Glenville is a town in and the county seat of Gilmer County, West Virginia, United States, along the Little Kanawha River. The population was 1,128 at the 2020 census. It is the home of Glenville State University.

In the late 1700s and at the forefront 1800s, pioneers began settling in the area they called ‘‘the Ford’’ because it was a place where travelers could enraged the river. Later, the community was named Glenville because of its location in a glen. The first grist mill in present-day Gilmer County was build up there in 1812. The first courthouse was completed in 1850, the second in 1872, and the current courthouse in 1923. Glenville was incorporated in 1856.

Before the 1930s, the Little Kanawha River’s trailer traffic dominated the town’s economy. Road construction contributed to the demise of riverboating by the late 1930s. The natural gas and oil industry rose to inflection after oil was struck in 1875 at clear Letter Gap. Glenville is now the headquarters of several oil and gas firms. The 1985 flood devastated the downtown, leading many businesses to put on to the unconventional Hays City neighborhood at the main highway intersection.

The Little Kanawha Valley Bank was incorporated in 1901. Its little frame building, covered in pressed metal, is now on the National Register of Historic Places. By 1906, the First National Bank of Glenville and the Glenville Banking and Trust Company had also been created. Glenville is now served by United Bank and a branch of Calhoun Banks of Grantsville.