photo by: Eric Ayres

The former U.S. Army Reserve Center in Clator — known commonly as the Armory — has been used by the Wheeling Fire Department for its administrative offices while work is being completed on the new $9 million fire department headquarters in East Wheeling. The Armory has also been utilized as a key location for flood relief efforts over the past year and a half.

WHEELING — The city of Wheeling received the keys to the former U.S. Army Reserve Center in Clator last year, and it immediately got plenty of use. The next task for the facility will be to house a FEMA disaster survivor center for those recovering from the deadly June 14 floods in Ohio County. The opening date for that center has yet to be determined, though other centers are now open in Triadelphia and Valley Grove.

Wheeling city leaders have described the property as an invaluable asset in light of events that have unfolded since the city acquired it.

Previously named as the BG J Sumner Jones United States Army Reserve Center, the center – more commonly known as the Armory – for decades served as a military police headquarters from the 305th Military Police Company.

The campus was vacated in 2020, and city officials worked with the federal government and U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., to eventually acquire the property. Wheeling City Manager Robert Herron said the Armory is not yet officially owned by the city, but city departments have been permitted to operate out of the space for several months now.

When the former Wheeling Fire Department Headquarters closed in Center Wheeling, the new $9 million Fire HQ facility was expected to be completed. However, the general contractor on the job had filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy halfway through the project, and the old Center Wheeling Parking Garage — which housed the previous fire headquarters on the lower level — was already slated for demolition.

In light of the fire headquarters situation, the Armory has served as a temporary location for a number of city offices, including offices for Wheeling Fire Chief Jim Blazier and the department’s administrative staff.

The facility has also played a key role as a central location for city efforts in response to major weather events and flooding – from last year’s federal disaster that occurred in April 2024 to the recent devastating floods around Little Wheeling Creek.

“It shouldn’t be forgotten the role that the Armory property has played,” Wheeling City Manager Robert Herron said. “Not only with the fire headquarters project and the fact that we’ve been able to move our administrative staff there and use that property, but also in the flood relief efforts that have occurred beginning in the middle of last month and continue to the end of this day.”

During disaster relief efforts last year, the U.S. Small Business Administration established offices at the Armory. In June following the deadly and destructive floods that struck the areas of Valley Grove, Triadelphia and parts of Wheeling, the center had been utilized as a hub for flood supply distribution efforts.

Federal law establishes a process for first responder use of vacated federal property, city officials noted. Wheeling has been utilizing the property for that purpose and continues in the process to acquire the facility for continued city use in the future.

“I’d like to shout out and recognize Sen. Capito for her efforts to include the transfer of that property to the city of Wheeling in the defense authorization bill that President Biden signed in 2023,” Herron said. “We don’t own the property yet, but had that not been in that bill, we probably would not have been able to use it on a temporary basis.”

After months of delays, the new Wheeling Fire Department Headquarters in East Wheeling is finally expected to open in the coming weeks. When the fire department administration and equipment relocates to the new headquarters, the city is expected to continue its pursuit of officially acquiring the Armory property.

“There’s still a process yet to transfer it to the city, but the fact that we’ve been able to use it has really been a beneficial aspect to our first responders ever since we took temporary possession of the property about months ago,” Herron said.