PARKERSBURG, WEST VIRGINIA: THIRD STREET

UPDATED: 11-18-2007

PARKERSBURG, WEST VIRGINIA: A VINTAGE PORTRAIT

THIRD STREET

Looking west on Court Square from Market Street toward the Commercial Hotel in 1897 (see more photos of this hotel near the bottom of this page). The old Wood County Courthouse is just to the left of the photo. (Photo courtesy of Dan Kemper)

Looking west on Third Street from
the front of the courthouse in 1897.
The Commercial Hotel is at the right
and what would later become the
Monroe Hotel is on the left.
(Photo courtesy of Dan Kemper)

Looking west on Third Street
from the courthouse in 1937.

The Wood County Courthouse around 1905.
(Click HERE for more courthouse photos and information.)

A view from Ann Street in the 1940s.

Looking toward the courthouse from Ann Street,
probably in the late 'Teens.

Looking east toward the courthouse
from Juliana Street in the late 1890s.

The same scene in 1990.

The northeast corner of Third and Juliana in the summer of 1941.

Looking west on Third from
Juliana during the 1913 flood.

Looking west toward Juliana in the late 1940s. Pio's Place on the corner was a popular restaurant owned by Pio Tei, who I remember living on Jackson Avenue when I was a paperboy. His sons Benedict and Angelo were also owners of local restaurants and taverns.


Looking north on Market Street during the 1913 flood. On the left is the courthouse.		Looking west on Third Street from the Wood County Courthouse during the 1937 flood.

Looking east from below Ann Street during the 1907 flood. Looking east on Third toward the Jackson Hotel at Market Street during the 1913 flood. The Wood County Courthouse is at the right. The building with the pointed cupola is the Wood County Jail.

Looking south toward Court Square from the New Commercial Hotel during the 1913 flood. The Monroe Hotel is on the right. The large building left of Williams Court Alley was replaced sixty years later by the Bureau of Public Debt. The courthouse is just out of frame to the left. The Monroe Hotel at the southwest corner of Third and Williams Court Alley, on what was then Court Square, in the early 1920s.

Looking east toward the courthouse
during the 1937 flood.

Looking west-northwest past the Wood County Jail toward
the courthouse and court square during the 1907 flood.

Looking southwestward across Market Street toward the south side
of Court Square in the 1940s. The Monroe Hotel is on the right.
The courthouse is just off to the right of the photo.

Looking east toward Court Square from Juliana during the March 1913
flood. The last building on the right is the Monroe Hotel. The white
building on the right is Reid’s Jewelry at 204 Third Street.

Buildings at 202, 204 and 206 Third Street (on the south side) stand empty just before their demolition in 1972.
(Courtesy of Louis Ruf.)

Looking northeast from Ann and Second Streets
toward the corner of Third and Juliana on
July 15, 1970, during urban renewal.

The Ideal Restaurant on Court Square, just
after the U.S. entered World War I in 1917.

Parkersburg's first substantial tavern and hotel was the Bell Tavern, built around 1812, on the northwestern corner of Court Square. It was the scene of balls and other social functions, as well as an assembly spot for people working at the court house across the street. The Bell Tavern was later remodeled and changed to the Hill's Hotel and the United States Hotel (above right, in 1890), which lodged several U.S. Presidents when they came to Parkersburg. Before 1897 the hotel was renamed the Commercial Hotel, then several years later became the Stratford (upper left). It ended up as the Mark Hannah Hotel before being torn down in the 1970s.

Looking north across Court Square toward the old Bell Tavern/Hill's Hotel in the late 1880s.
The spire of the Methodist Church on Fifth Street near Juliana is in the background.
(Courtesy of Artcraft Studio, 519-521 Market Street, Parkersburg, WV 26101; 304 485-5771)

Looking across Court Square at the Hotel Stratford in the 1940s.

The Wood County Jail, seen here in 1897, stood on Third Street,
just east of Market and the courthouse. It was buiilt in 1889
and torn down in the 1970s to be replaced by the current jail.
(Photo courtesy of Dan Kemper.)

BACK TO PARKERSBURG HOMEPAGE

	Looking east toward the courthouse from Juliana Street in the late 1890s.
		The same scene in 1990.


Looking east from below Ann Street during the 1907 flood.		Looking east on Third toward the Jackson Hotel at Market Street during the 1913 flood. The Wood County Courthouse is at the right. The building with the pointed cupola is the Wood County Jail.


Looking south toward Court Square from the New Commercial Hotel during the 1913 flood. The Monroe Hotel is on the right. The large building left of Williams Court Alley was replaced sixty years later by the Bureau of Public Debt. The courthouse is just out of frame to the left.		The Monroe Hotel at the southwest corner of Third and Williams Court Alley, on what was then Court Square, in the early 1920s.