INDUSTRY

Like all cities, Charleston's industries were mostly based near the waterways or railroads  On the Kanwaha
river for instance was the famous Ward Engineering Works and others. Along both sides of the Elk were
most of the lumber, furniture,  and planing mills.  If a railroad track was nearby, there was an industry to
use it.  As almost everything was operated by coal fired boilers,  the air was filled with smoke.. and money.

Ward Boiler
Ward Engineering Works built everything from boilers to boats and became very famous across the nation in it's day. They were on the South Side, and looking carefully you can see the Union Building across the river in the upper right.  See more information and photos of Ward Engineering Works  HERE




Charleston Photos





Pfaff & Smith Charleston WV

Here's another photo that I especially like. To the untrained eye, it's just another photo of industry, but let's take a closer look:  This is Pfaff & Smith on the Elk River about a half block from Joe Fazio's.  The first thing that catches your eye is the wooden hulled steam powered sternwheeler.  But look to your left.  See that bridge?  That's the Spring Street Bridge.  Wait a minute: That bridge is a suspension bridge!  Let's look closer:




Spring Street Bridge
The suspension bridge was actually once holding up traffic in another part of town when it was decided that a newer, larger bridge was needed in that spot.  So the bridge was dismantled piece by piece and moved to Spring Street and rebuilt.  So where was this bridge first used?  It was for years, the Virginia Street Bridge, built in 1875.  It was built for light loads like horse wagons etc, not heavy traffic as was starting to occur. See a great full length photo of this bridge HERE





Charleston Photos


Oil Well Supply
This was the Hansford Street location of Oil Well Supply.  I like this otherwise bland photo because if you look closely to the upper right, you will see one of my favorite buildings: Charleston General Hospital.







Charleston Photos




Kelly Ax
Kelly Axe, taken from across the Kanawha River.   See more HERE





Charleston Photos




Kanawha Mine Car
Kanawha Mine Car Co on Dixie Street.  This is the rear view.  Now Kanawha Manufacturing.





Charleston Photos






Charleston Lumber
Charleston Lumber was located at  818 Bullitt Street.   The train tracks to the right are just yards from the Elk River Bridge.  Sidenote: almost every lumber company in Charleston involved a spectular fire at one time or another.




Charleston Photos





Yellow Pine Lumber
Yellow Pine Lumber.  The company was located at 1311 Wilson Street across from the C&O yard.  Wilson Street is now Smith Street. So the company was located "about" where the old Kroger store was.



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Virginian Electric

Virginian Electric was a multi faceted company.  They not only manufactured and repaired all things electric, but sold everything from cars to vacuum cleaners.  The repair shop shown here was near the railroad track off Washington Street E, near Michigan Ave.  The state purchased part of this property to build a license plate plant in 1930, but that was stopped due to the new state capitol complex that was about to be built nearby.








n  INDUSTRY PAGE TWO


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