Category Archives: Ohio County Public Library Archives

Archives of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston Ohio County Public Library Archives

Fifty-Five Feet and Rising

Seán Duffy March 19, 2016March 19, 2016 4 Comments 11256 Views

The 1936 Flood, 80 Years Later

Heavy snow and rain in March 1936 triggered the worst flood in Wheeling’s history. The river crested at a record 55.2 feet, 80 years ago today on March 19th, and floodwater inundated the Island, much of South and Centre Wheeling and even the downtown streets as afar east as Chapline. The Suspension Bridge and Steel Bridge were closed, and the Market Auditorium was converted to a refuge shelter and makeshift hospital. Utilities were shut down, supplies cut off, and disease threatened. More than 20,000 people were driven from their homes and 16 people lost their lives.

Ohio County Public Library Archives

The Birth of a Friendly City

Seán Duffy March 11, 2016March 11, 2016 1 Comment 4546 Views

Featured Image: City of Wheeling 180th Birthday

180 Years of Cityhood

On this day 180 years ago — March 11, 1836 — the town of Wheeling, Virginia was made the city of Wheeling, Virginia by an Act of Incorporation passed by the state’s legislative body, the General Virginia Assembly and signed into law by Governor Littleton Waller Tazewell.

Ohio County Public Library Archives

“A Brave Appearance”

Seán Duffy February 12, 2016February 24, 2021 3 Comments 7780 Views

Colonel Bill Turner: Wheeling’s First Black Police Officer

The Ohio County Public Library Archives houses a brittle, sepia toned, photograph of a well-dressed, older African American gentleman relaxing in a chair and reading a book. Written on the back in pencil are the words “William ‘Bill’ Turner. Policeman in Wheeling. 10^th and Market Streets.”

Written on the back in pencil are the words "William ‘Bill’ Turner. Policeman in Wheeling. 10th and Market Streets.” OCPL Archives. Donated by Mrs. Kathryn Snead. — Written on the back in pencil are the words “William ‘Bill’ Turner. Policeman in Wheeling. 10th and Market Streets.” OCPL Archives. Donated by Mrs. Kathryn Snead.

The photograph, and its inscription, pose an interesting question: how did a black man become a city police officer in turn-of-the-century, segregated Wheeling — a town that wouldn’t elect a black man to its city council until 1970? Read More

Ohio County Public Library Archives

Like a Comet in the Sky

Seán Duffy January 13, 2016February 12, 2016 6 Comments 9762 Views

Wheeling’s Stratford Springs Hotel

Once upon a time in Woodsdale, just off Edgwood Street, stood a grand hotel.

Stratford Springs postcard. OCPL Archives. — Woodsdale view with Stratford Springs Hotel in the background. OCPL Archives.

Nearly a block long and composed entirely of wood, this playground of the elite offered 84 guest bedrooms, a spacious lobby, numerous elegant dining rooms, sweeping verandas, a billiard parlor, bowling alley, tennis courts, a writing room, three sun parlors and a grand ballroom where formal dances, concerts, and elaborate costume balls were held. The “Gem of Wheeling,” said the Wheeling News Register, “was beautifully located near the foot of Woodlawn hill and nestled in a perfect bower of trees and shrubbery that made it a beautifully cool and sequestered spot during the sultry days of mid-summer.”

This was no fairy tale, this was the Wheeling’s nationally famous Stratford Springs Hotel. But, like a comet streaking across the midnight sky, the Stratford’s existence was brilliant and brief. Read More

Ohio County Public Library Archives

“An Ideal Fire Trap”

Seán Duffy January 3, 2016January 6, 2016 6 Comments 9987 Views

Featured Image: Wheeling High School Fire

Wheeling High School Burns: January 3, 1914

Image of the Wheeling High School fire from the 1944 Wheeling Fire Department Yearbook. -Wheeling Room, Ohio County Public Library. — Image from the 1944 Wheeling Fire Department Yearbook. -Wheeling Room, Ohio County Public Library.

The stairways acted as flues, allowing the fire to ascend rapidly., Photo from the Wheeling High School Record, 1915. -OCPL Archives, Beverly Fluty Collection.

“But on this cold and dreary morn,
In Engine Company 4,
There is a vacant bed upstairs,
For One, who is no more…”
-To The Wheeling Fire Dept. by Anonymous

One hundred two years ago today, just after 6 o’clock PM on Saturday evening, January 3, 1914, a janitor discovered a fire in the basement of Wheeling High School beneath the stairway. The janitor attempted to douse it with buckets of water, to no avail. The stairways and air ducts acted as flues, allowing the fire to rapidly ascend, spreading across the upper floors and all the way to the roof.

