman, Mary Barnes. She bequeathed land to her children that became Institute and later home to West Virginia State University (formerly the West Virginia Colored Institute) and the West Virginia State Police Academy. The community is the location of the prehistoric Shawnee Reservation Mound, one of three remaining Adena-era earthwork mounds and enclosures found in an eight-mile stretch along the river. Also called Fairgrounds Mound and Poorhouse Mound, it is within Shawnee Regional Park. The mound is about 20 feet high and 80 feet in basal diameter but was originally 25 feet high and greater than 80 feet in diameter.