Look Back: Through the eyes of a reporter
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Scribbled on a Reporter's Pad
By Marie Beyer O'Brien
Down from the New England states, was the trip made by William Caswell, builder of some of the early homes on upper Juliana Street -- sometime not so long after the turn of the last century.
And when he came, he brought with him some of the saplings of the New England elms that were so beautiful. He brought them wrapped carefully with plenty of earth around their roots, because he was so anxious to have some of them in the yard of the new home he planned to build.
And he did have them -- as he planted them, lining them up carefully along what today is the east side of Juliana, between Tenth and Eleventh streets.
It was those trees which went before the woodman's saw and axe this spring [1939] -- wilted from the Dutch blight which has killed so many of the beautiful elms up through New England and down on through Ohio.
Miss Bessie Murdoch of Ann Street, told me something of the early history of those trees yesterday. She described having come out of a Juliana Street home one winter evening, long ago, when the snow was heaped, and there was a rosy afterglow lighting the western sky against which she saw the trees silhouetted.
The beauty of the scene was so perfect she never forgot it, and now, as do the rest of us, she feels the sadness of the trees having to go, greatly.
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Steeplejack
Coming out of the West Penn building yesterday [Eighth and Market streets], I caught Austine Slater gazing up at the sky. Only it wasn't the sky, but the two steeplejacks busy on the spire of the First Baptist Church over on the opposite corner.
They were checking up on the angle of the steeple -- it seems someone has been insisting it is leaning. But after plumbing it, they reported it wasn't leaning at all, but is as straight as ever. Now they're going to paint it.
Also busy on scaffolds were two men suspending from the roof of the Chancellor [hotel at 7th and Market streets] along the Market Street side. They appeared to be interested in the windows -- and probably were chunking in some missing putty as I didn't notice any buckets and brushes which would have indicated a job of washing. Besides, they don't use painter's scaffolding for that, anyway.
While I'm in the neighborhood in my comments of rambling, there's the old marble door in the marble wall there inside the office entrance at the Union Trust building just opposite the elevator shafts. I got awfully curious about that door, especially as I noticed it still was swung on hinges, although the keyhole and edges were plugged with what looks like plaster-paris.
I thought perhaps it might be a night depository to the Union Trust building bank perhaps. I was all wrong. Years ago, there was a drinking fountain in there where folks refreshed themselves. Only something went wrong with it, and they locked the marble door and plugged up the keyhole.
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Does anybody know anything about the Old Shakespeare club here? I have a photograph of eight young women -- members -- but I can't place the time of the club or the picture or the identity of those pictured. [This question can still be answered. Any responders out there?]
And you ought to see the picture of the Parkersburg Automobile club back in 1903, when most of the horseless carriages were old White Steamers, and owners lined up in them to be photographed.
The Parkersburg News
June 9, 1939
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Next week Ms. O'Brien's scribblings will continue with an item about aviator, Tommy Smith.
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Bob Enoch is president of the Wood County Historical and Preservation Society. If you have comments or questions about Look Back items, please contact him at: roberteenoch@gmail.com, or by mail at WCHPS, PO Box 565, Parkersburg, WV 26102.