picture by: Derek Redd (file)
The Ohio Valley Normal Hospital letters, proven right here being faraway from the constructing in September 2024, shall be preserved by Wheeling Park Excessive Faculty profession and technical training college students.
WHEELING — The enormous letters that stood out as a beacon of sunshine on the former Ohio Valley Normal Hospital constructing in Wheeling will quickly be within the palms of Wheeling Park Excessive Faculty college students who will protect them for future show.
Mary McKinley, an Ohio Valley Normal Hospital Historical past Group member and former OVMC nurse administrator, stated the letters, which had been faraway from the Ohio Valley Medical Middle campus throughout demolition work, will quickly be moved to the varsity for the scholars to work on.
She stated after speaking with Wheeling Park CTE instructor Aaron Fedorka, who checked out the letters in storage, he agreed they’d make an incredible challenge for his college students.
“I’m positively excited,” she added.
Every letter is six toes tall and 6 toes large and fabricated from porcelain-coated metal. At evening they had been lit with neon and had been affixed to the facet of a tower on one of many authentic hospital buildings on campus.
McKinley, alongside along with her fellow OVGH Historical past Group members, have been working to protect the numerous artifacts from and historical past in regards to the hospital that healed individuals for greater than 100 years earlier than its closure. But it surely’s not simply in regards to the artifacts that had been inside; it’s about remembering and honoring a legacy of caring and work carried out by the numerous workers who labored there.
“It was onerous to look at it come down. All of us really feel like we made a distinction,” she stated.
To honor that legacy, McKinley stated her group plans to have the letters put in on the future Robrecht Park behind the Fundamental Road Financial institution constructing sooner or later. She stated funds are being raised so the letters might be held on a brand new tower. In addition they need to mild them once more so individuals can see them at evening simply as in previous a long time.
“Will probably be nice. … We’ve been getting numerous era donations from individuals like Dr. John Holloway, the Bloch household, Dr. Howard Shackelford, the alumni nurses,” she stated.
When the varsity is prepared, metropolis of Wheeling staff will take every letter out of storage and transport them one-by-one on the backs of vans.
McKinley famous the thought to ask the scholars for assist was when she found the brand new massive letters at Wheeling Park on Nationwide Highway had been made by the CTE college students.
“I really like that brand they put there with the massive letters,” she stated.
The positioning of the previous OVMC/OVGH has been cleared to make method for a brand new regional most cancers heart that shall be operated by WVU Drugs. Work is predicted to start early 2026 and be accomplished someday in 2028. The $122 million facility at 2000 Eoff St. shall be named the WVU Most cancers Institute St. Joseph Regional Most cancers Advanced.
