The playground of figures like Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John F.
Kennedy, and Buffalo Bill, Wheeling is filled with memorable snapshots
documenting famous (and infamous) moments in American history.
When most people think of Wheeling they remember Independence Hall and
the birth of West Virginia, but Wheeling's history goes back even
further to the frontier legends of Lewis Wetzel and Maj. Samuel
McColloch. Including photographs of both Wetzel's cave, Major
McColloch's smokehouse, and a multitude of historic photographs Images
of America: Wheeling depicts the way life used to be. Famous visitors
like Babe Ruth, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Charles Lindbergh, President John
F. Kennedy, actress Sarah Bernhardt, and Buffalo Bill are featured.
Within these pages memorable snapshots document some famous moments in
the history of the 20th century, such as when President Eisenhower
decided to keep Senator Nixon on the ticket at the Ohio County Public
Airport and Sen. Joseph McCarthy's famous speech about Communists in the
State Department at Wheeling's McLure Hotel. However, the real stars of
this book are Wheeling's own buildings, industries, and people, from
machine workers on the job to millionaires at play. A chapter devoted to
the African-American experience in Wheeling includes Center Market's
slave auction block as well as an image of the great jazz saxophonist
Leon Chu Berry. This collection highlights some of the horrific natural
disasters that occurred at the turn of the century as well as Wheeling's
Victorian architectural treasures, which were erected during the same
era.
