"All that Humanity Could Desire…"

Thomas developed into a major shopping center for surrounding towns as private businesses flourished alongside the Davis Coal and Coke Company's Bruxton and Landstreet company store. Many proprietors were immigrants who began as mine laborers or pack peddlers and slowly saved enough to build their own businesses, reflecting prosperity through hard work. The town grew quickly between 1884 and 1990, but its appearance changed dramatically after a destructive fire in the early hours of November 12, 1901, when fifty mile per hour winds helped destroy eighty-three buildings in two hours. Because many earlier structures had been built of wood from the surrounding hills, most owners rebuilt in brick afterward. Joseph DePollo immigrated from Italy to the United States in 1891, came to work for Davis at Coketon, and eventually brought his family to Thomas around 1903, when he opened a general store on Front Street. The present DePollo building, constructed in 1915-16, housed the family of ten on its upper floors, and his son John, who began as a delivery boy at age fourteen, later took over the business and ran it for more than fifty years as the coal industry declined. DePollo's store had expansive glass storefronts and abundant shelving, and it also served as a gathering place where men met for beer and news. Throughout Thomas, especially on East Avenue, commercial buildings used large glass storefronts and economical decorative features inspired by older architectural styles, with symmetrical windows, cornices, patterned brickwork, and factory-made elements such as pressed tin ceilings, machine-carved woodwork, metal facades, and cast concrete ordered from catalogs and shipped by train.

Thomas, West Virginia · United States