An Italianate beauty waiting to be loved back to life in Wheeling, West Virginia.
I spotted this house several years ago in an area with many restored Victorian era houses in downtown Wheeling. Other than a somewhat unfortunate replacement door, the exterior is remarkably intact. The roof looks intact as well, meaning there is hope for the interior.
Some of America’s most desirable urban neighborhoods today were full of abandoned homes like this in the 1960s and 70s. Across the country, thousands of young people, dubbed “urban homesteaders,” began buying them and restoring them. In doing so, they revived existing local businesses and started new ones. The got involved locally and advocated for better schools for their kids, better maintenance of the city’s infrastructure, and better policing to drive out crime.
They started out to restore a house, and along the way they collectively restored their cities. For the most part, finding a cheap vacant historic house isn’t possible today in those cities – think Brooklyn, Boston, San Francisco – they are too expensive. But hundreds of other cities are still struggling to come back, and a new wave of urban homesteaders are taking up the challenge.
I hope someday to visit Wheeling and see this lovely house full of life again.
All stages of the restoration process are covered in “Restoring Your Historic House, The Comprehensive Guide for Homeowners.”
Signed and personalized copies of the award-winning and bestselling 720-page hardcover book are available from the author in our online shop at YourHistoricHouse.com/shop/.
Select preservation titles by other authors including the classic “A Field Guide to American Houses” by Virginia McAlester are also available in our shop!
© Scott T. Hanson 2025.
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