Hazel-Atlas Factory

 

This vast complex of buildings had its start just after the close of the Civil War. In June of 1865, the Wheeling Hinge Company was incorporated, by Joseph A. Metcalf, Samuel Laughlin, J.F. McDermot, David Wagener, Alexander G. Robinson, Augustus Campbell, A.W. Campbell, and D.E. Donel – many of whose names were well known in Wheeling business circles at that time. The company purchased two lots at the corner of 19th and Jacob Streets and erected a one-story frame building. At that site, they began with one set of machinery, manufacturing strap and T hinges. By the fall of 1866, they had added a three-story brick building to handle demand for their products. That building is probably the one that was located on the northeast corner of the complex.

 

A newspaper article from 1886 stated that the company’s products included “a full line of strap and T hinges, screw and strap hinges, wrought butt hinges, steel cold chisels, corner braces and irons, screw eye bolts, hammock hooks, awning hooks, meat hooks, pipe hooks, joint hooks, sign hooks, gate hooks, hinge nails, hitching rings, gate latches, wagon body staples, wrought steel staples, hasps and staples, garden rakes, fire shovels, pokers, and tongs…In addition to their machinery for manufacturing, they [had] a plant for electro plating in gold, silver, nickel, brass, copper, and bronze…When running full, the company [employed] about 150 hands and [had] a capacity for producing $200,000 worth of goods annually.” [Note: $200,000 in 1886 is the equivalent of over $5 million today.]

 

In 1880, James C. Brady became secretary and manager of the Wheeling Hinge Company. He subsequently organized the Wheeling Metal Company and served as an officer in it, along with his brothers Charles and W.S. Brady. Charles was also president of the Atlas Glass Company of Washington, PA, while W.S. was president of the Republic Glass Company of Clarksburg, WV. In 1901, the companies merged and incorporated as the Atlas Glass and Metal Company of Wheeling.

 

Meanwhile, in 1885 Charles N. Brady and Charles H. Tallman had formed the Hazel Glass Company of Wellsburg, WV. That company produced opal glass liners for Mason zinc caps.

 

In 1902, the Hazel Glass Company and the Atlas Glass and Metal Company were combined to form the Hazel-Atlas Glass Company, and several additional buildings were added to the 19th & Jacob Street site over the next years, with the newest structure built in 1935. By 1956, the company operated 12 glass plants and its metal plant in Wheeling, producing caps, glue and paste bottles, shoe polish bottles, snuff bottles, Syrup jars (for jams), Vaseline jars, Vicks jars, wide mouth cosmetic containers, and wide mouth food jars. Glass items were made in the company’s glass factories, while lids and moulds were made in the Wheeling factory.

 

On August 2, 1956, the U.S. Department of Justice filed suit to prevent the merger of Hazel-Atlas Glass Company with Continental Can Company. On September 14, 1956, the company became the Hazel-Atlas Glass Division of Continental Can. Legal issues continued well into the 1960s. In 1964, Continental Can donated its nearby office building at 15th and Jacob Streets to West Liberty State College, for use as the college’s Wheeling campus. In 1971, a group of local investors purchased the Wheeling cap plant from Continental Can, forming the Wheeling Closure Corporation. In 1985, Wheeling Closure became Penn-Wheeling Closure Corporation after another buyout.

 

Over the subsequent years, the Wheeling factory closed down, and the buildings were abandoned. Current owner Frank Calabrese uses most of the buildings to store architectural salvage. Demolition of about half of the buildings on the 3-acre lot is slated to begin in 2015.

 

Sources:

“From Glass … to Classes: The Hazel-Atlas Glass Company and West Virginia Northern Community College” date and author unknown.

 

“The Wheeling Hinge Company,” The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, September 14, 1886.

 

Prepared by Jeanne Finstein for Friends of Wheeling, May 2015

 

May 20, 2015 tour photos by Gary Zearott