Downtown Huntington Walking Tour

Entries on This Tour

Collis P. Huntington was a famous railroad tycoon and one of the "Big Four" promoters of the Central Pacific Railroad that became part of the Transcontinental Railroad. Huntington later became the President of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway which completed a line from Richmond to the Ohio River Valley. The new railroad led to the creation of an industrial city along the Ohio River which was named Huntington in his honor. The statue was created in 1924 by Gutzon Borglum, a sculptor most famous for creating Mount Rushmore.

2. Huntington C&O Railroad Depot

When Collis P. Huntington acquired the land that would become the western terminus of his Chesapeake & Ohio Railway in 1871, he ordered the construction of car and locomotive shop facilities, houses for workers, and a three-story passenger depot. Huntington’s original C&O Railroad depot was completed in 1872, with its first passenger train arriving from Richmond on January 29, 1873. Hotels and other businesses soon opened around the station, which became a fixture of the new city. In 1913, the railroad replaced the original depot with the Colonial Revival-style red brick building that remains there today. Around 1924, a statue of Collis P. Huntington, which was commissioned by the founder’s widow and nephew, was placed in front of the depot. The station remained a bustling feature of the city for decades, with passenger and freight trains passing through regularly. With growing competition from airlines and interstate highways, however, passenger service declined, and the last passenger train left the C&O depot in April 1971. Following the end of passenger service, the station was used to house administrative offices for CSX Transportation, the C&O Railroad’s successor company. After CSX closed its Huntington offices in 2016, the future of the historic depot remains uncertain.

3. The Hotel Prichard

The Hotel Prichard was built by Frederick C. Prichard in 1926, and was one of Huntington's leading hotels until it closed in 1970. The 13-story Neoclassical hotel was designed by architect Henry Ziegler Dietz and had 300 rooms, a ballroom, and a fine dining restaurant. John F. Kennedy and his campaign staff lodged at the Prichard during his 1960 presidential campaign. When the hotel closed in 1970, it was converted into apartments and office space. After developing a reputation as a haven for drug crime, the Prichard was briefly rebranded as a drug rehabilitation facility called Hope Tower in 2014 before being closed for building code violations in 2015. In 2016 it was announced that Christ Temple Church had acquired the Prichard and building renovations are ongoing. In 2007 the Prichard was added to the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Downtown Huntington Historic District.

4. The Guaranty Bank Building

The Guaranty Bank Building is a high-rise office building on the central block of Ninth Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues in downtown Huntington. Originally called the Robson-Prichard Building after its owners, Frederick Prichard and Houghton A. Robson, the building opened in 1910 with a bank on its first floor and offices of various businesses on its upper floors. After the bank failed during the Great Depression, the Guaranty Bank and Trust operated on its first floor until it moved locations in the 1950s. During the 1940s, the building was sold to Sheriff Don Chafin, who lived in the guarded penthouse until his death. Since his passing, the building has changed owners several times, and many different local businesses and banks have been housed in this historic piece of Huntington’s skyline. As of September 2019, the first floor now houses United Bank. Although it has changed hands and names many times over the years, the historic building remains a staple of Huntington’s skyline.

5. United States Post Office and Court House

The United States Post Office and Court House is located at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Ninth Street in Huntington. As Huntington grew rapidly in the decades after its foundation in 1871, the city was in need of a federal building by 1900. Erected in 1907 and expanded twice, the building is an example of the civic architecture of the early twentieth century. It is part of a cluster of governmental buildings in downtown Huntington that recall the city’s growth and prosperity at the turn of the century. In the late 1970s, the post office moved to a different location, and the building now houses the General Services Administration. It is still a federal building, and public access is limited.

6. Huntington City Hall

Huntington's City Hall was completed in 1915 and reflected the rapid growth and optimism of the city at that time. The Neoclassical building features terra-cotta details, large Corinthian columnns, and an elaborate public auditorium with ornate chandeliers, woodwork, and marble staircases. It was the third city hall built for Huntington, and replaced a structure on Fourth Avenue that also housed the police department, fire department, jail, and county courthouse. City Hall, the Cabell County Courthouse, the Post Office Building (today a federal courthouse), and the Carnegie Public Library were all built between 1899 and 1914 and formed a concentration of governmental and civic architecture in Huntington’s downtown area. City Hall was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986 as part of the Downtown Huntington Historic District.

