Friends of Wheeling Tour - 1410 Main Street (Smart Centre)

Friends of Wheeling toured 1410 Main Street on May 18, 2024. It is now the home to the Smart Centre and should be open in June 2024. Previously we toured this building on September 21, 2022. The building had just been purchased at that time.
Known as the Goodwin Drug Company, a wholesale drug store provider, this building is attached to the Wheeling Artisan Center, just to its north
This area of Wheeling has been commercial for decades. The 1870 “Birds Eye” view shows a row of buildings along the east side of Main Street, south of 14th (then named Quincy Street). The map shows a small, one- or two-story building that might have stood on the site at that time.
The first Wheeling City Directory that was found for 1410 Main Street was in 1882-1883 for the George S. Feeny Company, wholesale confectioner and fancy grocery. That listing is consistent with the 1884 Sanborn map that indicates a narrow, three-story, brick “wholesale candy” store at that address.
The following biography and image of Feeny (1841-1915) was found on FindaGrave.com:
Son of Hugh Fitzgerald Feeny [an Irish immigrant] and Mary Steenrod, George was born in Wheeling in 1841. When the Civil War broke out, George enlisted in the fall of 1861 in Company G, Stonewall Brigade as a [Confederate] private.

During his service he contracted typhoid fever which rendered him unable to perform active duty. Approximately three months later, George was able to accept a staff position with Maj. J.C. Johnson and was promoted to First Lieutenant for gallant and meritorious service. He served the remainder of the war and was surrendered with the army of General Johnson. He was paroled at Augusta, Georgia.

George engaged in the battles of Shenandoah Valley, Kernstown, Port Republic, Cross Keys, Winchester, Front Royal and also the Seven Days' fighting before Richmond. He was twice captured, once near Bristol, Tennessee and the second time near Jonesboro, Georgia, all within a week's time.

After the war, George returned to Wheeling and began a wholesale grocery business.
[https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/1...]
The 1898-1899 City Directory shows that the property was then the location of Harper and Brother, Wholesale Hats, operated by Samuel W. Harper and his mother, Marion L. Harper, the widow of Henry M. Harper. The firm advertised as “wholesalers of hats, caps, and gloves, manufacturers of the celebrated Eagle Brand Hat, fur, flanges and stiff hats; also a complete line of straw goods; office and salesroom 1410 Main.”
The 1902 Sanborn map shows a four-story, brick building at this address and labeled “wholesale hats,” and thus agreeing with the City Directory listing.
A photograph and brief biography from Progressive West Virginians describes Samuel W. Harper in 1923. In 1901, Harper (1874-1950) married Lillie Edgerton Vance (1874-1935), a daughter of James Nelson Vance, well-known entrepreneur and philanthropist who funded the building of Vance Memorial Presbyterian Church.
While Harper moved on from the hat business to other interests, the property became the home of Miller Furniture and Storage, owned by George H. Miller and advertising “general storage and household goods packed for shipment.” The first City Directory found with the Miller company was the one from 1917-1918. The 1921 Sanborn map shows the Miller property with the adjacent property listed as “ruins of fire, no floors, wall still standing 28 feet high.” That building, which had housed a wholesale grocery business in an earlier map, was apparently demolished; it is now a parking lot.
By the time of the 1923-1924 City Directory and 1921 Sanborn map, Goodwin Drug Company occupied 1410 Main Street. The company was probably founded earlier at another location.
Company president was J(ames) Thomas Goodwin (1851-1925). By around the turn of the century, Goodwin had retired from the business but was still listed as its president until his death in 1925. During the 1920s, the wholesale drug company was operated by Goodwin’s former business partners, John M. McDonald and John T. Reed. It remained in business until 2017, with the company name still visible on the window.
Robert and Libby Strong purchased the property in the fall of 2022 and plan to use it for their SMART Center business.
Prepared by Jeanne Finstein, Friends of Wheeling
September 21, 2022
Sources:
• Findagrave.com
• Ohio County Public Library – Sanborn Maps
• Progressive West Virginians, 1923
• Wheeling City Directories
• Wheeling Intelligencer
• WV Vital Records

Photos of both tours: FOW Tour – 1410 Main Street | Flickr