In 1938, William "Babe" Devon built the Chester Teapot, a 14-foot-high, 14-foot-diameter structure made from a gigantic wooden hogshead barrel acquired in Pennsylvania for a Hire's Root Beer advertising campaign, then shipped to Chester and set up on Carolina Avenue, also State Route 2. A spout and handle were added, the barrel was covered with tin, and a large glass ball was placed on top as the lid's knob. Standing in front of Devon's pottery outlet store, the Teapot housed local teenagers selling concessions and souvenirs. After a two-year closure during World War II caused by gas rationing and reduced traffic, Devon's pottery business and the Teapot were sold in 1947 to Mary Wucherer and Rhelda Cain, who resumed food sales until the late 1960s, after which the structure was used to sell lawn and garden items, china, and novelty pieces. By 1971 it had been painted blue and white and was sold to Cecil and Alice Fletcher, who continued selling pottery and gift items for many years before closing the business and the Teapot. It then stood abandoned until 1984, when C&P Telephone bought the land and the former business building was demolished, placing the Teapot in danger of being scrapped, until Chester native Geneva Hill rallied citizens to save it. In 1987, C&P Telephone offered to donate the Teapot to the City of Chester, and Councilwoman Anne Ford formed a restoration committee as the town approved restoration and fundraising plans. The Teapot was moved to various locations in Chester while $3000 was raised, and repairs began on the floor and roof joints, but sandblasting the exterior tin caused wrinkling and a prolonged dispute over its permanent location, combined with bad weather, halted the effort and led to the committee's disbanding. In the early 1990s, after Councilman Frank DeCapio offered to take responsibility for the rehabilitation, the Chester City Council voted funds toward restoration, and the Teapot was moved beside the Jennings Randolph Bridge Ramp at the junction of State Route 2 and U.S. Route 30, on property and behind a fence donated by the state, with a concrete pad donated by the Tri-State Pottery Festival Association. During the spring and summer of 1990, retired general contractor Sayre Graham, Mayor Roy Cashdollar, and other volunteers completed the restoration by replacing old tin with rolled roofing tin matching the original design, adding vinyl between tin widths to allow expansion and reduce wrinkling, reframing and sealing the doors and windows, replacing the floor and many wooden staves, and making a new plywood spout from the original pattern while reusing the original handle with new tin. The long-lost original glass ball was replaced with a new plastic ball in place of a gold-painted basketball, and the Teapot was repainted in its original red and white colors, landscaped, and officially dedicated on October 12, 1990, at a ceremony in Chester's community center. After two decades of wear, the town council in 2014 and 2015 appointed Chester native Susan Badgley Hineman to raise $15,000 for a complete renovation, and with volunteers and social media she raised the full amount in six months and proposed an annual Teapot Day to support future maintenance, leading to the first annual Teapot Day in Chester, West Virginia, on August 8, 2015.
