History

January 15, 2020

The trickiest part was getting the two huge moose heads out of the door. But long-time Ye Olde Alpha cooks Trevor Kropp and Dan Dokes, who were tasked with the job, succeeded. Getting most of the three do...

Held Together by Stories: A Special Lunch With Books Remembers OVMC

Kelly Strautmann

January 11, 2020

I was born there. I graduated from there. My children were born there. These statements were heard more than once at Tuesday's Lunch with Books — “OVGH & OVMC Memories” — at the Ohio County Library. ...

The History of the West Virginia Hot Dog

January 10, 2020

I just ate my first West Virginia Hot Dog yesterday down at Tito’s Sloppy Doggs. In the past, my relationship with the hot dog was wishy-washy. A good hot dog is an amazing thing, but a bad one is enough to tur...

DOWNTOWN LIVING: Church Bells Get Her to Work on Time

January 8, 2020

Editor’s note: While downtown Wheeling living has always been a thing, it seems as if there are more apartments than ever. With the refurbishment of the Boury Lofts, the Stone Center and the Flat Iron Building,...

EXTREME ELEVATORS: Wheeling Has Its Ups and Downs (Part 2)

January 7, 2020

Editor's note: Gone are the days when elevator operators called out "Going up," but some interesting elevators still exist in Wheeling with fascinating features. In Part 1, we learned a little history and read ...

EXTREME ELEVATORS: Wheeling Has Its Ups and Downs (Part 1)

January 6, 2020

Editor's note: Gone are the days when elevator operators called out "Going up," but some interesting elevators exist in Wheeling with fascinating features and histories. Today's Part 1 of "Extreme Elevators" ta...

OLD CHURCHES, NEW LIFE (Part 2): Buildings Are Real Gems

Alex Panas

December 31, 2019

Writer's note: When thinking of Wheeling’s scenery, it’s hard to turn a corner without marveling at one of the city’s many churches. Whether it’s the architecture, history or fellowship that draws you in, the b...

OLD CHURCHES, NEW LIFE (Part 1): Framed for the Arts

Alex Panas

December 30, 2019

Writer's note: When thinking of Wheeling’s scenery, it’s hard to turn a corner without marveling at one of the city’s many churches. Whether it’s the architecture, history or fellowship that draws you in, the b...

ROBERTS RUMINATES: Traditions, Toilets and Trickery

December 25, 2019

No matter what holiday we celebrate, our yearly traditions anchor us. They keep us grounded in times of joy and chaos, both of which flow abundantly in December. Christmas traditions in my family never varie...

‘Close-Knit’ Family Continues Haddad’s Holiday Tradition

December 24, 2019

Susan Haddad didn’t realize how “close-knit” her family was — until last year when she discovered that a decades-long Christmas tradition was still afoot. It all started in the summer of ’57 when 11-year-old...

HIDDEN GEMS: A Tale of Two Chapels

December 23, 2019

Editor’s note: Today’s post on two gem-like chapels launches a new occasional series on lovely but lesser-known facets of Wheeling’s architectural heritage. You’ve driven past them. One tiny chapel on Nation...

We Wish You a ’70s Christmas

December 21, 2019

Ah, childhood holiday memories — those sweet candy cane and hot cocoa ghosts of Christmases past. Is there anything else that can conjure up such nostalgia? For those of us who are Boomers/Gen Xers, many of tho...

Cold Hands, Warm Heart: Park Manager Loves His Work

December 20, 2019

Sometimes it takes a village. Other times, one guy will pretty much do. The latter seems to be the case with Nat Goudy, manager of Wheeling Park. Sure, he has plenty of staff as back up. But having started h...

B.E. Taylor Christmas Star Shines On

Betsy Bethel-McFarland

December 18, 2019

The first time I talked to B.E. Taylor, I was a young reporter at The Times Leader. I was assigned to preview the upcoming B.E. Taylor Christmas show at The Capitol Theatre in Wheeling by my boss Phyllis Sigal,...

Wrapping Up Ho-Ho-Home for the Holidays

December 16, 2019

Editor's note: Weelunk updates a story we shared four years ago about a business that ships various tastes of Wheeling that are near and dear to natives' hearts (and stomachs). Some traditions never grow old, a...

OVMC skeletal remains at their burial site

At Rest: OVMC Nurse-Training Skeleton Memorialized

November 20, 2019

Editor’s note: In late October, Weelunk posted a story by Kelly Strautmann that gave an in-depth look at how this community-sponsored burial came to be. Click here for the back story. No one knows her name, ...

