WEIRTON

A short history of Weirton

Weirton's history dates to Fort Holliday, an American Revolutionary War fortification constructed in 1776 by soldiers from Fort Pitt. It was located in what is now downtown Weirton along Harmons Creek (named for Harmon Greathouse), about 3 miles (4.8 km) from its mouth on the Ohio River. It was commanded by Colonel Andrew Van Swearingen (1741–1793) and later by his son-in-law, Captain Samuel Brady (1756–1795). Van Swearingen led a dozen soldiers by longboat down the Ohio to help rescue the inhabitants of Fort Henry in Wheeling in a siege by the British and Indian tribes in 1777, which was memorialized in a mural at the Cove Station Post Office in Weirton. In 1779, over 28 militia were garrisoned at Fort Holliday.

A small village called Hollidays Cove, now most of downtown Weirton, was founded on the site in 1793. In 1909, Ernest T. Weir arrived from neighboring Pittsburgh and built a steel mill, later known as the Weirton Steel Corporation, just north of Hollidays Cove. An unincorporated settlement called Weirton grew around the mill that, by 1940, was said to be the largest unincorporated area in the United States. Weirton was featured in a photo essay titled Weir's Weirton in the September 13, 1937, issue of Life, whose cover displayed a portrait of Ernest T. Weir.

By the 1940s, Hollidays Cove and two other outlying areas, Marland Heights and Weirton Heights, had also incorporated. On July 1, 1947, the incorporated towns of Hollidays Cove, Marland Heights, and Weirton Heights merged with the remaining unincorporated area and formed the city of Weirton. Thomas E. Millsop, the head of the Weirton Steel division of National Steel Corporation, was elected as the city's first mayor. The city charter was approved by voters in 1950.

Weirton was one of several Ohio Valley towns that served as film locations for the acclaimed 1978 film, The Deer Hunter. Six years later it served as the primary location for filming of Reckless. The 2011 movie Super 8 was filmed in downtown Weirton, as well as many other places throughout the town, in the fall of 2010.

In 2011, the city and its two counties had attracted the attention of The New York Times which noted the town was dwindling in population. The article reported that Brooke County had just 71 live births for every 100 deaths and that Hancock County was in similar straits. This has led, the article claimed, to a reduction in civic institutions.

Weirton is home to a number of sites on the National Register of Historic Places, including the Johnston-Truax House, Marland Heights Park and Margaret Manson Weir Memorial Pool, People's Bank, Dr. George Rigas House, and the Peter Tarr Furnace Site.

Adapted (trimmed) from the Wikipedia article Weirton, West Virginia, revision 1379600004 by its contributors, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.