By Joelle Connors
Downtown Wheeling.
Two little words that conjure images, ideals and memories. Eight blocks of a city center carrying the weight of a region, worn down and rust-belted, on the brink of revitalization.
They should do something to fix it, many have said, but talk is cheap—except to the man who believes doing something about it actually means doing something about it.
The Long Road Home
Glenn Elliott is a West Virginia native who, like so many of his peers, sought greener pastures and promises of a future far brighter than he thought could be achieved in the tired steel town of Wheeling where he grew up. He went to college at The University of Pennsylvania, then he went on to law school at Georgetown. With a desirable life in the Washington, D.C. area and working at a big law firm, the idea of returning to Wheeling had never occurred to him.
Until it did.
Success is in the eye of the beholder and, as such, is defined a little differently by each person. For Elliott, he had given the D.C. legal market his best shot, but he found he was looking for more, like time away from the city, maybe to write a book. That’s when he began to think about country roads and how they’ll always take a mountaineer home.
Welcome to Wheeling
After Elliott moved back home, he lived in a guest house on his father’s property that needed some work. “I offered to put some sweat equity into the house to modernize it in exchange for living there for a while,” says Elliott. “Working with my father, doing some light carpentry, plumbing, electrical and related work, rekindled my interest in building and repairing things that I hadn’t felt since I was a teenager.”
In a very short time, he was able to feel like part of something in a way he hadn’t in D.C. “I felt that there was a real interest in and appreciation of my efforts to get involved in the community from the first time I tried,” he says. In 2010, it was clear to him that he would be staying in Wheeling, so he became an independent contract lawyer for Toriseva Law, consulting on cases from corporate to civil litigation.
One way in which he rooted himself back into the area was to become involved with the Ohio Valley Young Preservationists (OVYP), a group focused on connecting younger members of Wheeling’s community who are interested in preserving the city’s history, culture and architecture. One of the group’s immediate goals was to vocalize the community’s long-simmering frustration with the demolition of historic buildings and neighborhoods for economic development.
For the Love of Wheeling
In February 2013, OVYP kicked off Lovescaping, a campaign to bring some attention to the vacant buildings downtown that were for sale. It was a Valentine’s Day-themed promotion in which OVYP and community members created love-based messages for the old buildings in an attempt to raise awareness and interest among potential buyers and investors. The handmade signs were hung in the windows of buildings. For example, one building had a giant pink heart that read “I was once loved by Kings,” referring to King’s Jeweler, a business that had previously occupied the building. Other signs included “Hey Baby, I’m Available,” “Lonely Hearts Club” and “I’m a Keeper.”
“The purpose of the campaign was, first and foremost, to bring attention to the stock of buildings that were then available for purchase or lease, as well as those that were in danger of demolition,” says Elliott. “The choice of Valentine’s Day and the use of the decorative hearts was very intentional—the implication being that these buildings were both deserving of and asking for a little love.”
One such building, known as The Professional Building, was lovescaped in 2013. “I first really took note of The Professional Building while serving on one of the lovescaping teams decorating downtown buildings,” says Elliott. “It was then that I just stopped in my tracks and stared at the building from top to bottom. It’s not accurate to say I discovered the building that day, but it is fair to say that I first appreciated its grandeur while standing on the sidewalk across from Market Street.”
Welcome Home
After a summer-long negotiation with the building’s owners, Elliott purchased the structure in the fall of 2013, and he got right to work, stripping wallpaper, painting, installing fire safety equipment and meeting with city code enforcement officials. The building began to come alive around him.
With the power of social media and permission from the city, Elliott was able to find enough commercial tenants to fill the entire first floor in just a few short months. What used to be an eye doctor’s office with several exam rooms is now office space for six tenants. They share a conference room and kitchen, and there is even a hot desk with Wi-Fi, a printer and use of the conference room for those who might only need a work space for a few hours at a time.
