Wheeling Brewer and Businessman

November 12, 1844-August 13, 1915

Brewer and businessman Henry Schmulbach was born in Germany, and moved to Wheeling with his family as a child. The Schmulbachs joined a thriving German immigrant community in the Northern Panhandle. Henry went to work with his uncle in the retail grocery business while still a teenager, later switching to the wholesale liquor trade.

In coming years Schmulbach established himself as a leader in Wheeling business and industry. He worked as a merchant until 1881, then purchased the Nail City Brewery in 1882, renaming it the Schmulbach Brewing Company and increasing capacity to 200,000 barrels annually. He was president of the German Bank, now WesBanco, president of the Wheeling Bridge Company, and president of local telephone and streetcar companies. He was the owner of steamboats and a stockholder in several iron and nail companies.

Like many in the streetcar business, Schmulbach established an amusement park to bolster ridership on weekends and holidays. His Mozart Park was built on top of a hill overlooking South Wheeling. Schmulbach built an impressive inclined railway to reach the hilltop park, opening it to riders in 1893. The incline itself soon became a major attraction, reportedly carrying as many as 1,200 passengers an hour.

In 1904–07, Schmulbach had the Schmulbach Building constructed, West Virginia’s first high-rise office building. Still a Wheeling landmark, it is today the headquarters of Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel. Schmulbach’s Chapline Street house is one of a group of eight Victorian row houses added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. Many visitors find a humorous resemblance to a dollar mark in his intertwined initials on the doorway.

Henry Schmulbach died at home in Wheeling.

- from e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia "Henry Schmulbach." e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia. 08 December 2015.

▼ Additional biographical information

Images

Additional Resources

West Virginia Division of Culture and History Vital Research Records (wvculture.org/vrr/)
▶ Death certificate: August 13, 1915

Also see:
OCPL Wheeling History Website: Schmulbach Brewing Co. 
OCPL Wheeling History Website: Schmulbach Building