WLU’s Rare Book Returns Home

Christina Fisanick

November 11, 2019

We stood around the podium topped with a glass case like mythical giants peering down at tiny humans, and for me, the moment felt just as magical. It was 1994, and I was in the Nelle M. Krise Rare Book’s Room a...

BILL HOGAN’S MUSINGS: Peace Corps in East Wheeling?

Bill Hogan

November 9, 2019

This is a tough one to get started. There are so many people involved from not only different backgrounds but different continents. ONE: PEACE CORPS When we arrived in Cove, Benin, West Africa, starting our ...

Legendary Barber Recalls 50 Years of Work in Wheeling

November 8, 2019

Ralph Tomlinson was 94 years old when he cut his last head of hair on July 6, 2018. For 50 years, Ralph barbered in Wheeling, 49 of them at his shop on 33rd Street. You might call him a legend. To hear more ...

Echoes … Of Life on Top of Violet Hill

October 26, 2019

Editor's note: Last week, Anne Hazlett Foreman shared Echoes ... Of Life Below Violet Hill. Today, we read about life on top of Violet Hill. We moved to the big brown stucco house on top of Violet Hill whe...

Handled With Dignity: Putting the Past to Rest

Kelly Strautmann

October 25, 2019

It took a village to honor an anonymous young girl’s skeletal remains retrieved from the now-closed Ohio Valley Medical Center. Two hospital retirees, a historian, a funeral home, a library and, finally, a ceme...

ECHOES … Of Life Below Violet Hill

October 19, 2019

Long before my family moved to the brown stucco house at the top of Chicken Neck Hill overlooking Elm Run, I was a resident of Birch Lynn and spent most of the summers on the gently sloping hillside below it. ...

AS I SEE IT: Reading — Soul Food for the Heart and Mind

September 14, 2019

“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected ...

THE GRIFFITH FILES: When Wheeling Put On a Big Show to Celebrate Its Bicentennial

Gerry Griffith

September 7, 2019

Fifty years ago, I was a defender of Wheeling’s Fort Henry in the last battle of the Revolutionary War; a Union soldier guarding a prisoner of war camp during America’s Civil War; one of a dozen or so jubilant ...

ECHOES … Of That First Day at the Mount — and Beyond

August 31, 2019

It is said that moments of trauma or great joy are etched in our minds forever and, like Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD), can come back as vivid memories unexpected and unwelcome in their timing and inten...

Celebrating the Musical Women of Coal Country: Karen Collins, Elaine Purkey Remember Hazel Dickens

Seán Duffy

August 26, 2019

The Ohio County Public Library and the WALS Foundation will celebrate Reuther-Pollack Labor Heritage Week through the music of two legendary West Virginia singer-songwriters whose work has brought attention to ...

BILL HOGAN’S MUSINGS: Poppa’s One, Two, Three

Bill Hogan

August 24, 2019

Driving through Wheeling Park, I noticed a sign — “Bandstand” — and followed it to the top of the hill. I haven’t been up there in decades. The last time was for a party we had there when the rails around the b...

Wheeling Heritage Media Launches Podcast on Wheeling Brewer

Weelunk Staff

August 21, 2019

Murder (maybe). Philanthropy. Prostitution. Industrialization. Corruption. All these words are synonymous with Wheeling brewer Henry Schmulbach. And Wheeling Heritage is bringing Wheeling’s brewing history t...

Exley Remembers (sort of) Three Days of Craziness on Max Yasgur’s Farm

Fred Connors

August 13, 2019

Wheeling resident R. Banford Exley has sporadic memories of a raucous music festival he attended 50 years ago on a New York dairy farm. He hadn’t heard of the Woodstock Music Festival until a friend asked hi...

Experience Wheeling’s Rowdy Past at the Francis Pier-Pint Brew-Off: Prohibition Edition

August 12, 2019

The logo was designed by Erin Rothenbuehler, programming and archives coordinator at the Ohio County Public Library. According to local historian Sean Duffy, history and beer go together naturally. Luckily ...

People’s University to Explore Wheeling’s Labor History

Provided

August 2, 2019

Wheeling was a hotbed of unionism throughout its industrial period. In observation of the 250th anniversary of Wheeling's founding, People’s University at the Ohio County Public Library will explore that indust...

Jewish Community Celebrates 170 Years of Worship

Christina Fisanick

July 31, 2019

Following the second wave of Jewish migration to the United States during the 1840s-80s, the early Jewish community in West Virginia was comprised mainly of German and other central European Immigrants. German ...

