Hazlett House
This high-style, Second Empire home was built in 1887 by retired Wheeling physician Robert W. Hazlett. The three-story, fourteen plus room residence replaced a house and office that stood on the same site as early as 1845. Designed by architect Edgar W. Wells, the home displays fine workmanship in both the interior and exterior. Queen Anne details are found on the interior woodwork, featuring bands of suns and sunflowers and lincrusta wainscot on and the walls of the entry hall and main staircase. Both the front and back parlors have interior mahogany shutters on the windows and mahogany panels below them.
The dining room features mahogany woodwork, rosewood grained door panels, lincrusta medallions and wainscot, baroque plaster ceiling ornaments, and an iron mantle with painted panels in the Anglo-Japanese style. Exterior features of note are the foundation walls of sandstone with bushhammered faces and chisel-cut dressing, molded brick walls, incised sandstone door and window lintels, elaborate cornice decoration, projecting bay supported by egg-and-dart brick corbelling, and Mansard roof. The building is presently used as headquarters for Friends of Wheeling and rental units.
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Photos by Gary Zearott
Dr. Robert W. Hazlett (1828 – 1899)
Robert W. Hazlett was born in Washington, Pennsylvania, the son of Samuel and Sarah Hazlett. After receiving medical training at Washington College and Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, Hazlett began his practice in Wheeling. Ill health caused him to temporarily quit his practice in 1857-58. During this period, he wandered over the hills of Virginia making geological examinations of coal fields and drilling the first oil well in what is now West Virginia. Having regained his health, he resumed his medical practice in Wheeling until the outbreak of the Civil War. He was commissioned as surgeon of the 2nd Regiment, Virginia Volunteer Infantry in June 1861. In the fall of 1862 he was appointed surgeon of Latham’s independent brigade, and in 1863 he was appointed one of the surgeons of the United States general hospital in Grafton. He witnessed much fighting during the war and participated in numerous engagements, including the battles of Monterey, McDowell, Cross Keys, Cedar Mountain, Waterloo, White Sulphur Springs, Warrenton, Freeman’s Ford, Second Bull Run, Centerville, and Chantilly.
Following the war, Hazlett resumed a successful medical practice in Wheeling. He served as president of the city, county, and state medical societies, was a member of city council and the board of education, and for more than twenty years was examining surgeon for pensions for the United States government. He also had interests in manufacturing and business enterprises, serving as a director of the National Bank of West Virginia and of the Wheeling and Belmont Bridge Company. He retired from active medical practice around 1880.
Robert W. Hazlett married Mary E. Hobbs in 1852. They raised five children – Howard, Samuel, Edward, Robert, and Catherine (Kate).
Robert Hazlett (1863 – 1944)
Robert Hazlett was born in Wheeling, the son of Dr. Robert W. Hazlett and Mary Hobbs Hazlett. He graduated from Linsly Military Institute and earned a civil engineering degree from Ohio State University. The first part of his career was spent in engineering efforts. Projects included construction of the steel viaduct of the north terminal bridge at Martin’s Ferry and the Chapline Hill Tunnel. He then went to Washington, D.C. and assumed charge of the construction of a bridge across the Potomac River and the building of an electric railway to Arlington Cemetery. He next went to New York City and, in association with prominent civil engineer Job Abbott, made plans for construction of 200 miles of railroad and station houses for the Bangor & Aroostook Railroad in Maine. Returning to Wheeling in 1895, he entered a partnership with Gilmor Brown. The firm of Brown & Hazlett tackled projects that included the city water works system, a reservoir for the Suburban Light & Water Company, and tracks from Elm Grove to Triadelphia for the Wheeling and Elm Grove Railway. Additional projects included the Parkersburg Electric Railway and power-house and the Fairmont & Clarksburg Electric Railway. He became the county engineer for Ohio County and in that capacity had charge of 200 miles of road in the county and the construction of 38 steel bridges, built to replace older wooden ones.
In later years, Robert Hazlett became more and more involved in banking and business interests. He served as president of the Dollar Savings and Trust Company, and when this bank merged with the Wheeling Bank and Trust, became chairman of the board. He was president of the Wheeling and Belmont Bridge Company, treasurer of Linsly Institute, and member of the boards of directors of the Ward Baking Company, Wheeling Mould and Foundry, Palace Furniture Company, and Greenwood Cemetery Association. He was also Wheeling’s postmaster for three years, served in both branches of the West Virginia legislature, and served six years as a city councilman.
Hazlett married Ann Cummins in 1909. Their children were Catherine, Robert C., and Dr. James C. Hazlett. They resided at 921 Main Street until the 1920’s, when they moved to Echo Point.