The Hub Clothier Department Store, owned by Wheeling businessman Moses Sonneborn, open May 29, 1891, at the NE corner of 14th and Market streets.
-from the Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, Friday, May 29, 1891
The "Hub's" Opening
The opening of the "Hub," the new clothing store on the corner of Market and Fourteenth streets, an event looked forward to for several days, took place last night, and from an early hour in the evening till nearly midnight the large store was one jam of people. The place was most tastefully decorated, and the opening was in every sense a brilliant success. Each visitor received a handsome souvenir, and "cry-baby" whistles were also given away, with the result that late last night hundreds of people all over town were blowing the Hub's trumpet.
The Hill and Richards property on the Chapline Street side of the block was purchased by the Hub in 1913. The building was razed and a new four-floor building was erected on the site that joined the Market Street store creating a "thoroughfare from Market to Chapline streets." [See Intell, August 13th, 1913.]
An annex, the Sonneborn Building (more commonly known today as King's Jewelers), was added next door to the Market Street storefront between 1914 and 1915. After serving the Wheeling area for 75 years, the business closed in 1966.
▶ More history coming soon.