The Rogers Hotel soon-to-be Available for Auction

​Recently, my AmeriCorps sponsor site, Wheeling Heritage, received a phone call about a historic property. This is not uncommon for us, as historic preservation is a core pillar of what we do, plus Wheeling is chock full of gorgeous historic buildings. While many of those are homes, this building we got a call about was a little different, and that excited me.
 
The promise of a “fireproof” hotel has loomed over Fourteenth Street in Wheeling for over 100 years. When The Rogers Hotel was first opened in 1915, it was set to be “revolutionary”, according to an article in The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer. The hotel remained open for many years, thankfully retaining many of its original features. How do I know about these original features? When we took the call at Wheeling Heritage, we were informed the property would soon be going up for action, and we were invited inside to document all the beauty of this space. We were given a great opportunity to drum up excitement to hopefully get this property into the hands of someone who will take great care of it!

Perhaps the part that would be most lovely to see restored are the pieces of delicate plasterwork, many of which still feature some of their original paint colors for reference. This is extra wonderful as The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer in 1915 reported that the color details were sure to “arouse the admiration of all those who have seen it.” There are also several original bathtubs, which were a key selling point when the hotel first opened, “rooms with a bath for a dollar”. There are also original railings, copper window screens made by A. L. Yardley & Son of Columbus, Ohio, and original tile work made The Wheeling Tile Company.
 In our time exploring the building, we learned about how much has already been poured into restoring this building to its original glory. Updated plumbing and electric hookups have been put in all the second floor rooms. Some of the rooms on this floor are even fully finished. There is also a door that will cordon off the second floor from the remaining upper floors, so that work can be done in stages. This will allow someone to come in and operate out of the lobby and second floor rooms (all of which open to a mezzanine overlooking the gorgeous lobby) while working on the remainder of the hotel at will.
 
The work we did to showcase this historic beauty really paid off. Across all of our social media, more than 13,000 people engaged with our photos of the property and the video we took inside. The article I wrote exploring the history of the building and all its beautiful features was read by 900 people (you can read it here)! I can only hope some of those people got excited about the work of preserving history, and maybe some of them will even consider bidding on the property when it goes up for auction. While my time with Wheeling Heritage as an AmeriCorps is coming to a close, it will be tremendous if some of the work I did allows a property as stunning as The Rogers Hotel to have a new life, celebrating all at once the history of Wheeling and the exciting future.

---

Makayla Carney

Makayla served as the Preserve WV AmeriCorps with Wheeling Heritage during the 2023-2024 service year.