Wheeling Corrugating Company Building

This North Kansas City commercial structure was constructed in 1920 for the Wheeling Corrugating Company which operated from this location from 1920 to 1956. The building served as a warehouse and sheet metal fabricating shop, producing a variety of goods including riveted culvert pipes for directing drainage. The metal fabrication shop was one of the largest of its type in the nation. When Wheeling opened its branch in the Kansas City suburb, it served as an integral component of a budding industrial district, and the building is surrounded by other commercial properties that were also constructed during the early and mid-twentieth century.

The Wheeling Corrugating Company Building, constructed in 1920, served as the home to the Wheeling Corrugating Company, the largest steel manufacturing facility in North Kansas City. The company used the building for thirty-six years and the structure survives as a reminder of one of the most significant additions to the area's planned industrial district. The city worked to attract the Wheeling Corrugating Company and other manufacturing concerns to build their plants in North Kansas City's newly formed industrial community which spurred the city's overall development and expansion as a whole.

Alexander Glass founded in 1890 the Wheeling Corrugating Company in Wheeling, West Virginia, as an outgrowth of the Whitaker Iron Company. Glass, with investments provided by his father-in-law, Nelson E. Whitaker, president of Whitaker Iron, and E. C. Ewing, a veteran production man with the company, leased a small factory in Wheeling. He bought Whitaker Iron Black sheets, which he galvanized and ran through a ridged metal ringer to wrinkle (corrugate) and strengthen them. Glass had the foresight to develop a lightweight metal building material coated with zinc to protect it from rust and enhance its durability. Wheeling Corrugating Company emerged when the market for its products was ripe, and its corrugated metal proved to be an attractive replacement for the old wood roofs found on many buildings throughout the Midwest, Plains, and South.

By 1895, the popularity of the company's rust and fire-resistant metal roofs quickly led to the production of conductor pipe and trimmings, metal ceiling, tinplate, and terne plate for hundreds of various uses. By 1903, Wheeling opened a plant in Ohio, followed by branches in Richmond, Virginia, and St. Louis, Missouri. The third and westernmost branch plant to be established by Wheeling Corrugating involved its North Kansas City facility. They chose to build in the city's growing industrial region north of the Missouri River. Wheeling Corrugating Company's presence in North Kansas City and a cluster of other firms supported the idea that the metropolitan area had become the Missouri Valley's version of Pittsburgh. Wheeling provided materials to new industrial firms in North Kansas City.

Kansas City's architectural firm of Tarbet and Gornall designed the five-story building, which opened in 1920. Typical of the industrial buildings located in North Kansas City, the Wheeling Corrugating facility enjoyed a fireproof design. The building operated as a warehouse and sheet metal fabricating factory. In addition to supplying commercial enterprises with materials, Wheeling supported residential needs throughout the Plains, Missouri Valley, and West as the area continued to develop; Wheeling's household items included washtubs, water pails, coal buckets, and more. The North Kansas City branch of Wheeling Corrugating manufactured riveted culvert pipes used for road drainage. 

The establishment of Wheeling Corrugating Company's plant and warehouse in North Kansas City reflected a nationwide change in production trends. During the late nineteenth century, Midwestern plants (called "jobbers") received stock and manufactured goods from Eastern factories and then distributed these products to wholesalers. However, by the twentieth century, factories expanded and opened branches throughout the U.S., making it easier for wholesalers to order directly from factories.  

The historic building that functioned as the company's branch office served North Kansas City for thirty-six years. In 1956, Wheeling moved to a larger facility and sold the building to Cook Paint & Varnish Company. Though already well known and highly profitable before expanding to the Kansas City area, the North Kansas City facility's success helped the Wheeling Corrugating Company evolve into one of the largest manufacturing businesses of its kind in the nation. Additionally, the company proved integral in helping the industrial center and, subsequently, North Kansas City grow. Indeed, the buildings surrounding the historic building are all commercial, serving as a reminder of that period of industrial growth.

Millstein, Cydney E. and Linda F. Becker. "Registration Form: Wheeling Corrugating Company Building." National Register of Historic Places. mostateparks.com. 1994. https://mostateparks.com/sites/mostateparks/files/Wheeling%20Corrugating%20Company.pdf.

"Wheeling Hall of Fame: Alexander Glass, 1858-1941." Ohio County Public Library. Accessed January 24, 2022. https://www.ohiocountylibrary.org/research/wheeling-history/4135