Wave Good by To Wheeling

 

My sister has become the local historian for my old home town Wheeling, West Virginia. Kate writes articles for the local paper, magazines, and gives talks to various civic organizations about local history. Kadizzle enjoys studying the history of his home town on the Ohio River so we occasionally share knowledge and stories.

When the country was fist settled the wild west started much further east. If you wanted to go west, the place you started from was Wheeling, which was then actually in Virginia. Remember West Virginia broke away from Virginia during the Civil War. At one time Wheeling was the capitol of West Virginia. So if you were going to head west you needed a lot of stuff. You needed, a wagon, food, cloth, nails, dishware, and of course some cigars. Just about everything to get you going where you could be shot or killed was available in Wheeling. It was not long before Wheeling became a transportation hub. It was a place where railroads, regular roads, and the river came together. It was close to Pittsburgh and it could get things to the Gulf of Mexico by water via New, Orleans. So Wheeling was sitting pretty.

George Washington spent a lot of time in his younger days in the area and many of his relatives ended up with land their. The first thing that made it to Wheeling in the way of transportation was the National Road. As a kid Kadizzle grew up about three blocks from the National Road. The road was the interstate of it's day. If you took off from the coast and wanted to go west, it was your only choice. When you got to the Ohio river that was it no bridge, but one day that was solved when the longest suspension bridge in the world at the time was built across the Ohio. The bridge is still there and still used.

From 1880 to 1930 Wheeling was the richest city per capita in the country. Steel mills, glass factories, drug companies, wire factories, coal mines, and a host of other industries had taken root there and the cash was piling up. With all that cash mansions started to sprout like weeds. Wheeling had some incredible architecture, and Kadizzle thought every city was full of marble mansions. Kadizzle grew up with kids that lived in these homes. One friend lived in a three story marble ensemble with an elevator and a marvelous marble staircase that spiraled upward only supported from the wall. Some of these homes had carriage houses that would have been considered mansions in their own right. Almost every one had a tennis court, a swimming pool, and vast well kept grounds.

Up until the end of World War II the placed boomed. The parts for tanks and guns were cast at Blaw Knox. There were machine shops, pipe factories, and steel cables were made. As a kid Kadizzle remembers driving by the blast furnaces with amazement. It all came to an end. The war ended, the west moved west, and Wheeling fell into decline.  In the 40's Kadizzle's grandfather was mayor and his name is on the bridge in the picture.

Wheeling had an astounding collection of churches and also a good collection of whore houses. When you told someone you were from Wheeling they either asked you about the Jamboree where Johnny Cash got started along with many other country stars or the prostitution where many young men got their first sex ed course, or should I say intercourse.

Among other histories, Wheeling had an interesting history of crime. The racetrack on Wheeling Island was a favorite spot for big time gamblers from Chicago, and locally you could get about any illegal entertainment you wanted. Growing up Kadizzle remembers the neighborhood bar with a backroom for gambling, and all the illegal slot machines found in almost every drinking establishment.

Sadly one solution to run down housing in the 60' and 70's was “Four lane it”. Wheeling got four laned. Route 70 went through the heart of Wheeling. The on ramps off ramps, and off shoots ate up most of the town. Now there are no slums, and there is really not much of a town. So when you cross the Ohio River right after you cross the bridge, and before you go through the tunnel, wave to what is left of Wheeling.