A Home on the Hill: The Hope of Lincoln Homes

An introduction to the long and winding road that brought Wheeling’s segregated housing project from proposal to reality

High above Wheeling, a young family stood at the window of its new apartment and looked out across the city. Literally and figuratively a long and winding road to the hillside that Lincoln Homes sits atop.

From Lincoln Homes, Jonetta and Sylvester Webb could see downtown Wheeling, Center and South Wheeling, Wheeling Island, Bridgeport, Martins Ferry, and even Bellaire. After sunset, the scattered lights of the Ohio Valley transformed that sweeping view into something almost magical.

“It’s a beautiful sight at night,” Mrs. Webb told the Wheeling News-Register. From the family’s window, she said, they could even watch the races at Wheeling Downs.

That view—and the hopeful family enjoying it—appeared in the newspaper on October 4, 1959, as Lincoln Homes approached its long-awaited completion.

After years of plans, delays, approvals, and uncertainty, Wheeling’s newest public-housing development was finally becoming a neighborhood.

“Life in Lincoln Homes”

The News-Register’s Sunday magazine devoted a full-page feature to the development under the simple title “Life in Lincoln Homes.”

Written by Al Molnar, the article attempted to answer a natural question: What was it actually like to live in Wheeling’s new public-housing project?

To find out, the newspaper returned to the first family that had moved into Lincoln Homes.

Jonetta and Sylvester Webb had arrived on July 31, 1959, with their two young sons—two-year-old Sylvester Jr. and seven-month-old Steven. When the newspaper revisited them approximately two months later, Mrs. Webb remained enthusiastic.

She described the apartment as “very nice” and said that she and her husband were “very happy here.”

Her words conveyed more than satisfaction with a newly constructed building. They expressed the relief and possibility of a family beginning a new chapter.

A Modern Home for a Growing Family

The most immediate attraction of Lincoln Homes was the quality of its apartments.

The newspaper described the units as modern, clean, well-lighted, and spacious. Apartments ranged from two to four bedrooms, allowing the development to accommodate families of different sizes.

Mrs. Webb was particularly proud of her kitchen.

She showed the reporter its spotless sink, stove, and refrigerator and spoke enthusiastically about how convenient everything was. The apartment was easy to maintain, and its modern design reduced some of the daily burdens that families living in older, deteriorating housing routinely faced.

Today, a clean kitchen, reliable appliances, adequate bedrooms, running water, and sound construction may appear to be ordinary features of a home. In 1959, however, those features represented a profound improvement for many Black families in Wheeling.

Only ten years earlier, the News-Register had accompanied Dr. R. M. Hamlin through Black neighborhoods where families were living with broken plumbing, outdoor toilets, dangerous stairways, fire hazards, overcrowding, and deteriorating buildings. Residents often had few alternatives because segregation and housing discrimination sharply restricted where they could rent or purchase homes.

Against that history, Mrs. Webb’s pride in her kitchen takes on greater meaning.

The sink, stove, refrigerator, light, space, and cleanliness represented something Black families had always deserved but had too often been denied: a safe and dignified place to make a home.

The First Family—and Soon, a Community

The Webbs were the first family to occupy Lincoln Homes, but they were not alone for long.

Mrs. Webb recalled that on their first Sunday in the apartment, visitors arrived one after another to see the new home. They were impressed. Within the following week, six more families moved into the development.

By the time the newspaper returned, the Webbs knew every family in their section.

Neighbors gathered for parties, played cards, talked, and shared the ordinary experiences of raising children. Many of the couples were close in age, and the families understood one another’s concerns.

Even Mrs. Webb’s playful account of one evening—when the husbands gathered while the wives were temporarily “left out”—suggested that a social life was already forming.

Lincoln Homes was becoming more than a collection of apartments. It was becoming a neighborhood.

Children would grow up together. Parents would exchange advice and assistance. Friendships would form across porches, sidewalks, kitchens, and living rooms. Families arriving from different parts of Wheeling would begin creating shared memories on the hill.

Public housing was commonly discussed in terms of units, costs, regulations, and occupancy rates. The article reminds us that a housing “unit” became a home only when a family carried its life inside.

Forty Apartments Filled With Possibility

Lincoln Homes consisted of 40 apartments. Thirty-five had already been rented by early October 1959, even though the project was not expected to be formally completed and accepted by the Wheeling Housing Authority until the middle of the month.

Housing officials anticipated little difficulty renting the remaining units. Interest in the modern, affordable apartments was already strong.

Those figures reflected a need that had existed for years.

Plans for a housing development designated for Wheeling’s Black residents had been discussed as early as 1942. In November 1949, federal officials approved what was then described as a 38-unit low-rent project. Yet another decade passed before families began moving into the completed 40-unit Lincoln Homes development.

The full explanation for that long delay belongs to the larger story still to be told.

It will include changing plans, federal and local approvals, wartime complications, financing, site selection, segregation, political debate, and the persistent question of whether Wheeling would make a meaningful investment in housing for its Black citizens.