7. Cabell County Courthouse

The Cabell County Courthouse in Huntington has served as the seat of county government for over one hundred years. Cabell County was formed in 1809 from the western portion of Kanawha County. For much of the nineteenth century the county seat was located at different times in either Guyandotte or Barboursville; the seat moved to Huntington in 1887. The Beaux Arts Classical style courthouse was constructed between 1899 and 1901 and was designed by the Kansas City architectural firm of Gunn and Curtis. The building was expanded with the construction of new wings in 1923 and 1940 respectively. It is one of the most ornate courthouses in West Virginia and one of the most prominent landmarks in Cabell County. The courthouse was placed on the National Register of Historic places in 1982.

8. The Lost Union Statue (1915)

A statue of a Union soldier was once located on the southwestern corner of 5th Avenue and 9th Street in Huntington. The statue stood above a public drinking fountain, across the street from Hansford Watts' Fifth Avenue Hotel, and in front of Carnegie Public Library. Although sources vary, it appears that the statue was vandalized and removed in 1915 which was around the same time that Confederate sympathizers announced plans to create a monument to Southern soldiers.

9. Carnegie Public Library, Huntington, West Virginia

The former Carnegie Public Library was built in 1902-1903 with a $35,000 matching grant from the estate of industrialist Andrew Carnegie. It was constructed in the Beaux Arts style, which was a popular form of architecture for public buildings in the early twentieth century. The Carnegie Public Library was one of 3,000 public libraries built worldwide due to the contributions of Andrew Carnegie between 1885 and 1919. The building served as Huntington's public library until 1980 when the current Cabell County Library was completed across the street. Soon afterwards the former library was repurposed to house Huntington Junior College, a private institution that offers a number of Associate's Degree programs. The Carnegie Public Library building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

10. Sit-in at the White Pantry, 1963

In 1963, members of the Civic Interest Progressives, a civil rights organization led by Marshall students and Huntington community leaders, challenged racial discrimination at local eateries such as Bailey's and the White Pantry Inn. After students waging a sit-in were attacked at the White Pantry, they changed their strategy and held a series of "share-ins." In these protests, liberal white students who wanted to help challenge the color line would enter a restaurant and order a meal. After the meal was delivered, they would invite African American students to join them at their table. Although these protests, combined with the legal work of local attorney Herbert Henderson, led to the end of Jim Crow at many Huntington restaurants prior to the spring of 1963, the owner of the White Pantry turned violent and attacked one of the Black students with a cattle prod. The second video clip below shows a young woman on the ground gasping for air after the owner of the White Pantry Inn lit sulfur cakes to force Black students to leave his restaurant.

11. The West Virginia Building

Originally known as the Union Bank and Trust Building, the West Virginia Building was constructed in 1924-1925 and was the largest commercial building in the state at the time. Huntington’s Union Bank and Trust company failed during the Great Depression, and the building was later renamed the West Virginia Building. The 9th Street Walgreens was housed in the first floor of the West Virginia Building from 1937 to 1961. The structure underwent a series of renovations and restorations beginning in the 1980s and continuing into the 2010s. Today the West Virginia Building houses luxury apartment units as well as businesses on the first floor. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Downtown Huntington Historic District.

12. Frederick Hotel

The Frederick Hotel opened in 1906 and was one of the most elegant hotels in both Huntington and all of West Virginia. The luxurious Edwardian Renaissance style building contained 150 guest rooms, 65 office spaces, and a host of amenities. The Frederick Hotel hosted many prominent visitors over the years including President Richard Nixon, musician Liberace, and comedian Bob Hope; Sid Hatfield was arrested here in 1920 for his involvement in the Battle of Matewan. The hotel closed in 1973 and the building today houses offices, apartments, and retail stores. The first floor of the Frederick maintains its original appearance, displaying artifacts and ornamentation from the hotel's glory days. The Frederick was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986 as part of the Downtown Huntington Historic District.

13. Keith Albee Theatre

The Keith Albee Theatre, located on 4th Avenue in Huntington, WV, opened in May of 1928 with a seating capacity of 2,720. The theater was originally built as a vaudeville performing center by the Hyman family, who also ran the Orpheum, State, and Huntington Theatres. The Keith Albee was named after the Keith-Albee-Orpheum Corporation, one of the leading vaudeville performance chains in the 1920s. When the Keith Albee opened, it was the largest performance theater in West Virginia and was second largest nationally next to the Roxy in New York City. The Keith Albee was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986 and joined the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 2014. The theater still holds numerous events each year through the Marshall Artist Series.

