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Franzheim, Paull To Join Wheeling Hall of Fame

WHEELING – Two stalwarts of Wheeling business and industry whose influence is felt to this day will take their respective places in the Wheeling Hall of Fame this June.

Late architect Edward Bates Franzheim and late insurance executive Alfred Paull will be among 11 inductees in the 2023 Wheeling Hall of Fame class. Those inductions will take place at a ceremony scheduled for Saturday, June 10, at WesBanco Arena. The event is open to the public and will begin at 6 p.m. A catered dinner is included. Tickets are $40 and can be purchased online at WesbancoArena.com, or by calling the box office at 304-233-7000, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Franzheim and Paul are being inducted in the category of Business, Industry and Professions.

Edward Bates Franzheim

Franzheim, born July 20, 1866, was one of Wheeling's preeminent architects of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and one of the city's first architects to procure formal academic training for his profession.

Educated at Linsly Institute, now The Linsly School, he also attended classes at Chauncey Hall in Boston, a preparatory school for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and benefited from a six-year apprenticeship with noted Boston architect John H. Sturgis. Franzheim subsequently studied abroad, which greatly expanded his knowledge of the architectural trends of the time.

Franzheim returned to Wheeling in 1890, opened his own office and developed a thriving practice in Wheeling's booming economy at the time.

Among his most famous works in the city are Vance Memorial Presbyterian Church, completed in 1896, and the City Bank of Wheeling, now known as the Professional Building, completed in 1891. Both buildings demonstrate his love for and mastery of the Richardsonian Romanesque style of design. Patterned after the Trinity Church in Boston, Vance Church is an exuberant masonry building with a cylindrical bell tower, rows of columns connected by rounded arches, and roofed with red terra cotta tiles hinting at a Spanish influence.

Franzheim also loved the neo-classical style, as exhibited in his design for the Joseph Schenk Mansion known as "Uplands," (now Altenheim at 1387 National Road); the neoclassical portico of and other renovations to the Oglebay Mansion Museum; and the "Blue Church" resembling a Doric temple at the corner of 12th and Jacob streets. The public has long enjoyed the ornate neoclassical stone gates gracing the entrance to Wheeling Park, a Franzheim masterpiece.

By 1902, Franzheim was one of West Virginia's most successful architects. In that year he designed the Board of Trade Building at the corner of 12th and Chapline streets, which also contained the spacious Court Theatre. Franzheim also managed the Court Theatre for five years.

He incorporated Palladian and Neo-Renaissance elements in the YWCA building at the corner of 10th and Chapline streets, the Hazel-Atlas Glass Building on 14th Street, and the former headquarters of Sterling Products in East Wheeling. Other similar notable designs include the former Ohio Valley General Hospital (Ohio Valley Medical Center), as well as the Rex Theatre, the Rogers Hotel and the Fort Henry Club, all in downtown Wheeling. Franzheim died May 11, 1942, but his many surviving works in Wheeling attest to his enduring legacy.

Alfred Paull

Paull, son of West Virginia Supreme Court Judge James Paull and Jane Ann (Fry) Paull, was born in Wheeling on Oct. 14, 1854. After attending Wheeling schools and Washington and Jefferson College in Pennsylvania, he became actively associated with business interests in Wheeling.

Paull started his active career as secretary of the Nail City Glass company and, beginning in 1881, served as secretary of the Manufacturers Insurance Co., a West Virginia corporation with its general offices in Wheeling. In January 1885, Paull became secretary of the Underwriters Insurance Co. He wielded much influence in the building of the business of each of these corporations and gained an authoritative position in the insurance business in the state.

His Alfred Paull & Son general insurance agency became state agents for West Virginia of several leading fire insurance companies and eventually included some 135 sub-agencies throughout the state. He also served as vice president of the Bank of the Ohio Valley and was associated with other well-known enterprises, being a director in the Nail City Lantern company, the American Insurance company, and the Dollar Savings bank. He was described as "one of the vital and progressive men who have done much to further the civic and material advancement of Wheeling."

Deeply interested in all things pertaining to the welfare and progress of Wheeling, Paull served as secretary of the Ohio Valley General Hospital, retiring from that office on Jan. 1, 1931. He also served four years as a member of Wheeling City Council and eight years as a member of the local board of education and was a director of the YMCA. Paull also was prominent in the Masonic fraternity, and was a grand commander of the West Virginia Grand Commandery of Knights Templars and a potentate of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.

An active member and ruling elder of Vance Memorial Presbyterian Church, Paull organized the famous Men's Bible Class, growing the group's membership from an initial eight men around the turn of the century to 250 by the time of his death some 20 years later. He was an active teacher of the class, which, beginning in 1914, averaged 115 people in attendance.

Alfred Paull married Lee Singleton, a daughter of Capt. W.T. Singleton, in 1877. The couple had four children: Alfred Singleton Paull (1883-1931), who married Mary Virginia Sands and was a partner in the Alfred Paull & Son insurance business; Mary Irwin Paull (1878-1962), who married Arthur G. Hubbard; Lyde Elizabeth Paull (1880-1967), who married Lyman B. Kirkpatrick; and Lee Cunningham Paull (1889-1958), who married Mary Glessner.

Paull died on Feb. 28, 1923. His obituary stated that "his greatest value to the community lay in the unselfish public spirit which characterized his entire life. He was charitable, courteous and kindly, gave of his time and substance to welfare movements throughout his life and found time for a prodigious amount of church work during an active and busy career." He was survived by his wife, their four children, and nine grandchildren. Descendants of his son Lee Cunningham Paull are still active in the insurance and real estate business in Wheeling.