Howard Mansion
If you have ever stood at Medical Park in Wheeling and looked across the interstate to the hills, you might have noticed a unique mansion and wondered about it.
The hill on which the mansion stands is called Howard Place and was first purchased by the grandparents of Harry McClure, Sr. who built the McLure Hotel. Later, quite a bit of Pleasant Valley, including the hill was owned by John Reed who refused to pledge a loyalty oath to the Union and gave up his lucrative horse-breeding plantation to move to the South. Reed willed the hill to his daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Prather of Pittsburgh.
In 1903, John A. Howard purchased the sixty-seven acre hill and began building his mansion. Howard’s father had come to this country with his parents at the age of nine from Ireland. With his wife Mary, he settled in Steubenville until 1858 when he came to Ohio County and lived on a farm. Born May 27, 1857, John A. Howard was one of eight children. He was raised in Wheeling and attended public schools. As a boy he found employment in the glass works and while learning the trade of glass blowing took a commercial course at Frazer’s Business College.
Howard went to Charleston in 1885 as the private secretary of Gov. Wilson and while acting in that capacity, read law books in the governor’s office, and passed the bar exam. He entered the University of Virginia in 1887, again studying law, and the following year began his practice in Wheeling in partnership with the Hon. J. B. Sommerville. He was elected to Prosecuting Attorney in 1888.
Being an entrepreneur, Howard controlled the National Telephone Company and The City & Elm Grove Railroad. The railroad owned Wheeling Park and the Suburban Water and Light Company which served the Wheeling Creek area and was worth $4 to $5 million at the time. Author Melville Davisson Post, also a Wheeling lawyer, dedicated his book “Randolph Mason, His Strange Schemes” to Howard. The book is about a lawyer who advises his clients on how to commit crimes and avoid punishment.
At the peak of his career, Howard wanted to build a home that would be a showcase. Construction began in 1903 and the stables and carriage houses were built first to house the owners while the mansion was completed. Architect Fred Faris, built the mansion in the Italian renaissance style and constructed an incline to haul the tons of necessary stone from the National Road up to the finger of land where the mansion now stands with steep ravines on either side. The stone came from Beres quarry. The cornice (crown on the outside top of the house) was said to duplicate one made by Michaelangelo.
When completed in 1914, the mansion included intricate balustrades on the grand staircase which were carved by Italian wood-workers brought to the area by W. C. Kloblaugh who supervised the construction. Instead of carved spindles, the balustrade was mahogany and consisted of carved ivy wreathes festooned with ribbons. The seats in the hallway were carved from Italian walnut and Goeblin tapestries adorned the walls
of the entryway.
When finished the mansion had thirty rooms and the dimensions were startling. The living room, to the left of the entry way measured 60 feet by 35 feet. The paneling is Circassian walnut.
One writer described the room thus: “In the center of the outside wall is a massive Siena marble mantel flanked with art glass windows corresponding in design to the beautiful Italian gardens on the exterior. The marble is a veined buff, and must be fifteen feet across the shelf. The colors for this room were taken from this center furnishing [the mantle]. The shades of buff, orange and brown are found in the hangings and walls. Prism glass chandeliers and sconces take care of the lighting. The floor of this room as well as the hall and other rooms of the first floor is teakwood, put in with a conventional design. One could not imagine anything more delightful than to be comfortably located in such a handsome and spacious room outlined with every elegance known to architects, builders, and decorators.”
The landscape architect for this “Switzerland of Wheeling” was Paul Oglesby who was then employed by the Philadelphia Parks Commission. He introduced his formal garden with a pair of urns adorned with dancing Grecian maidens on either side of the entrance and four statues depicting the four season placed amid the plantings. Ornamental garden benches invited visitors to sit a while before the background of cedars, hedges, and brilliant blooms of the borders.
The hillside itself had exotic plantings and forest trees were tiered as one climbed the hill. A twenty-foot waterfall spilled through the ravine which one crossed via the stone bridge. As Howard’s Run traced down the glen, truckloads of ferns had been planted to enhance the hillside hideaway, and John Howard added to the magic of the ravine by placing gnomes carved in Austria throughout the glen. Numerous exotic plants such as flowering crabs, Chinese peonies, and Japanese cherry were planted on the hillside and shady spots were covered with rhododendron imported from Biltmore, the Vanderbilt estate in Asheville, North Carolina. The great wall along the National Road was built from stone quarried at Murraysville, Jackson County, West Virginia.
By 1920, Howard needed money and converted a house at the bottom of the hill into apartments. Since this was a financial success, he built a larger apartment house next to it. Investing heavily in the Suburban Improvement Company proved to be the attorney’s downfall when it was taken over by Fidelity Investments. When Fidelity went into receivership the mansion was broken up into apartments and was put up for auction in 1947. Lots at the bottom of the hill were sold off.
John Howard died in 1933 at the age of 77. Howard’s contribution to Wheeling was a secluded, treasured neighborhood cherished by its residents for its privacy and beauty.
Research by Kate Quinn