Quincy Hill, once known as Prospect Hill, is a neighborhood located between Quincy Street and Shattuck Street in Parkersburg, WV. This neighborhood was the site of one of the worst disasters in the region. On March 19, 1909, two water towers on top of Quincy Hill burst and released two million gallons of water, causing a sudden flood that claimed the lives of three nearby residents. A city park is now located on the site of the water tanks.
At 5:10 a.m. on March 19, 1909, Parkersburg's two reserve water tanks, sitting atop Prospect Hill (now Quincy Hill), burst and sent two million gallons of water cascading down the side of the hill and into the streets of the city. Each tank, made of iron and sitting on a stone foundation, was 40 feet high and 60 feet in diameter. They were pumped full every night from the city water works located at the foot of 12th Street. Apparently one of the 26-year-old tanks broke first, and the gushing water smashed its bottom plates against the companion tank, ten feet away.
A cottage on the hillside above Avery was washed down to Avery Street, killing the young newlyweds who lived there. A couple of other houses were shattered, and St. John's Lutheran Church on Avery at 9 1/2 th Street was nearly demolished. Trees were washed through the walls of Sumner, the city's black school, and several streets were choked with the debris of other trees and lumber from the destroyed houses. A barbershop in the basement of the Blennerhassett Hotel, six blocks to the south, had two inches of mud on its floor. In all, two people died and several were badly injured.
There's now a small park on Quincy Hill where the tanks once stood. The two nearby houses on Shattuck Avenue that survived the flooding were razed in the 1980s. Only a small shrine of circular hedges gives remembrance of the disaster that occurred a century ago
Originally known as Prospect Hill, the area of Quincy Hill Park was used as a tent hospital during the Civil War. It was actually one of five Civil War hospitals that sprung up in the area during the war years. The Quincy Hill tent-city hospital operation, was one of the lower rungs, it was where the African American and Irish immigrant soldiers were sent. It was home from anywhere to 500-1000 sick and wounded soldiers at any given time. At one point, a smallpox epidemic raged through the camp, devastating the patients and overwhelming the small staff. Moans and cries from the sick and dying could be heard all the way in downtown Parkersburg. Even over 150 years later its reported, the moans of those who suffered atop the hill can still be heard.
Another ghost story from Quincy Hill isn't related to the Civil War, but it does take on a more visual experience. One way to get to the top of the hill is to climb the 150+ stairs leading up from Avery Street. About halfway up, there is a small concrete landing lit with a lamppost. Joggers and other early morning visitors to this area have reported seeing the apparition of a Native American standing at this spot.