For this moment, however, the newspaper photographs captured the long-awaited result: buildings standing on the hillside, curtains at the windows, children in the living rooms, and families settling into their new homes.

The Work Was Not Quite Finished

The article did not pretend that life at Lincoln Homes was perfect.

Transportation was the greatest concern. Many residents did not own automobiles, and reaching the nearest bus stop required a long walk up the hill. Families worried that the trip would become especially difficult during winter.

Residents hoped that the city might construct steps connecting the development with Charles or Eoff Street. They also wanted buses to come closer to the project. Russell Mozena, executive director of the Wheeling Housing Authority, acknowledged that steps might be added when funding became available.

The access road created another problem. In dry weather, Mrs. Webb described it as dusty; in wet weather, it became muddy. She believed paving would eliminate much of the inconvenience.

Residents also wanted better laundry facilities. An outdoor clothes-drying area had recently been completed, with enough lines for the families, but Mrs. Webb reasonably observed that a clothes dryer would be valuable during the winter.

The hillside itself was both obstacle and blessing. Its steep slope made transportation more difficult, but it also gave residents one of the most remarkable views in the city.

These complaints did not diminish the families’ appreciation for their homes. They demonstrated that residents were already invested in improving their new community. They could be grateful for what had been accomplished while expecting the city and Housing Authority to finish the work properly.

That combination—appreciation joined with advocacy—would remain important throughout the history of Lincoln Homes.

The Aspirational Promise of Lincoln Homes

At its opening, Lincoln Homes carried an enormous promise.

Its apartments offered families cleaner surroundings, safer construction, modern conveniences, affordable rents, and more room for children to grow. The development could become a place where families found stability, neighbors supported one another, and children began life with greater security.

The project also represented a long-overdue public acknowledgment that Black families deserved decent housing.

That acknowledgment remained incomplete. Lincoln Homes was created within a segregated system, and the very need for a racially designated development reflected the discrimination that restricted Black housing choices throughout Wheeling.

Recognizing that injustice does not require us to dismiss the hope families felt when they received the keys to a modern apartment.

The Webbs’ happiness was real.

Mrs. Webb’s pride in her kitchen was real.

The children playing in their new homes were real.

The friendships forming among neighboring families were real.

For the residents moving onto that hillside in 1959, Lincoln Homes was not simply the conclusion of a government construction project. It was the beginning of daily life—meals prepared, children bathed and put to bed, birthdays celebrated, homework completed, neighbors welcomed, and futures imagined.

More Than Buildings

Housing history is often told through appropriations, architectural plans, government agencies, and political decisions. Those records are essential, but they can never tell the entire story.

The true history of Lincoln Homes resides with the people who lived there.

It is found in the names of its first families, the children who grew up on the hill, the neighbors who watched over one another, and the residents who continued pressing for transportation, recreation, maintenance, and community services.

It survives in photographs taken inside furnished apartments and in memories of the extraordinary view from the windows.

The News-Register article preserved Lincoln Homes at a moment of expectation. The access road still needed improvement. Transportation remained difficult. Some final construction had yet to be completed. But families were moving in, lights were appearing in the windows, and a community was taking shape.

The larger history would become complicated. There would be achievements to celebrate and difficult questions to confront. Future installments in this series will examine the project’s long journey from its earliest proposals to federal approval, construction, occupancy, and later years.

But before following that winding road, we should pause with the Webb family in October 1959.

A mother stood in her modern kitchen, proud of the home she was creating.

Two small boys looked out over Wheeling from a hillside once occupied only by plans and promises.

Around them, other families were arriving.

After years of delay, Lincoln Homes was finally alive.

And on that hill overlooking the Ohio Valley, its residents began the hopeful work of turning public housing into a community.

I will shortly be completely a multi part series on the long and winding road to Lincoln Homes. Stay tuned.

-T

Historical Terminology Note

This article includes historical terms such as “colored” and “Negro” when quoting original sources or identifying organizations as they were known at the time. These terms reflect the language and racial conditions of their era; their inclusion is not an endorsement of their use today.

In our own narrative, we use Black and African American, as appropriate. We preserve historical wording to document the past faithfully while honoring the dignity, humanity, and experiences of the people whose stories we share.

Source and Research Notes

Primary source: Al Molnar, “Life in Lincoln Homes: Family Pleased With Accommodations in City’s Newest Public Housing,” Wheeling News-Register Weekend Sunday Magazine, October 4, 1959, Part V, newspaper scan p. 45.

Earlier project milestone: Walter Brothers, “U.S. Sanctions 38-Unit Negro Housing Project,” Wheeling Intelligencer, November 23, 1949, p. 1. That article stated that plans for the development had existed since 1942 and that federal approval had been received for a 38-unit project. The completed Lincoln Homes development contained 40 units.

Historical context: Arthur Mills, “‘Human Hell’ Is Found in City Negro Section,” Wheeling News-Register, June 12, 1949, pp. 1 and 18. The investigation, conducted with Dr. R. M. Hamlin, documented dangerous and unsanitary housing conditions facing Black residents of Wheeling.