WELLSBURG – West Virginia Sen. Ryan Weld has completed his book on the history and noteworthy homes of Wellsburg, and it’s coming out in less than two weeks.

“The Foundations of Wellsburg” is the culmination of eight years of research and writing by Weld, R-Brooke. The book becomes available starting June 18, with a launch event set for 6 p.m. that day at the Arabian Nights Bed and Breakfast in Wellsburg.

The venue, located at 542 Main St., is among the properties featured in Weld’s book.

“I picked these houses, and I didn’t know much about them,” he said. “I picked them initially because they were architecturally interesting or significant.”

What he immediately found doing research was that homes in Wellsburg told the city’s history.

“There were few times that I picked a house and there was no story,” he said. “There is always a story.

“The people who lived there contributed to the history of Wellsburg, West Virginia and sometimes the nation. The stories were there waiting to be told.”

Weld began the project after having curiosity about his childhood home. His step-father Tony Filberto and mother Roseanna have lived at the same home on Charles Street since 1986.

Despite their tenure there, the family knew very little about the home’s history.

Weld’s research revealed that the original owner of the home, William Scott, was the owner of the Scott Ice Cream Company and had two confectioneries in Wellsburg during the 1920s. But Scott died young just before the economy collapsed and the Great Depression happened in 1929.

Weld contacted the grandsons and great-grandsons of Scott, who had always believed their relative committed suicide after losing everything in the Depression.

Weld was able to show them Scott’s death certificate, which showed he had actually passed away in a local hospital three months prior to the Depression. This told the family something about their history they did not know, according to Weld.

Later, they visited the area and were able to tour their family’s former home that now belongs to the Filbertos.

Properties featured in the book are mostly all located on the west side of W.Va. 2 through Wellsburg, Weld explained.