Wheeling: Images of America (Arcadia Publishing)

The playground of figures like Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Buffalo Bill, Wheeling is filled with memorable snapshots documenting famous (and infamous) moments in American history.

When most people think of Wheeling they remember Independence Hall and the birth of West Virginia, but Wheeling's history goes back even further to the frontier legends of Lewis Wetzel and Maj. Samuel McColloch. Including photographs of both Wetzel's cave, Major McColloch's smokehouse, and a multitude of historic photographs Images of America: Wheeling depicts the way life used to be. Famous visitors like Babe Ruth, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Charles Lindbergh, President John F. Kennedy, actress Sarah Bernhardt, and Buffalo Bill are featured.

Within these pages memorable snapshots document some famous moments in the history of the 20th century, such as when President Eisenhower decided to keep Senator Nixon on the ticket at the Ohio County Public Airport and Sen. Joseph McCarthy's famous speech about Communists in the State Department at Wheeling's McLure Hotel. However, the real stars of this book are Wheeling's own buildings, industries, and people, from machine workers on the job to millionaires at play. A chapter devoted to the African-American experience in Wheeling includes Center Market's slave auction block as well as an image of the great jazz saxophonist Leon Chu Berry. This collection highlights some of the horrific natural disasters that occurred at the turn of the century as well as Wheeling's Victorian architectural treasures, which were erected during the same era.