The Wheeling Tile Company was located at 33rd and Wood streets and operated for many years before going out of business.
Manufacturing in other countries like Mexico caused its demise. I don’t know much about it, but what I do know is they made the tiny hexagon white tile and three-inch tile that you would see in bars and restaurants all over the country.
You could walk into a bar in New York or Chicago and that tile may have come from Wheeling. The company did have a contract to supply tiles for the New York subway system, but now, like so much, it’s gone forever.
It has been a passion of mine to showcase and preserve Wheeling’s rich history with this series of historic photographs that highlight a business or building that is no longer here in the Upper Ohio Valley.
If you have suggestions on a favorite business or location that has vanished, please submit that to me at cre8m@comcast.net.
I will do my best to search it out and tell that story.
I hope with this series, Gone Forever, I will be able to show what made Wheeling the greatest city in West Virginia, and the large amount of business and industry that was here in the early ’30s and ’40s that attracted people from everywhere.
James Thornton has published several volumes of history on the city of Wheeling, and those interested in purchasing one of them can do so by contacting him at cre8m@comcast.net or visit the Creative Impressions website. The books can be purchased at the Wheeling Heritage Center, Kroger on Mount de Chantal Road, Miklas Meat Market, Nail City Records, the UPS Store in the Washington Avenue Plaza, VC Wares at Centre Market, Bower’s Decorating at The Highlands, and on the website www.wheelinghistory.net.
