A few days ago, I read with sorrow that the Margaret Manson Weir Memorial Pool will soon be a thing of the past. As the article in the paper stated, it has almost been 20 years since the pool was open to the public, as it closed in 2005. I was working then as a lifeguard for the city but spent most of my time at Starvaggi pool. I remember thinking at the time it closed that it was a shame that that piece of history was over in our community. Credit goes to the Marland Heights Civic Association for working so long to raise the funds to bring it back to life as a pool. Even though the pool will soon be gone, it will still hold a place in our collective memory as an important part of our city’s memory. It will live forever there.

With the demolition of the pool, I am reminded that the early residents of our area bemoaned the destruction of what they remembered as an important aspect of their community when the mills came and space was needed for the new town of Weirton. One specifically that comes to mind is the destruction of the Griffith House. The home place was located where the old Jimmy Carry Football field was in downtown Weirton. The homestead was one of the first in the community, and the building served as a block house to protect area residents from warring parties of Native Americans during the tail end of the 18th century. The farm of the Griffith family extended up to where Williams Country Club is today. That building stood for more than 100 years before it was dismantled.

Another example of loss in our community occurred with the incorporation of Weirton. In 1912, the residents in Holliday’s Cove worried that their community’s identity would be overshadowed by the neighboring unincorporated territory of Weirton. With the booming community to their north, the residents of Holliday’s Cove banded together to incorporate their community. That town existed until it was merged with Weirton, Weirton Heights and Marland Heights to become the city of Weirton that we know today.

One of those towns that merged with the others in 1947 was the town of Marland Heights. Going back in the history books it is natural to assume that the area was once all farm land. Lewis Truax, in his memoir about growing up in Weirton right before it industrialized, remembered that in his day, Marland Heights had a few farms, but the one he remembered was the Chapman farm. His brothers ran a threshing rig that visited the area farms to do their threshing for hire.

For the most part the area that would be Marland Heights was undeveloped until the late 1920s. In 1927 there was a great building boom in the community, according to Truax. On Weirton Heights there was Weirmont Terrace — “Many new homes were built there and many lots being sold. West School Street, Pikeview Street, Hillcrest Road, South 11th Street and Beech Road. There was a great crowd on opening day.” My great-grandfather, Arthur Falgiani, a bricklayer who came from Italy in 1920, settled in this area and built many houses on Weirmont Terrace. My grandmother, Lois Carpini, was born in their home on Pikeview in September of 1927. This area was built upon the old George Owings farm.

According to Truax, the next year in 1928, developers “Mendenhall, Arthur Cooper and Barone developed the Marland Heights area, the Chapman farm and many others farms being turned into city lots. Many more people wanted to move out of the valley and they couldn’t have found a nicer or better place … A wonderful view of the Ohio River and the Half Moon Area and Toronto. When they had open house, my wife and I went to see the model home that was there. Later, Dr. Berridella bought that home. Many high-class homes were built there and a great many of the business men and officials of the Weirton Steel Co. built homes there or bought homes already built.”

Marland Heights got its name from a fellow called Ernest Whitworth Marland. He was born in 1874 in Pittsburgh, the son of a Pittsburgh mill owner. Marland was a lawyer and an oil tycoon later in life who made fortunes in Pennsylvania and West Virginia during our oil boom in the first decade of the 20th century, although he lost his wealth on more than one occasion. In 1908, Marland moved to Oklahoma and began a new life. He was successful in Oklahoma in the oil industry and was later elected to Congress in 1932, and then in 1934 became the governor of Oklahoma. He passed away in 1941 at the age of 67.

The story of why Marland Heights was named after Marland has a few origins. I have heard that Marland was a childhood friend of E.T. Weir, our town founder, but Marland was a resident of our county during the oil boom and that is probably why the neighborhood has his name. In any event, this was a premier neighborhood in our community. Homes were built for Weirton Steel executives and presidents, especially near Williams Country Club, which was established in 1931. The pool was built in 1934 and that made life growing up on Marland Heights a splash, no pun intended.

In 1940, after the census, the city of Marland Heights was incorporated, following Holliday’s Cove in 1912 and Weirton Heights in 1938. All that came to an end in 1947 when Weirton incorporated. However, Marland Heights was still a great place to grow up. There were businesses, schools and organizations on the hilltop. And, until 1968 when Starvaggi Pool opened, residents of our city made the trek to Marland Heights pool, many walking the path at the end of Brookline Drive or one on Taylor Avenue. My father, who grew up on Front Street in Weirton, would hope his mother would give him a quarter so he could get a moon pie for 15 cents and a Coke for 10 cents, complete with a cup and shaved ice. Admission to the pool was 10 cents. My mother remembers that in the women’s locker rooms there was a wringer that one would use to dry their bathing suit for the journey home. There was a juke box on the bottom level that when played, would echo among the hills and the trees. There were three diving boards, two smaller boards and one high dive that was 10 or 12 feet. The maximum depth of the pool was 8 feet deep. There was no rest period, and the managers of the pool were Burdell Carey and Carl Hamill for many years.

So many people have fond memories of the pool and Marland Heights. And as long as there are folks who remember back when, the pool and those who visited will live forever.