Today in Wheeling History: January 12--Chapline Street Row Historic District, Center Wheeling’s most intact nineteenth-century residential block, is added to the National Register of Historic Places (1984).
Chapline Street Row Historic District occupies the west side of the 2300 block of Chapline Street, just uphill from Market Street in Center Wheeling, and preserves a remarkably complete run of late nineteenth-century urban townhouses. The district contains ten contributing brick buildings, including eight residences, all resting on sandstone foundations and built between 1853 and 1896. As Market Street grew increasingly commercial, Chapline Street developed a more refined residential character, attracting middle- and upper-middle-class Wheeling families who wanted to remain close to downtown while slightly removed from its bustle. The houses showcase a rich sampling of Victorian-era styles—Italianate, Second Empire, and other eclectic late Victorian details—expressed in ornate cornices, arched window openings, stone trim, and, in some cases, pressed-metal features. Documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey in 1976, the block was recognized as Center Wheeling’s most complete nineteenth-century residential streetscape and an unusually dense concentration of intact Victorian row housing for West Virginia. In 1984, Chapline Street Row was formally listed on the National Register of Historic Places, securing recognition for its architectural coherence, craftsmanship, and its role in illustrating Wheeling’s transformation from antebellum river town to industrial city. Today, the block still looks like one unified piece of architecture, a rare surviving example of everyday city life in Wheeling during the Victorian era.
To learn more: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV (https://tinyurl.com/2j4pjupn); Wikipedia (https://tinyurl.com/yka3fkmc), City of Wheeling (https://tinyurl.com/2mmdnt6b), Library of Congress (https://tinyurl.com/2tdejjzk), Shadows & Light (https://tinyurl.com/2hexb87y), SAH Archipedia (https://tinyurl.com/mtu9vvjv), National Park Service (https://tinyurl.com/yvmntaws) (https://tinyurl.com/yvmntaws)
Photo credits: Wikimedia Commons, Library of Congress, City of Wheeling, Oglebay Institute, West Virginia Department of Culture & History
Chapline Street Row Historic District occupies the west side of the 2300 block of Chapline Street, just uphill from Market Street in Center Wheeling, and preserves a remarkably complete run of late nineteenth-century urban townhouses. The district contains ten contributing brick buildings, including eight residences, all resting on sandstone foundations and built between 1853 and 1896. As Market Street grew increasingly commercial, Chapline Street developed a more refined residential character, attracting middle- and upper-middle-class Wheeling families who wanted to remain close to downtown while slightly removed from its bustle. The houses showcase a rich sampling of Victorian-era styles—Italianate, Second Empire, and other eclectic late Victorian details—expressed in ornate cornices, arched window openings, stone trim, and, in some cases, pressed-metal features. Documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey in 1976, the block was recognized as Center Wheeling’s most complete nineteenth-century residential streetscape and an unusually dense concentration of intact Victorian row housing for West Virginia. In 1984, Chapline Street Row was formally listed on the National Register of Historic Places, securing recognition for its architectural coherence, craftsmanship, and its role in illustrating Wheeling’s transformation from antebellum river town to industrial city. Today, the block still looks like one unified piece of architecture, a rare surviving example of everyday city life in Wheeling during the Victorian era.
To learn more: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV (https://tinyurl.com/2j4pjupn); Wikipedia (https://tinyurl.com/yka3fkmc), City of Wheeling (https://tinyurl.com/2mmdnt6b), Library of Congress (https://tinyurl.com/2tdejjzk), Shadows & Light (https://tinyurl.com/2hexb87y), SAH Archipedia (https://tinyurl.com/mtu9vvjv), National Park Service (https://tinyurl.com/yvmntaws) (https://tinyurl.com/yvmntaws)
Photo credits: Wikimedia Commons, Library of Congress, City of Wheeling, Oglebay Institute, West Virginia Department of Culture & History
RSS Feed