End of an Era

When Elder-Beerman closes its Ohio Valley Mall store this spring, it will spell the end for the lineage of three large department stores that once held prime real estate in downtown Wheeling and later at the St. Clairsville mall: Stone & Thomas, L.S. Good & Co. and Horne’s.

All three of these stores once catered to shoppers in the busy downtown Wheeling district. Stone & Thomas operated in the giant Stone Center in the 1000 block of Main and Market streets; L.S. Good ran its store in the 1100 block of Main and Market streets; and Horne’s operated at the corner of 11th and Main streets at the edge of the Market Plaza.

Upon the mall’s opening in the late 1970s, L.S. Good’s and Horne’s opened additional stores at the new Belmont County location. The former served as the original anchor on the western side (back/far side) of the mall, while the latter operated a large store in what is now the section for women’s clothing at Elder-Beerman.

Federal court documents show that a bankruptcy case decided in December 1980 led to the eventual closure of L.S. Good’s. That fits well with this reporter’s memory, as I am just barely old enough to remember the store being at the mall.

Once L.S. Good’s vacated the mall, Stone & Thomas assumed the large anchor space. For the rest of the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s, the store seemed to do fairly well at the mall.

During this same time, however, most of the downtown Wheeling retailers either closed or moved. The Wheeling Horne’s store eventually closed, while the L.S. Good’s building was razed to make way for a parking lot. Stone & Thomas remained in Wheeling during this time, though.

In 1996, Stone & Thomas and the Ohio Valley Mall made a bold move. The large department store would vacate its anchor position at the back of the mall — and would assume a new position between what is now Macy’s and Kmart. The new store would be split down the mall’s thoroughfare, with one side devoted to women’s and children’s clothing, as well as cosmetics, while the other side would feature men’s clothing and other merchandise.

In building this unique store, Stone & Thomas consolidated the spaces that several smaller stores once occupied, with Horne’s being one of those. The new mall Stone’s opened in time for the 1996 Christmas shopping season.

Less than two years later, in summer 1998, Elder-Beerman acquired the Stone & Thomas company for $38 million, allowing the new company to place its name on the stores at the mall and in downtown Wheeling.

Elder-Beerman closed the Stone & Thomas store in downtown Wheeling in the early 2000s, which effectively ended the Friendly City’s status as a retail destination. So, when the store at the mall this spring, it will end the lineage to three large retailers that held a significant chunk of the Ohio Valley market for many years.

Making the Mountain State Shine

Applications are now available for the 2017 West Virginia Make It Shine Statewide Cleanup.

This annual event is jointly sponsored by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection and the Division of Highways.

During the first two weeks of April, the Make It Shine program will provide resources such as cleanup materials, waste hauling, and landfill fees to community groups volunteering to conduct litter cleanups on state streams or public lands.

More than 6,500 West Virginia people participated in last year’s statewide cleanup. These volunteers removed nearly 100 tons of litter, including 900 tires, from our state’s landscape.

The application deadline for those wishing to participate this year is March 6. Applications may be downloaded at dep.wv.gov.

Honors on the Hilltop

Congratulations are in order for Joseph Horzempa, associate professor of biology at West Liberty University, who has been selected as one of five finalists for West Virginia Professor of the Year by the Faculty Merit Foundation of West Virginia.

Horzempa is the second finalist for West Virginia Professor of the Year selected from the WLU biology department over the past three years.

Horzempa joined the faculty in 2011 and the student body named him WLU’s professor of the year last spring. He maintains a working lab that offers students challenging research experiences. Not long ago, his work was published in the October issue of the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents.