Woodsdale Elementary and Junior High School History
-from "A Collection About Ohio County Public Schools," Levering C. Bonar, 1978, pg. 101.
This school, built in 1910 and razed in 1975, was located at the corner of Maple Avenue and Bethany Pike. It was an attractive structure, faced with red brick and trimmed with stone. Only the furnace room and walls were fireproof. It had a flat roof, wide entrances, spacious corridors, all characterizing the construction of that time. Chemical extinguishers, fire hose, and steel fire escapes afforded fire protection. Floors were of maple, except in the basement where they were cement. An auditorium-gymnasium provided a good place for athletic contests, physical education and a stage large enough to present plays and other entertainments. Classrooms and halls had high ceilings. The rooms were generally 24 x 32 feet in size, and were lighted from the left and rear. During this period of construction, generally desks and seats were fastened to the floors in straight rows, and this was followed at Woodsdale. this two-story structure was, at first, an eight classroom school, but received one major addition. As enrollments increased, a neighboring residence was purchased and converted into classrooms and the Vance Church permitted some of its rooms to be used for classes.
It has been replaced with a one-story, split level, open classroom elementary school, which required more building space so more property was purchased.
▶ View a list of Woodsdale School Principals
Location
▶ 1 Bethany Pike (original school, located on the corner of Maple Avenue and Bethany Pike, demolished in 1975)
Images
Library Resources
▶ Vertical File: Wheeling Schools A-Z, Wheeling Room, non-circulating, ask for access at the reference desk.
▶ Yearbook: Reflections (Woodsdale Junior High School Yearbook), 1973, Wheeling Room, non-circulating, ask for access at the reference desk.
▶ Yearbook: The Warrior (Woodsdale Junior High School Yearbook), 1971-2, 1974, Wheeling Room, non-circulating, ask for access at the reference desk.
▶ "Wheeling Rediscovered: a bicentennial project of Ohio County's public, private and parochial school : essays, sketches and photographs on Wheeling's past, present and future," 1976. Call#: 975.415 W52wr
▶ A Collection About Ohio County Public Schools, Bonar, Levering C., 1978. Call#: Wheeling 379.75414 B64c, Wheeling Room, non-circulating, ask for access at the reference desk.
▶ Educational survey of Wheeling, West Virginia: a report of a survey of the public schools of the Independent School District of Wheeling, West Virginia, made at the request of the Board of School Commissioners, under the direction of the United States Commissioner of Education," 1921, Call#: Wheeling 371.010975414 Ed83 1921, Wheeling Room, non-circulating, ask for access at the reference desk.