As you know, we took a road trip to Mountaineer Resort in Newell, West Virginia. I decided to leave the group for a moment and drive to a nearby point to take some photos of some plaques that discuss the beginnings of the range and township way of surveying and mapping the Northwest Territory. I've got photos to share later.
What I had forgotten about was that Chester, West Virginia laid claim to having the World's Largest Teapot. I have seen it in the past, but it was long forgotten in my memory.
I would have missed it again had I not been too cheap to pay the 75 cent toll on the Newell toll bridge to cross back into Ohio. I drove down the road through Chester to cross on the free US Route 30 bridge. Had I been going toward Pittsburg instead of back into Ohio, I would have not seen it.
In the loop to get on the Jennings Randolf bridge to return to Ohio sits the teapot.
According to what I have found, the teapot was put in place in 1938 by William "Babe" Devon. I was going to say built, but found some information that the pot portion of the building was originally built as a Hires Root Beer promotional piece.
The Teapot stood in front of Devon's pottery outlet store on Carolina Ave. Local teenagers were hired to run a concession and souvenir stand which was set up inside the Teapot. It has had a number of owners and came close to being demolished when certain civic minded individuals and businesses worked to save it.
More information on the teapot can be found here. http://weirton.lib.wv.us/hancock/ches/teapot.html
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