As for Elliott, he’s made himself at home in the old building—quite literally. He has moved into the second floor, making it his permanent address. “My home in Sherrard, WV is 15 minutes away from downtown, and I found myself spending an hour or more in my car each day making trips to and from home, work and Lowe’s,” says Elliott. “So I decided I would use one of the upper floors of the building as a residence during the renovation process.”
Moving Mountains
Transforming the worn and dated space of The Professional Building into a sanctuary for small business was no small feat. Old buildings are expensive and difficult to own, and insurance is hard to get. The roof on the building alone will take upwards of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars to fix. But Elliott has set out on a quest to bring her back to life, and he’s come too far to turn back now. In reality, what’s happening with this building has transcended the building itself and begun to change the conversation about Downtown Wheeling in general.
In 2014, Elliott was awarded a $25,475 matching grant from the West Virginia State Historic Preservation Office. With his match, nearly $51,000 worth of roof repairs will be possible in the short term for the building’s failing flat roof and sixth floor skylight. Elliott has also found an out-of-box solution for complying with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements. For 122 years, The Professional Building has been inaccessible to wheelchairs as its front five steps have separated the first floor from the Market Street sidewalk. When told of the challenges of redesigning the ornate front entrance for wheelchair accessibility, Elliott turned his attention to the contiguous alley to the building’s left. He has since been in discussions with the city to put an ADA entrance with a ramp and elevator shaft in the alley. The only problem is that the city would have to abandon the alley, and the underlying pipes for utilities would have to be moved. This is not a small task, but surprisingly, the city has agreed to work with him, and American Electric Power is tentatively on board.
That alley is also the location of another unbelievable movement that has gone viral in the community.
“Meet Me in the Alley”
A few months after buying the building, Elliott hired his friend, Wheeling photographer Bennett McKinley, to take some promotional photos of himself and the building. During the shoot, Elliott’s Cavalier King Charles spaniel needed to be walked, and McKinley snapped a candid of Elliott in the alley alongside The Professional Building. After the shoot, McKinley sent Elliott the pictures and told him he especially liked the alley shots.
Elliott posted the photos to social media, and people loved them. Referred to simply as the alley, a lot of people in town started talking about it. After prompting from Elliott’s girlfriend, Catherine O’Connor, McKinley took to social media with an invitation: Meet me in the alley, and I’ll take your picture. He took so many photos that he had a gallery show at the Wheeling Artisan Center.
According to McKinley, he is planning to continue the free series until he gets at least 1,000 participants, having photographed upwards of 350 to date. McKinley has locals show up at various times in the alley, and to be photographed, they need only to fill out a form and be themselves. “I try not to pose people or make suggestions to describe themselves,” says McKinley.
Elliott says there are two reasons the series has been so successful. “First, it’s just good art. For whatever reason, people look good in the alley the way Bennett shoots them there. But I think another reason has to do with the hunger for positive news stories. He’s merely giving people a chance to celebrate the people of Wheeling as we are today.”
Wheeling Today
Embracing Wheeling in the present is an important goal for Elliott. He feels that many people view Wheeling as a place that used to be something—who talk about Downtown Wheeling in the past tense. “I don’t want to live in a city that looks and acts like it used to be something,” he says. “I want to live in a city that is something, a city that looks and acts exactly as it was intended to look—an intentional place.”
He named his company Market Street Now, LLC to focus on Wheeling today and Wheeling tomorrow in hopes that his steps will help the community come together and direct their attention to a collective future for the city.
As for The Professional Building, Elliott says his love for it is difficult to articulate, but he has high hopes for what it will represent for his hometown. “It was one of the prides of the city during a period of considerable expansion in the 1890s. What’s most exciting for me in that regard is the chance to be a part of the building’s encore performance more than 120 years after its construction. The Professional Building might have the rare opportunity to be emblematic of a city’s economic and cultural growth in the 19th and 21st centuries. The possibility to play a supporting role in that story means a lot to me.”
