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800 Block of Main Street

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  • (West Virginia Collection within the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)

The east, or even-numbered, side of this block contains several notable structures, all in need of attention. The temple-fronted building at 814 Main Street dates from 1835 and was built as a branch of the Northwestern Bank of Virginia. Ten years later, Henry Howe described it as one of Wellsburg's most important institutions and delineated it as the northernmost building in his view of the town. A pilastered entrance and window lintels decorated with Greek key motifs give evidence that it was originally a building of some consequence. Sandstone blocks supporting the porch are original, but the columns, or piers, are encased in later frame sheathing.

Next door, at 816 Main Street, is a late-nineteenth-century, mansard-roofed town house built of hard-pressed red brick. The three-bay facade and one-bay recessed wing to the north, both with prominent dormer windows, recall similar houses in Wheeling.

The three-bay brick house at 818 Main Street, the earliest in the block, dates from 1825. It has an off-center door with narrow side lights framed in a handsome Greek Revival frontispiece. Its across-the-alley neighbor, a slightly later five-bay row house, dates from c. 1830.

Writing Credits

Author: 
S. Allen Chambers Jr.
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Citation

S. Allen Chambers Jr., "800 Block of Main Street", [Wellsburg, West Virginia], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/WV-01-BR10.

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