“Undermanned and Under Equipped”

The janitor ran a block to 21st Street to alert Hook and Ladder Company No. 6, and they were on the scene quickly. But heavy snows had damaged the wires of the city-wide alarm system, causing a delayed reaction from other firefighting companies. In fact, telephone calls had to be placed to sound the alarm. The entire building was soon aflame. The building, Fire Chief Rose later declared, “was constructed on the lines of an ideal fire trap.”

“I never saw a building that had so many air courses in it,” Rose told the Intelligencer. “Once a flame got started, it would ‘walk’ around faster than a person. The roof was one continuous chain of braces and rafters which made the whole thing like kindling wood ready to be touched off…The building was built in utter disregard of all fire protection.” Read More

Archives of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston Ohio County Public Library Archives

Parading Past to Present

Seán Duffy December 25, 2015November 16, 2023 2 Comments 9375 Views

Featured Image: Wheeling Christmas Parade

Q: When Was Wheeling’s First Christmas Parade?

Relax kids! Giant balloon Santa being pulled by clowns is not at all creepy. 1940 Wheeling Christmas Parade. Eddie Martin Collection, Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston.

We thought this question, posed on Archiving Wheeling’s Facebook page, would be a difficult one to answer. But, thanks to a series of historic parade photographs from the Eddie Martin Collection at the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston Archives, the mystery is solved.

The parade Martin photographed took place on Friday, November 22, 1940, before an estimated crowd of 100,000 people lined up along Main and Market.

But, although it had to be among the quirkiest, the 1940 version was, by no means, Wheeling’s first parade.

Ohio County Public Library Archives

Rocking Christmas Eve

Seán Duffy December 24, 2015December 24, 2022 5 Comments 12674 Views

Rosbys Rock and the Arrival of the B&O Railroad

The big rock is still there…

…way out in Marshall County, off a winding country road that follows a creek called Big Grave. It’s still there. 163 years later.
Read More

Ohio County Public Library Archives

Placing the Keystone Over the Place of the Skull

Seán Duffy December 17, 2015December 24, 2015 Leave a Comment 7530 Views

Featured Image: Main Street Stone Arch Bridge, Wheeling, WV

Wheeling’s Main Street Stone Arch Bridge: Hidden in Plain Sight

To appreciate Wheeling’s architectural gems, one is typically advised to look up. This is generally good advice, but in some cases, one must look down, and under, and around — trees, shrubs, cables, street signs, utility poles and concrete abutments. Such is the case with the somewhat under-appreciated Main Street Stone Arch Bridge.

As a river town, Wheeling has been home to its share of interesting bridges, including famous ones, like our cherished marvel of engineering suspended over the Ohio and our durable little double stone arch in Elm Grove, the oldest bridge in the state.

But there is a third significant, yet less celebrated bridge in Wheeling — one that serves stoically and inconspicuously, despite spanning what is arguably the most myth-infused site in our myth-saturated town.

And today is an important day for the bridge in question. One hundred twenty-four years ago today, at 18 minutes past 2 in the afternoon of December 17, 1891, the keystone for Wheeling’s new stone bridge on Main Street was lowered into place.

Ohio County Public Library Archives

Fire & Ice

Seán Duffy December 9, 2015December 24, 2015 4 Comments 12034 Views

Wheeling’s House & Herrmann Department Store Burns to the Ground After a Winter Storm

An early depiction of the House & Herrmann Department Store.

Ninety-eight years ago today, on December 9, 1917, a natural gas explosion triggered one of the most destructive fires in Wheeling’s history. On a quiet Sunday evening, the six-story House & Herrmann department store on the southwest corner of Market and 14th Streets, an anchor in one of Wheeling’s busiest commercial hubs, caught fire. Despite bitter cold and icy conditions that hampered firefighting efforts, the blaze was intense enough to damage some of the surrounding structures. By the next morning, the retail giant, succumbing to a peculiar alliance of fire and ice, had been reduced to a smoldering, icicle-strewn ruin.

Ohio County Public Library Archives

Memories in Hand

Ohio County Public Library Archives November 2, 2015February 22, 2017 Leave a Comment 4132 Views

Honoring Our Veterans

Participate in the Memories in Hand: Veterans Project

Are you a U.S. military veteran from the Wheeling/Ohio Valley area? Do you have a relative or close friend who served?

Just bring your favorite photo of your veteran.

If so, we invite you to participate in a new project of the Ohio County Public Library Archives called, “Memories in Hand,” a part of our ongoing Wheeling Memory Project. Read More