811+Main

Christian Hess House

 * [[image:811mainsm.jpg width="300"]] || [[image:811-Main-sideporch30pc.jpg width="300"]] ||
 * 811 Main Facade || 811 Main Side Porch ||
 * [[image:811-Main-wavy-window40pc.jpg width="300"]] || [[image:811-Main-fence25pc.jpg width="300"]] ||
 * 811 Main Window || 811 Main Fence ||

1876 Second Empire French Renaissance style home open for tours by the Victorian Wheeling Landmarks Foundation. The black cast iron window box at the front of the house is the last one that remains in Wheeling. Christian Hess lived a rags to riches life, coming from Germany to the US in 1846 at the age of 21 when he learned to be a tailor. By 1855 he built a building at the corner of 14th and Main streets, and later his sons moved the business to 1321-1323 Market St where it fully occupied three stories. Christian was an investor in Peoples Bank, German Fire Insurance Co., Central Glass Co, and various steel and glassworks. He was a musician and early member of the Arion Association, which was apparently a music club.

[|Christian Hess House, 811 Main Street, LOC] (interior views)

Sources: Cranmer (1902) Pavilack and Fluty (1990) [|Victorian Wheeling.com]