14. Huntington Arcade

Along with the leading downtown department stores, the Huntington Arcade was the premier shopping destination in the Tri-State are from the 1920s until the creation of the Huntington Mall in Barboursville. The neoclassical facility was built in 1925 and housed local retailers on the first floor. The second floor was home to the offices of doctors, lawyers, and other professionals. Businesses in the Arcade and the rest of downtown Huntington struggled following the opening of the Huntington Mall in the 1980s. After years of high vacancy rates, the building was sold in 2009 and converted into living spaces. The Arcade was re-dubbed The Galleria and opened to tenants in 2014. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Downtown Huntington Historic District.

15. The St. James Building (First National Bank)

The St. James Building, originally the First National Bank Building, has been a prominent feature of the downtown Huntington skyline since its completion in 1914. Designed by architect Verus T. Ritter, the building was initially occupied by the First National Bank, with office spaces for doctors, lawyers, and other professionals on its upper floors. In 1925, the First National Bank and the Huntington National Bank merged into the First Huntington National Bank (FHNB), prompting a significant expansion of the building. In 1981, the FHNB relocated and the building changed ownership to the Old National Bank of Huntington before being sold in 1987 to the St. James Condominium Association. The First State Bank of Barboursville now operates out of the first floor and luxury apartments occupy the sixth through twelfth floors.

16. Huntington Elks Lodge 313 (1909-2017)

This Beaux Arts style building was constructed in 1909 to serve as the hall for Huntington's Elks Lodge 313. The Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks is a nationwide fraternal organization founded in 1868 to promote patriotism and support charitable causes, including assistance for veterans and youth. The Huntington lodge was organized in 1895 and has a long history of charitable and community involvement in the area. The lodge hall on Fourth Avenue contained recreational facilities, a meeting room, and a restaurant. A decline in membership and mounting building expenses caused the lodge to sell their hall in 2017. It underwent a $1.5 million dollar renovation and opened in 2018 as a luxury apartment complex known as Elk's Luxury Lofts. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Downtown Huntington Historic District.

17. The Palace Theater (Camelot Theater)

The Palace Theater opened on Fourth Avenue in downtown Huntington on November 15th, 1925. The Greater Huntington Theater Corporation later purchased the theater, renamed it the Camelot, and eventually added a second screen. The Camelot closed in January 2006 following a decline in business after the opening of the Marquee Cinemas multiplex in Pullman Square. The theater was bought by Jessica Lynn Fox and converted into the Jeslyn Performing Arts Center, now called 4th Avenue Arts Center. The former theater now features a 500-seat auditorium, four studios and a boutique. Though the Palace has now been closed for many years, many remember it as a classic Fourth Avenue business and an important part of downtown Huntington’s entertainment scene.

18. "The Strip": Prohibition and Bootlegging in Huntington

Huntington became a city with two sides during Prohibition, with a lively nightlife lurking behind the appearance of a quiet town. Located along 4th Avenue in downtown Huntington, “The Strip” was a popular location where residents could buy liquor, gamble, and go to speakeasies and brothels. Although these activities were illegal, law enforcement rarely disturbed the people and businesses of the Strip due to bribes and payoffs. An interview with William Allen Cross, who served as the manager of several downtown theaters at the time, allows for a glimpse of life during Prohibition and the Strip’s heyday. After Prohibition ended in 1933 with the ratification of the 21st Amendment, the Strip’s popularity declined once residents were able to purchase alcohol legally.

19. Coal Exchange Building

Located at the corner of 4th Avenue and 11th Street, this landmark Huntington high-rise was constructed in the mid-1920s by the Coal Exchange Company. In its early years, the Coal Exchange Bank occupied the ground floor of the building while the upper floors held the company’s offices. During the Great Depression, however, the bank failed and the company filed for bankruptcy. The C&O Railway subsequently purchased the building and housed their engineering offices there for many years. Over the following decades, a number of physicians, dentists, and businesses also rented offices and retail space in the building. A local store, Glenn's Sporting Goods, was located on the ground floor of the Coal Exchange Building for many years before it relocated to its current location on 3rd Avenue. The building was sold in August 2019 to Jay Barta, who plans to renovate the ground level into a commercial space and convert its upper floors to offices or residential spaces.

