Building comes down at Mercer Street Historic District to make way for new museum

Greg Jordan, Bluefield Daily Telegraph, W.Va.
Updated ·3 min read

Oct. 22—PRINCETON — A building that once housed a restaurant serving hungry railroad workers and then a family with deep roots on Mercer Street was demolished Friday, but its memories will live on in the Mercer Street Historic District's future museum.

Deena Wheby of Lexington, Ky watched and shot videos with her cellphone as an excavator tore down a building near the Princeton Railroad Museum. She happened to be in Princeton that day. Her family's old grocery store, Wheby Grocery, is next door. Her family's old television business stands across the street.

She used to live in the building that came down Friday. It was where her parents raised their children. Both Joe and Connie Wheby were veterans, and a banner honoring their service hangs near their former home.

"I did, 113 we called it, 113 Mercer Street, along with my three siblings. There were four of us along with mom and dad," Deena Wheby said. "They met in the Navy in Norfolk. My mom's for Colorado. My dad's from here. My dad was born on the third block of Mercer Street and grew up here at Wheby's Grocery and worked there as he was growing up."

Joe Wheby and his brother, Reed, started a radio sales and service business next to the family's grocery store, she said. That radio business later grew into the television sales and service store across the street.

Deena Wheby knew that her childhood home was vanishing, but she also knew that its memory was going to live on.

"It's emotional, but we're really happy it's going to have a second life at this end of town that we're very proud of," she said. "It will continue to live on and be something very special for Princeton."

The building at 113 Mercer Street was once the home of Depot Lunch, a lunch counter that often served railroad workers, according to Lori McKinney with the RiffRaff Arts Collective. The Depot Lunch, Wheby Grocery and the Wheby Grocery store led to that part of the neighboring being called "Whebyville," which will be remembered at a future museum, the Lonnie Gunter, Jr. Center for Industrial History.

McKinney said there are plans to preserve both Wheby Grocery and the Wheby television store.

"It's so wild to watch, especially watching it with Ms. Wheby, recognizing the moment," McKinney said. "We're saying farewell to a piece of history, memories people have inside of this building and around it; but while that's bittersweet, it's making way for us to honor and celebrate that history."

The RiffRaff Arts Collective was recently awarded a $74,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development Program for an ongoing museum project. This funding will be used to develop a strategic organizational plan focused on the Lonnie Gunter, Jr. Center for Culture and History, as well as provide technical assistance.

Last March, the RiffRaff Arts Collective was awarded $637,000 to help develop the new museum. It will be located in the city' historic East End. McKinney said the non-profit organization had secured and planned to develop three properties to establish the center.

The future museum will display the collection of Lonnie Gunter, Jr. This collection includes steam engines, early vehicles, agricultural machinery, antique toys and memorabilia. Proposed programming at the museum includes large exhibition space, a restoration workshop and a MakerSpace focused on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education, a West Virginia artists gallery and a period soda fountain.

— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com