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Historic Fort Steuben

Sun, 11 May 2008 12:08:00 +0000

Historic Fort Steuben was built in 1786 by the First American Regiment for the protection of surveyors who had been sent by the Continental Congress to map the Northwest Territory. At this time the Indians in the area were hostile.

The site was selected as most desirable for a military defense since it was bounded on the east by the Ohio River and lay on a slope of land that was uniform and drained toward the river with hills to the west which formed a natural amphitheater around the perimeter. It was on this site that Captain John Francis Hamtramck of the First American Regiment built a small blockhouse for the protection of his provisions while he and his men constructed the fort.

By February 1787, Hamtramck and his men had completed construction of the fort and named it after Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, a Prussian army officer who had ably assisted General Washington in the Revolutionary War. The town that subsequently developed on the site still carries his name.

Two hundred years later, the non-profit Old Fort Steuben Project, Inc. was formed to reproduce the fort on itsÃ¯Â¿Â½original site and to offer historical and educational programs.

Today, the reconstructed Fort Steuben is open to the public. The blockhouses for the enlisted men, the officers quarters, the quartermaster and the artificer's shops, and the newly opened hospital depict the daily life of the men who helped open up the new territories to settlement.

Historic Fort Steuben now includes a park with the Veterans Memorial Fountain and a Visitors Center which houses a Museum Shop and Exhibition Hall. The Louis Berkman Amphitheater is now complete and offers concerts and other programs.

From May through October, the Fort hosts tours, school field trips, and special programs.

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Birthplace of West Virginia - West Virginia Independence Hall - Wheeling WV

Sun, 11 May 2008 03:36:00 +0000

Nearly six years before President Lincoln signed the proclamation making West Virginia the 35th State in the Union, construction had begun on the Wheeling Custom House, headquarters for federal offices for the Western District of Virginia.

Its completion, coinciding with the beginning of the Civil War, provided a facility for heated political discussions and constitutional conventions that led to eventual statehood for West Virginia in 1863. Here, issues dividing many Virginians - slavery being one of many - were debated, compromised and shaped into the skeleton of statehood.

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Historic Centre Market - Wheeling

Fri, 09 May 2008 23:18:00 +0000

Built in 1853, the Upper Market House is the only cast iron columned market house in the country. The building has 54 hollow Roman Doric columns cast in Wheeling, Virginia.

Every other column innovatively acted as a downspout for the roof. The building was constructed as an open market, but was enclosed in 1886.

This market house has been in continuous operation since the mid-nineteenth century. The Lower Market House, built in 1890, is a Romanesque brick structure.

The central brick arches are adorned with four carved, round, concave, stone medallions.

Beaded mouldings contain a ram head, a bull head, a stallion head and a boar head, carved in full relief. Flanking the two Market Houses are almost uninterrupted sequences of historic commercial buildings.

Many of these, along with the Market itself are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The oldest known cast iron market in the United States is Wheeling's own 1853 Centre Market. The city purchased all the middle area of the block for $1.00 apiece from each of the property owners on both sides of Market Street between Twenty-second and Twenty-third streets in 1851. The first building was designed by Thomas Pope in Greek Revival style with gabled roof, belfry and distinctive iron Doric columns which were cast in the local foundry of Hamilton and Rodgers.

The building represents a time when the market was the essential commercial contact between farm and city. Also, the market was the place to go for the exchange of gossip and public meetings. During the Civil War, the 5th Regiment Virginia Militia assembled in the market and, on one occasion, Governor Francis H. Pierpoint of the Restored Government of Virginia, spoke to the crowds gathered there.

The market is still a viable part of the community and through the efforts of the City of Wheeling, the Junior League of Wheeling and a matching Byrd grant to Friends of Wheeling, the exterior of the cast iron market house will soon be beautified by a fresh coat of paint on the trim, the roof repaired, planters with ivy and dogwood, the belfry repaired and up-lighting to emphasize the iron columns.

On the interior, the gas lights and butchers' hooks have long ago been removed, but the beautifully displayed sparkling fruits and vegetables, cheeses, poultry, homemade bread, farm fresh eggs and honey still remain to attract hundreds of customers weekly.

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