A trip back in time
Victorian Show-Off! puts Wheeling's history on displayBy LINDA COMINS, For The Weirton Daily Times
WHEELING - Six distinctive properties - a restored theater, a beautiful church, a former academy and three houses - are featured in the 2009 Victorian Show-Off! tour of historic sites in Wheeling.
The Victorian Show-Off! will take place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday. Tickets will be sold on the days of the event at 821 Main St., Wheeling. Tickets may be purchased in advance by calling (304) 232-5978 or (304) 312-9280. Tickets are available in two options: one covering admission to all six sites for the entire weekend or one granting admission to four sites.
The annual tour of historic properties, emphasizing the splendors of Victorian architecture, is a project originated by the Victorian Wheeling Foundation. The nonprofit group's founder, Snookie Nutting of Wheeling, is organizing this year's tour, with assistance from Laura Carter and April Waltz, both of Wheeling.
This year's featured sites are as follows:
Mount de Chantal, 410 Washington Ave.;
St. Matthew's Episcopal Church, 1410 Chapline St.;
Capitol Theatre, 1015 Main St.;
John List House, 821 Main St.;
Hess House, 811 Main St.;
Mozier Tavern and Inn, 711 Main St.
The main building at Mount de Chantal, a former girls' boarding school, was constructed in the early 1860s; subsequent additions and ancillary buildings were completed in the 19th and 20th centuries. The combined school building and convent was erected to accommodate Mount de Chantal Visitation Academy, which was founded in downtown Wheeling in 1848 by the Most Rev. Richard V. Whelan, first bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Wheeling.
According to legend, when the original builder absconded with the plans, Whelan took over the project and the bishop even laid bricks for the structure. The Sisters of the Visitation, a Roman Catholic order of nuns who operated the academy, and students moved into the new facility in 1865.
Mount de Chantal Visitation Academy educated students in Wheeling for 160 years, until the school closed on May 31, 2008. At the time of its closure, the Mount was the oldest and only continuously operating private girls' school in West Virginia.
Sisters of the Visitation remain in residence at Mount de Chantal. Future plans for the property have not been announced.
Among the rooms that Victorian Show-Off! visitors will see are the chapel and the music hall, both part of the original building, which was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. The chapel, restored in 1978, features a magnificent stained glass dome designed by Rambusch Co. of New York City, stained glass windows made by the Mayer company in Munich, Germany, and a historic organ built by E&GG Hook of Boston.
The music hall's dominant feature is a spectacular crystal chandelier made by the Hobbs, Bruckunier Co. in Wheeling and given to the academy, circa 1880-82, by glassmaker John Hobbs, whose daughter had attended the school. The gasolier was hung in the chapel initially and was adapted for electricity in 1891; the chandelier was moved to the music hall about two years later. A complete restoration of the massive chandelier was undertaken by volunteers from the Pittsburgh chapter of the National Early American Glass Club in 1995.
St. Matthew's Episcopal Church's present building is the fourth edifice of the parish, which was established in 1819 and is celebrating its 190th anniversary this year.
Gordon W. Lloyd, a prominent church architect from Detroit, designed the sandstone building in the Gothic Revival style. The cornerstone was laid on All Saints' Day, Nov. 1, 1866. Work on the building was completed in the early 1870s, but the consecration was postponed for another decade because of a $30,000 debt.
Consecration of the church took place 22 years to the day after the laying of the cornerstone. The Right Rev. George W. Peterkin, first bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of West Virginia, led the celebration on All Saints' Day, Nov. 1, 1888.
Inside the church, distinctive architectural details and fixtures of the nave include a magnificent collection of stained glass windows on all four sides; hammer beam trusses and a diagonal-patterned wood ceiling; an impressive wooden pulpit made in 1868; a wooden lectern installed in 1892 and a carved stone baptismal font with an ornate brass top provided in 1900. A Gothic-inspired, stone-carved high altar dominates the chancel. A black wrought iron Gothic rood screen with gold accents was added to the chancel circa 1910.
St. Matthew's stained glass collection includes six Tiffany windows, installed by the famed Tiffany Studio of New York between 1900 and 1903. The other six side (north and south) windows, from various studios, date from 1892 to 1970.
