ST. MARY'S/DUDLEY AVENUE

Looking north from Thirteenth Street in the late 1940s. Judy Reed, who lived at Twelfth and Quincy, is in the foreground. The White Star Laundry (left) can be seen a block away, at Fourteenth; the white building across from it was the former St. Mary's Avenue Christian Church. Photo courtesy of Susie Reed Pinkerton.

St. Mary's Avenue Christian Church at the corner of
Fourteenth St. & St. Mary's Avenue, in 1907. The
building was later converted into apartments.
It was torn down in the early 1990s.

This May 10, 2024, photograph of the former White Star Laundry at the southwest corner of St. Mary's and 14th Street, was taken from a drone operated by Dan Kemper, one of Parkersburg's most important archivists. The laundry ceased operation in the 1950s, and in the years following, this building's warrens were occupied by dance schools, a Boy Scout troop, the Parkersburg Actors' Guild, and countless other enterprises. It was torn down only a few days after this photo was taken. (Courtesy of Dan Kemper)

First United Brethren Church on the corner of Sixteenth Street and St. Mary's Avenue, in 1907. This church has been changed considerably.		First United Brethren Church in 1918.

Looking north toward Elberon Methodist Church
at Nineteenth & St. Mary's Avenue in 1907. It was
later changed to St. Andrew's Methodist.

Looking north up Dudley Avenue at St. Andrew's Methodist Church,
at the corner of 19th Street (where St. Mary's becomes Dudley).

Why does St. Mary's Avenue turn into Dudley Avenue at 19th Street? According to local historian Charles Buckley, "They were different streets. St. Mary's Avenue was St. Mary's Pike. The pike ran from 13th street to roughly 19th street, where Dudley road was located. St. Mary's Pike then ran at a diagonal from 19th and St. Mary's to Oak Street around 22nd Street. St. Mary's Pike then ran along Oak Street to roughly 26th Street. Then it ran along the hill a little bit, crossed over the hill, then cut diagonally to Broad Street. At that time, Broad Street was St. Mary's Pike running up to 36th Street. When the town annexed the section between 13th and 19th streets, they moved the entrance to St. Mary's Pike to the weird little dogleg that runs next to the school bus garage. The tollhouse sat there. When Parkersburg annexed the section from 19th out to 36th streets, the city just laid in a gridded street structure over the old pike. You can still see traces, such as a house on 21st that sits diagonally to the street in front of it, the little intersection of St. Mary's and 19th, the odd little turns on Broad Street, and the change in street width on 23rd at Oak." Also, the area north of 19th Street was once called Dudleyville, because the Dudley family owned much of the land.

Parkersburg's current Tudor-style high school, then called Central Junior Senior High, was built in 1917 (seen here the following year) on its own large campus at Dudley Avenue between 20th and 23rd Streets.

Parkersburg High School students pose for the annual "Freak Day" in 1921-22 in front of the school. In the background
are the houses on Dudley Avenue between Twenty-first and Twenty-third streets. (Photo courtesy of Ed Roth.)

The Terrapin Park gate was located off of Dudley Avenue, roughly in the 2500 block.
For more park photos, visit TERRAPIN PARK.
(Courtesy of Artcraft Studio, 519-521 Market Street,
Parkersburg, WV 26101; 304 485-5771)

A streetcar maintenance car sits at the Dudley Avenue entrance to Terrapin Park. St. Margaret Mary Catholic
Church and its St. Margaret Mary elementary school (both built in 1924) are in the background.
(Photo courtesy of Dan Kemper.)

Looking down at St. Margaret Mary's church and school in 1966.
(Photo by Harry Barnett, courtesy of Dan Kemper.)