John Dieckmann Home - 13 Floral Drive

Wheeling WV - 13 Floral Drive, Park View

Deeds and family records show that this beautiful home was built in 1925 for German immigrant John Dieckmann and his wife, nee Lucy Pfeiffer. Noted Wheeling architect Frederick Faris designed the home and is also remembered for his designs of the Schmulbach Building (now known as the Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Building), Mt. Carmel Monastery, the Laconia Building, and the former Wheeling High School, among many others.

John Dieckmann (1870-1957) immigrated to the United States in 1895 from his birthplace near Hamburg, Germany. He first settled in Wadsworth, Ohio, working for $1.50 a day. He married Lucy Pfeiffer (1870-1938), the daughter of German immigrants, in 1897. In 1900, the couple moved to Wheeling, where John began work with the Wheeling Greenhouse Company, located on the Peninsula in the Fulton neighborhood of Wheeling. Three sons, Ernest (1901-1994), William (1902-1987), and Herbert (1904-1993), were soon added to the family.

Within a few years, John bought the Wheeling Greenhouse Company and moved his operations to the Park View area, on 25 acres of land that had once been a large horse farm owned by Patrick Kennedy. A 1923 article in the History of West Virginia Old and New stated that Dieckmann had “developed one of the largest and most modern flower-propagating plants in the state … and the development of the splendid business has been the result of his technical ability, close application, and progressive policies.” By then, there were 21 employees, and the company supplied florists throughout West Virginia and Ohio. John was at that time a director in the bank at Fulton and an elder in St. Marks's Lutheran Church in Elm Grove.

In 1956, the Wheeling Rotary Club honored John Dieckmann, calling him “a shining example of the American free enterprise system. He came to America without any money. He did have, however, a knowledge and a love of flowers and a good German background of thrift and hard work. He asked for no government subsidies, hand-outs, or free-for-nothing favors. He made his own social security.”

Lucy Pfeiffer Dieckmann died in 1938, and John married Clara Christina Umhau (1886-1980) in 1940. The couple were living in Dade County, Florida at the time of John’s death in early 1957. His sons carried on the business until 1992. The business had grown to be the largest greenhouse-nursery business in the state, with 100 acres of land and 10 acres under greenhouses, employing as many as 185 people during the busy season.

The property was left to his three sons, and brothers Ernest and William deeded it to Herbert Dieckmann in 1981. Herbert was the youngest of John and Lucy Dieckmann’s three sons. He had been born in Wheeling, attended nearby Park View School, and was president of the Triadelphia High School class of 1922, where he also played football, basketball, and baseball and was a member of the dramatic club. He served as a U.S. Army captain during World War II and was a member of St. Mark Evangelical Lutheran Church.

Following the death of Herbert Dieckmann in 1993, the property was divided into building lots for a subdivision named Arbordale. W. Craig and Deborah Wilcox purchased the lot with the John Dieckmann house in mid-1994.

In the fall of 2012, the current owners, Chad and Hollie Adams, purchased the property, which is currently for sale.