The three chancel windows on the building's east side were installed by the Lamb Studio of New York in 1962. The rose window, located above the balcony on the west end of the church, was designed and installed by the Lamb Studio in 1967. The Lamb Studio also designed and installed the trio of windows on the west side between 1982 and 1995.
The newly renovated Capitol Theatre, which West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin proclaimed ''a jewel'' in Wheeling, has reopened after being closed for two years.
The Capitol Theatre opened originally on Thanksgiving 1928. Architect Charles W. Bates designed the theater with a Beaux Arts exterior. Wheeling contractor Ralph Ross Kitchen and his firm constructed the building.
The theater - which has been used for film screenings, symphony concerts, Jamboree shows, Broadway touring productions, ballet performances and dance recitals - has a 44-foot stage, the largest in the city.
The proscenium arch above the stage is decorated with images of peacocks, butterflies and dragonflies.
Two sculptures of semi-nude female figures have been returned to their original location atop the loges flanking the stage. The pieces, titled ''Muse,'' are the work of sculptor Frank Vittor.
The exterior is graced with etched Ionic columns, a niche with an urn, figures of a shell and a lyre, and a cartouche marked with the initials ''CT,'' with two semi-nude figures reclining on the border and the face of a cherub in the center. Lettering spells out Capitol Theatre.
A $150,000 renovation project was undertaken in 1979. During renovations in 1993, the number of seats was reduced from 3,000 to 2,500. The theater was closed in June 2007. Earlier this year, the Wheeling-Ohio County Convention and Visitors Bureau purchased the property and began restoring the facility.
The former Mozier Tavern and Inn, built in the 1840s, is now the home of Thad and Kim Podratsky, who have spent the past 20 years recreating the original Federal-style detailing in the dwelling. Little is known about the original owner, Frederick Mozier, except that he operated a tavern and inn along what was then the National Road.
The couple has renovated and restored every room, removing drop ceilings and paneling, installing period mantels and authentic furnishings and adding architectural details from other historic properties. Thad Podratsky said the kitchen shelves are based on a pantry at Mount Vernon, and he got other ideas from old colonial homes in Virginia.
Thad Podratsky said he used cut nails made in Wheeling when he installed a plank ceiling in the kitchen. In an adjoining room, he built a corner cupboard, designing it around a set of doors he bought at a garage sale on Wheeling Island. He used virgin American oak, removed from an 1850s house, to construct kitchen cabinets and tavern counters.
A bar on the lower level features a floor with an unusual Wheeling element: floor tiles bear the signatures of Ohio County's founding fathers. Thad Podratsky explained that he took photographs of the pioneer leaders' actual signatures on original records stored at West Virginia University, enlarged the photos and put the signatures in raw clay tile that was then coated.
Throughout the house, many of Thad Podratsky's ''hundreds'' of collections are displayed. He is an eclectic collector, specializing in items that have a Wheeling connection such as cigar boxes, advertising signs, beer bottles, liquor bottles, foundry pieces and pottery. His wife, Kim, displays a colorful collection of Hazel Atlas glass dinnerware in the kitchen.
The Hess House, with the elegant proportions of French Renaissance style, generously combining building materials of stone, iron, brick and wood, was built in 1876 by Christian Hess, a German immigrant who worked as a tailor and became a substantial and influential merchant in Wheeling. He was director of the People's Bank, incorporator of the German Insurance Co., stockholder on many local companies and vice president of the German Benevolent Society.
The Second Empire French Renaissance Revival-style mansion incorporates many of the details that exemplified state-of-the-art Victorian Wheeling. These signs include marbleized mantels, cast-iron filigree window boxes, art plaster roses on the ceilings and a poppy design on stained glass windows.
Dr. Tom and April Waltz reside in the Hess House and are in the process of purchasing the property from the Vandalia Heritage Foundation of Fairmont.
The John List House contains several outstanding features, including an entranceway with numerous pieces of stained glass depicting a maritime theme, a grand inglenook and a 7-by-17-foot stained glass skylight.
The John List House is owned by the Vandalia Heritage Foundation.
