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.
by Felix Rivera and Christopher Carabotta [ See video at end of article ]
When my partner Christopher Carabotta and I first walked through the Ohio County Public Library, we could tell almost instantaneously that we had something great to promote. The warm, welcoming interior, pleasant staff, and wide variety of resources surprised us, having not expected much from a seemingly small town. After learning about the Benwood Mine Disaster, we were even more excited about our video and quickly went to work with voice overs, editing and pictures. The archives coordinators, Seán Duffy and Erin Rothenbuehler, gave us advice and plenty of helpful hints to make our video as great as it possibly could be. Read More
by Jacob Rice and Austin Owens [ See video at end of article ]
In the last decade, society has predominantly relied on technology to provide entertainment and information, which has caused the downfall of many museums, historical sites, and libraries. As first semester students at the California University of Pennsylvania, those seemingly out-of-date places were not on our radar, but this project changed our viewpoints significantly. We can only hope that our project will have the same effect on any person who watches our digital story.
The driving motivation for the feature video was to show people that historical sites, particularly West Virginia Independence Hall, have not lost their value. In addition, we wanted to tell a story that the people from Wheeling could be proud of by showing the little-known impact that West Virginia Independence Hall had on the Civil War. From the information we gathered from the site, we concluded that the former Custom House and the conventions that were held there were essential to the birth of the new state of West Virginia and had a significant impact on the course of the war. The focus for our video was mutually determined due to the interest we both shared in the Civil War. Although our team had prior knowledge of the Civil War, we both were surprised by the amount of information and history that was located at West Virginia Independence Hall. The site uncovered a lot of background in respects to the town of Wheeling, but also of the creation of West Virginia.
An Archiving Wheeling partnership with InWheeling Magazine. The Spring 2016 edition, featuring this article, is on sale now. Additional social media comments posted after the magazine deadline have been added to this post. Visit InWheeling Magazine on Facebook.
From the churn of paddlewheels on the Ohio, to the rattle of Conestoga wagons along the Old National Pike, to the mournful cry of steam locomotives pulling into station, Wheeling’s storied neighborhoods have long been filled with the beautiful noise and bustle of transportation. And both the boundaries and character of each of those neighborhoods have been defined, in large part, by the city’s role as a transportation hub.
But perhaps no other mode of transportation has had a greater impact on Wheeling’s neighborhoods than the automobile and the transportation infrastructure built to accommodate it: the modern interstate highway system and the bridges, overpasses, ramps, and tunnels that make it work. For better or worse, the construction of the Fort Henry Bridge, Wheeling Tunnel, I-70, I-470, and the changes to Route 2, dramatically altered Wheeling at all levels. And perhaps the most profound impact came at the level of neighborhood.
by Sarah Erstfeld and Jessica Spano
[ See video at end of article ]
Our trip to Wheeling, West Virginia was invaluable to us. We not only got to learn about Earl Oglebay, but about our site and Wheeling as well.
Determining the focus of our topic was relatively simple. All of us students were required to do some preliminary research before traveling to Oglebay. While we were researching, we noticed that Oglebay had a huge impact on West Virginia with his farming. We thought that would be interesting to research further. We were surprised when we learned that it isn’t the most covered topic. We found so much interesting information about it. Probably one of the most interesting facts was that he was appointed to be the Federal Food Administrator. We thought that was incredibly fascinating. We also really thought it was cool when his farm had nearly perfect milk. We learned so much from this trip.
– by Steven Shrenkel and Danielle de Perrot
[ See video at end of article ]
During the Fall 2015 semester at California University of Pennsylvania, we had a unique and tremendous task thrown our way by our Honors Composition Professor, Dr. Fisanick. That task was to create a digital story that showcased a certain site located near Wheeling, West Virginia. This video was meant to explain in detail through narration and pictures something unique and interesting about the site that we chose. We picked the Paul N. Elbin Library at West Liberty University in hopes of finding something special to show to everyone. While on this journey we enjoyed the difficulties of determining the focus for our video, finding out the complex and interesting history of our topic and the library itself, and discovering some surprising quirks about the city of Wheeling.
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. 10th and Market Streets.”
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
– by Maria Martik, Vanessa Martik, and Rebecca Wockley
[See video at end of article]
As Freshmen in the Honors program at California University of Pennsylvania, we are required to take Honors Composition 150. The class helps us learn how to properly write and format papers and serves an introduction to the Honors program in general. In Dr. Fisanick’s class, we were taught how to use our writing skills to transform our words into digital stories. A digital story is a new form of storytelling that is increasingly becoming more popular today. As a class, we traveled to Oglebay Park where we were then separated into smaller groups to investigate places in the area to uncover the history of Wheeling. The three of us had the opportunity to travel to Oglebay’s very own Glass Museum where we uncovered the history of Sweeney Glass and the famous Sweeney Punch Bowl. Read More
Once upon a time in Woodsdale, just off Edgwood Street, stood a grand hotel.
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
“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.
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
