The Athenaeum

The Athenaeum. "Lincoln's Bastille". , The Athenaeum, once the biggest building in Wheeling, stood here. It was constructed in 1854, with three stories supported by cast-iron roof and floor beams. It served as an adjunct of the nearby Baltimore and Ohio Railroad station, to encourage travelers to stop in the city. The upper floor housed a theater, which attracted many of the best performers of the antebellum period, including Maggie Mitchell and the famous Shakespearian actor Edwin Booth, a brother of President Abraham Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth. A popular play performed at the Athenaeum was Uncle tom's Cabin, which was based on Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel of the same name., With the outbreak of the Civil War, the U.S. government took over the lower two floors and detained Confederate sympathizers and prisoners of war until they could be transferred to Camp Chase in Columbus. It became known as "Lincoln's Bastille." Several prisoners escaped during the years that followed., In September 1863, the entire building was converted to a prison. A hospital, bake house, fuel house, and exercise yard surrounded by a twenty-foot wall were constructed on the property. Thereafter, many Union soldiers convicted by courts-martial were incarcerated there. The prison hospital became overcrowded, and in March 1864, the patient were transferred to Wheeling Hospital in North Wheeling. This action allowed the prison to be further enlarged. In September 1865, the prison was closed, and the Athenaeum was returned to its owners., On October 10, 1868, the structure burned completely in Wheeling's largest fire. As a result the city organized its first fire department.