Brookside

How Brookside began

Brookside is a small village in eastern Belmont County along the National Road, part of the Wheeling metropolitan area, whose population peaked at 975 in 1940 and has since fallen by nearly half. Its National Register landmark is the pair of Thomas T. and Wesley B. Frasier Houses at 898 and 920 National Road, built in 1884 and 1888 to designs by architect Thomas Townsend Frasier; the house at 920 National Road is now used as a funeral home.

Where the name comes from

The reason for the name is not recorded.

Before the town

No Native village, camp, or trail specific to Brookside is recorded.

Timeline

1. 1884 — The first of the two Frasier houses, at 920 National Road, is built to designs by architect Thomas Townsend Frasier.
2. 1888 — The second Frasier house, at 898 National Road, is completed.
3. 1900 — The village's population is recorded at 249.
4. 1903 — The county history called Brookside a suburb of Bridgeport, where Thomas T. Frasier, a builder, was ex-officio justice of the peace; it noted that the Brookside school district had been taken into the Bridgeport special school district and a large school built there.
5. 1903 — Thomas T. Frasier, who had put up many dwellings and all the tipples for the Wheeling Creek Coal Company at Crescent and Barton, also built cottages for miners and sold them as their means allowed, which the 1903 history called a much-appreciated charity.
6. 1910 — The census counted 383 residents, up from 249 in 1900.
7. 1930 — The census counted 882 residents, more than double the 426 of 1920.
8. 1940 — The village's population peaks at 975.
9. 1970 — The census counted 939 residents, the last rise before decline, and the 2020 count was 538.
10. 1982 — The Thomas T. and Wesley B. Frasier Houses are added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 17.

Stories

The builder of Brookside

Thomas T. Frasier learned the building trade from his brother-in-law Amos Osborne, worked in Illinois and Iowa, and spent eight years at Leavenworth, Kansas. He then became a freighter, making nine trips to Denver with ox teams before Indian hostilities interrupted his preparations for a tenth, and in 1868 he went to Montana for gold mining. With sixteen others he visited what is now Yellowstone National Park before it was spoiled by art, as the county history put it, and returned to Ohio. In Bridgeport he put up many houses, built all the coal tipples of the Wheeling Creek Coal Company at Crescent and Barton, and built cottages for miners that he sold to them as they could pay. In 1882 he married Sarah F. Fulow. The two Frasier houses on the National Road in Brookside, of 1884 and 1888, were listed on the National Register in 1982.

Photographs

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org · archive.org

Every historic place in Belmont County on the full map

A well in the Ohio River valley (alluvial) aquifer serving the St. Clairsville-area system The water here

• Belmont Co. Sanitary District 357% of residentsOhio River valley aquifer (wells)
• Bridgeport Public Water System39% of residentsOhio River valley aquifer (wells)
• Martins Ferry Public Water System3% of residentsOhio River valley aquifer (wells)
• St. Clairsville, City Of0% of residentsSt. Clairsville Main & Provident Reservoirs (local runoff)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2017: 2 of 2 passed; of those asking for new or higher taxes, 1 of 1.

Ballot issues

Elections for office

Winners in bold. Results from the county board of elections' official canvass unless marked.

Source: Ohio EPA eDocument portal (edocpub.epa.ohio.gov), indexed 2026-10-14. Facilities are placed on the map from Ohio EPA's own map layers, EPA's Facility Registry, coordinates written in the filings, or a geocoded street address. A permit filed under a private person's name (most are household septic systems) is counted but never named, placed or linked; licenses for individual workers and open-burning notices are left out entirely.

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