The Oglebay mansion was built in 1846 by Hanson Chapline. First constructed as an eight-room farm house, the structure has undergone considerable transformations over the years. Earl Oglebay, a wealthy industrialist, purchased the farm from his father-in-laws estate in 1900. He created a palatial summer estate for the Oglebay Family. He called his estate Waddington Farms. At the time of his death there were 17 rooms in the Mansion.
Colonel Oglebay made arrangements prior to his death in 1926 to bequest Waddington Farms to the city of Wheeling.
Oglebay Institute's Mansion Museum depicts the history and decorative arts of the upper Ohio Valley. Although some items on display originally belonged to the Oglebay family, most are gifts and acquisitions obtained since the 1930s. Colonel Oglebay's grandson, Courtney Burton added a wing to the Mansion Museum in 1966. Included in this addition is the Waddington Room, which is dedicated to the history of the Oglebay family.
Note: The Image files Have been compressed to load faster. Some files contain up to twenty or more photo's, and have loaded fairly fast on my Machine.
Christmas at the Mansion.
Every year during the Christmas season the Mansion is decorated with a different theme. This years theme is "The Twelve Days of Christmas" all of the rooms are decorated with a different day of the Days of Christmas theme. The rooms are sponsored and decorated by local companies. There are over Thirty Thousand visitors to the Mansion during the Christmas Holidays.
Train and Miniature Displays.
Our "G" gauge train display has been featured at the Oglebay Mansion Museum during the Christmas Holiday's for the last 14 years. It has grown from one engine, four cars and a caboose and six structures, to it's present size.
The Platform.
The platform is 32 by 20 feet.It is constructed of twenty, 4 X 8 feet sheet's of 3/4" Plywood. Each sheet is mountedon a frame of 2 X 4's. Then all are bolted together to form the platform supported by 2 X 4 legs. With a finished height of 30 inches.The finished table was then covered with green short nape outdoor carpet.A 18 inch high Plexiglass wall was added on all side's to keep little hands off of the table.
The Fantastic work's of Ed Martin.
This year we are sharing the platform with the display of Miniatures bythe late Ed Martin of Wheeling, WV.. There are four pieces of Mr. Martin's work on display in the room with our train. The Circus, Farm, Santa's workshop, and an old fashion City Park in mid winter .
The Circus has six sections which fit together to form a seven by six foot display. It is on the train platform out of reach of curious hands, it would be best viewed as a walk around display to take advantage of Mr. Martin excellent work. But room is not available in the room to do this.
The Farm is real work of animated art. Mr.Martin used motors and cam's with a series of wires and levers to do his animation. I couldn't begin to tell of all the things that were made to move on this display.
Santa's workshop is fully animated with three rooms of figures doing all the things you would expect to see going on in Santa's workshop.
The City Park Has a fully animated Band, skater's, playground, and other type's of activity.
We were able to get two of the three animated pieces working. But ten years of storage has taken it's toll on the wooden cam's and the wires for the animation,s, on all. It was decided not to run any of them at this time. They are still a treat for the eye and a look into the past as if a piece of history is frozen in time.
The Miniature Society display's.
There are several miniatures owned by individuals of the Wheeling area and the Institute in cases arranged around the room.
The Festival of Light's at Oglebay Park.
The city of Wheeling, WV. and Oglebay Park are part of the Festival of light's each Holiday Season. The lights are on November 1, 2000 through January 7, 2001 at Oglebay park.Oglebay Park alone has over six miles of lighted displays.
If you have questions, comments or suggestions, E-mail me.YOGI