WISH YOU WERE HERE: The Robert Schramm Collection of Historic Postcards (Part 1)

Earl Nicodemus

July 28, 2019

Writer's note: This is the first of a short series of Weelunk pictorials from the collection of retired West Liberty State College (now university) Professor Robert (Bob) Schramm. As a colleague, friend and...

THE GRIFFITH FILES: Growing Up on Big Wheeling Creek in Elm Grove

Gerry Griffith

July 27, 2019

"Stay away from the creek.” ... In the Elm Grove neighborhoods along Big Wheeling Creek in the early 1960s, no parental directive was ignored more often. The wide, often-muddy tributary with its rocks, crawd...

For the Love of Bicycling: Then and Now

Jeanne Finstein

July 24, 2019

Bicyclists in the Ohio Valley enjoy myriad recreational opportunities, from scenic bike trails to winding country roads beyond the city. Wheeling has a rich bicycling tradition, as evidenced by the popularity o...

DiCarlo’s Pizza: A Cultural Icon

Jeremy Morris

July 22, 2019

There are only two kinds of pizza, good pizza and very good pizza. — Peter Reinhart, author of "American Pie, My Search for the Perfect Pizza" Ask just about any Ohio Valley resident, and they will affirm ...

AS I SEE IT: Mourning the Loss of My JITH Traditions

July 21, 2019

Editor’s note: Here in the Ohio Valley, the third weekend in July has meant an annual pilgrimage to Jamboree In The Hills for a lot of local country music fans. But for the first time in over 40 years, Jamboree...

Those Were the Days: Veteran Broadcaster Shares Jamboree Memories

July 20, 2019

Editor's note: Here in the Ohio Valley, the third weekend in July has meant an annual pilgrimage to Jamboree In The Hills for a lot of local country music fans. But for the first time in over 40 years, Jamboree...

A VIEW FROM THE MOON: First Footprints on the Moon — 50th Anniversary of Apollo 11

Robert E. Strong

July 20, 2019

For untold generations, human beings had looked at the moon and wondered ... What was it? Was it a God? Was it a place? What was it made of? Did anyone or anything live there? Only poets, writers, philosophers ...

Unexpected to Unbelievable: A Jamboree Love Story

July 19, 2019

Editor's note: Here in the Ohio Valley, the third weekend in July has meant an annual pilgrimage to Jamboree In The Hills for a lot of local country music fans. But for the first time in over 40 years, Jamboree...

The ‘Hills’ Hold His Heart

July 18, 2019

Editor's note: Here in the Ohio Valley, the third weekend in July has meant an annual pilgrimage to Jamboree In The Hills for a lot of local country music fans. But for the first time in over 40 years, Jamboree...

Warwood Neighborhood One Step Closer to ‘Historic District’ Status

Provided

July 16, 2019

Part of the Warwood neighborhood is one step closer to becoming a nationally recognized historic district. Wheeling Heritage has selected Weller and Associates to complete an architecture and history survey of ...

Harshman’s Poem Celebrates ‘Wheeling at 250’

Marc Harshman

July 9, 2019

Editor's note: "Wheeling at 250" was commissioned by the Wheeling 250 committee. The poem, written by Marc Harshman, West Virginia's poet laureate, was premiered at the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra's concert on...

Cracks, Whizzes and Cheers: Eight Decades of American Legion Baseball

NIck Musgrave

July 5, 2019

Before the advent of television, Wheeling families found entertainment among the sounds of cracks, whizzes and cheers of the local baseball diamonds. The Friendly City was home to teams at all levels: from the ...

Weelunk Reader From Croatia Wins Haiku Contest

July 3, 2019

Never in 250 years, has Goran Gatalica set foot in Wheeling, West Virginia. But this year’s haiku contest winner — who also took second-place honors — learned enough about our city from his Croatian friends,...

THE GRIFFITH FILES: How Mom, Zane Gray, the Beverly Hillbillies and the Revolutionary War Inspired a Lifetime of Reading

Gerry Griffith

June 29, 2019

I was a child television junky in 1963, well-versed in the classics like Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Car 54: Where Are You?, Ben Casey, The Red Skelton Show, Hawaiian Eye, Wagon Train, Dr. Kildare, Rawhide, Route 66, th...

Mounds of Learning Opportunities at Grave Creek Mound Archaeological Complex

Kelly Strautmann

June 28, 2019

You pay homage to it every time you say the name of its hometown. It’s one of the largest Adena burials found in the country. It’s been the center of hoaxes, and Charles Dickens even paid it a visit. There is a...

ECHOES … Of Guns and Rose — Tales of Summer Vacations Long Ago