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The Official Website of the State of West Virginia

This Unassuming Park Was Once A Lively Wheeling Attraction

11/17/2021

If you are looking for a bit of vanished history, drive the winding roads from Downtown Wheeling up to the Mozart Volunteer Fire Department. There you’ll find the last remaining plot of land of what used to be one of Wheeling’s largest, liveliest parks.
When Mozart Park opened in 1893, the first park goers would have similarly scrambled up the hill – on foot – to reach the top. But, on Monday, October 25 of that year, a 205-yard-long, coal-powered inclined railway made the park accessible to petticoats, bowler hats, cassocks, and all other manners of patrons.1  According to the Ohio County Public Library, “The president of the Brewery, Henry Schmulbach, had the vision and means to create a recreational park for the people of the area. He purchased land that encompassed the top of a high hill overlooking south Wheeling and developed Mozart Park on a portion of the land.” Remnants of this incline and the park remain in the names of the roads: Incline Avenue, Lower Incline Avenue, and Park Road. There is even a bar called The Incline on Frazier Street.
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