Today in Wheeling History: February 12—Monroe Street East Historic District, a small nineteenth-century residential and religious enclave on the slope of Wheeling Hill, is added to the National Register of Historic Places (1980).
Monroe Street East Historic District occupies a compact, 1.5‑acre area near the intersection of 12th (formerly Monroe) and Byron Streets, just east of Eoff Street on the lower slope of Wheeling Hill. The district contains six contributing buildings that together preserve a rare, intact fragment of Wheeling’s nineteenth‑century hillside neighborhood fabric. Anchoring the cluster is the Church of God and Saints of Christ, housed in the former St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, whose origins date to 1837 and whose later alterations introduced Romanesque and Romano‑Tuscan elements. Nearby stand several brick and frame residences, including the Paxton‑Reed House, which reflect Greek Revival and later Victorian influences and speak to the aspirations of Wheeling’s emerging middle class. The buildings were erected and modified over decades by local craftsmen and firms such as Klieves, Kraft & Co. and architect E. W. Wells, tying the district to Wheeling’s broader story of industrial prosperity and urban growth. By the late twentieth century, disinvestment and road changes had erased many comparable streetscapes, making this small enclave especially significant. Recognizing its architectural variety, continuity of scale, and layered religious and residential history, the Monroe Street East Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 12, 1980.
To learn more: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV (https://tinyurl.com/4xf7v2j3); Wikipedia (https://tinyurl.com/3s9x8xeb), National Park Service (https://tinyurl.com/wakjpx96), Waymarking (https://tinyurl.com/mv8sh78)
Photo credits: Wikimedia Commons, Waymarking
Monroe Street East Historic District occupies a compact, 1.5‑acre area near the intersection of 12th (formerly Monroe) and Byron Streets, just east of Eoff Street on the lower slope of Wheeling Hill. The district contains six contributing buildings that together preserve a rare, intact fragment of Wheeling’s nineteenth‑century hillside neighborhood fabric. Anchoring the cluster is the Church of God and Saints of Christ, housed in the former St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, whose origins date to 1837 and whose later alterations introduced Romanesque and Romano‑Tuscan elements. Nearby stand several brick and frame residences, including the Paxton‑Reed House, which reflect Greek Revival and later Victorian influences and speak to the aspirations of Wheeling’s emerging middle class. The buildings were erected and modified over decades by local craftsmen and firms such as Klieves, Kraft & Co. and architect E. W. Wells, tying the district to Wheeling’s broader story of industrial prosperity and urban growth. By the late twentieth century, disinvestment and road changes had erased many comparable streetscapes, making this small enclave especially significant. Recognizing its architectural variety, continuity of scale, and layered religious and residential history, the Monroe Street East Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 12, 1980.
To learn more: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV (https://tinyurl.com/4xf7v2j3); Wikipedia (https://tinyurl.com/3s9x8xeb), National Park Service (https://tinyurl.com/wakjpx96), Waymarking (https://tinyurl.com/mv8sh78)
Photo credits: Wikimedia Commons, Waymarking
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