Remembering Wheeling's Real Ironmen - Centre Foundry (Save the Date)

May 06, 2025
12:00pm - 1:00pm

One of Wheeling's oldest businesses, Centre Foundry had been operating in Wheeling for nearly two centuries by 2023, when it was shut down. The foundry was born in 1840 when Martin Van Buren was president and Rebecca Harding, who would later expose the harshness of life for workers in the iron mills as a groundbreaking writer, was a nine-year-old child living in Centre Wheeling near the location of the foundry where some of the men she later wrote about who would “skulk along like beaten hounds” likely walked to work.

Industrial Wheeling manufactured quite a list of “things,” such as glass, tile, and nails. But what should be listed first is what Centre Foundry did best—they made iron. Those laborers were, with all due respect to the beloved semi-pro football club, Wheeling’s REAL Ironmen.

On May 6, 2025, Lunch With Books at the Ohio County Public Library will celebrate this history and pay tribute to the iron men and women (some of whom will join us) whose hard work kept Centre Foundry melting, pouring, molding, and casting for 183 years.

Read more.

Lunch With Books Livestream starts at noon on Facebook and YouTube.

Subscribe to the Lunch With Books Youtube channel or like us on the Lunch With Books Facebook page or to receive notifications of our upcoming LWB broadcasts. To receive emails about our upcoming programs, visit our News page, click the "Subscribe" button to sign-up for our news blasts or download our free OCPL Connect app from your smartphone's app store. 

"Lunch With Books" is the library’s flagship program for adult patrons. These lunchtime programs feature authors, poets, musicians, historians, and more every Tuesday at noon. Bring lunch (to the Library Auditorium or your computer), feed your brain!