20. Masonic Temple - Watts, Ritter Wholesale Dry Goods Co. Building

The Masonic Temple/Watts, Ritter Wholesale Dry Goods Co. building was built in 1914 to provide the Freemasons' Huntington Lodge No. 53 with a permanent location. Most of the building was occupied by the Watts, Ritter Wholesale Dry Goods Co., one of the most successful wholesale businesses in the region until the its closure in 1959. The original building consisted of five floors dedicated to Watts, Ritter and Company, and the top two floors housing the Masonic Temple; an annex was constructed on the right side of the building in 1922 to accommodate the expansion of Watts, Ritter, and Company. In 1990 most of the building was converted into a series of upscale office spaces known as the River Tower. The Masonic Lodge continues to use the top two floors of the western half. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1993.

21. Huntington B&O Railroad Depot (Heritage Station)

This former Baltimore & Ohio Railroad depot was built in 1887, and served Huntington until the mid-1960s. Concerned citizens worked to preserve the historic railway station during the late 1960s and early 1970s. In 1973, the B&O depot was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. With the support of the Urban Renewal Authority, the facility was repurposed in 1977 as Heritage Station, a center for artisans and other retail outlets. Today, Heritage Station is a hub for local businesses and events, while the original depot building serves as the headquarters for the Huntington Area Convention & Visitors Bureau. In front of the Depot stands the Elk River Coal & Lumber Company #10 Steam Locomotive, also on the National Register of Historic Places.

22. Diamond Teeth Mary Memorial Marker

Singer Mary Smith McClain was born on August 27, 1902, in Huntington, West Virginia. Living in an abusive environment, Mary left home at the age of 13, hopped a train, and joined the Rabbit Foot Minstrels in Memphis, Tennessee. From this point on, Mary became known as "Walking Mary," singing for the traveling minstrel show. From the 1920s to the 1940s Mary's career took off and she crisscrossed the country and performed alongside numerous blues and jazz legends. She also toured Europe three times. Mary passed away in 2000, and per her request, her ashes were scattered along the railroad tracks in her hometown of Huntington where she hopped a passing train to pursue her dreams. Mary is one of only a handful of West Virginians who became blues legends. Her career was long, but it wasn’t until she was in her 80s and 90s that she received widespread recognition. In those years, she performed at Carnegie Hall, the White House, and the Apollo Theatre.

23. Harris Riverfront Park

The Harris Riverfront Park Amphitheater is an Ohio Riverfront venue for local concerts and is available for rent for parties, weddings, shows and other functions. The amphitheater was built in 1983 as the second part of a three-phase project in constructing Harris Riverfront Park, named for David W. Harris, who had been director of Urban Renewal in Huntington. The amphitheater was a longtime outdoor home to Huntington Symphony Orchestra's Picnic With the Pops events and is the venue for several concerts and other gatherings in Huntington; it is available from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. for a rental fee of $500 per day.

24. Marshall University Visual Arts Center

The Marshall University Visual Arts Center is home to the School of Art and Design, which includes galleries, classrooms, and labs. It is housed within the historic Anderson-Newcomb building, which for many years was a prominent department store. The building was constructed in 1902 and for decades was one of the premier shopping destinations in downtown Huntington. The store closed in 1996, leaving the building vacant and neglected. It was acquired by Marshall University in 2010, which embarked on a $13 million project to convert it into facilities for the College of Arts and Media. It opened for use in 2014 and was cited as an ideal model for adaptive reuse of historic structures in Huntington. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Downtown Huntington Historic District.

25. Touma Medical Museum

The Touma Medical Museum, once the private collection of Dr. Joseph Touma, was gifted to the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine at Marshall University. The Museum features a large collection of historic medical books, tools and devices from the early days of medical practice. The 4,000 square-foot museum also includes a 1926 Model-T Ford and a buggy used by a physician in the early 1900s. The museum is best known for its historic pharmacy exhibit, collection of ear trumpets, and devices such as a foot-driven dental drill. The museum is located on the third floor of the historic Wright and Walker building, now called the Century Building, which was built in 1915 and was home to the Wright and Walker Clothier Company.

26. Marshall University Sports History Display at the Hall of Fame Cafe

The Marshall Hall of Fame Café is restaurant and museum dedicated to the sports history of Marshall University. It stands as a memorial to the players, coaches, and fans who died in the tragic plane crash on November 14, 1970. The Hall of Fame Café serves as a museum to all Marshall University sports teams spanning the athletic history of the university. The artifacts and memorabilia are kept well preserved here for the generations to come and for then people of Huntington, West Virginia to learn and admire.

This Tour is a Walking Tour.

Downtown Huntington Walking Tour

Created by Clio Admin on December 29th 2016, 2:38:45 pm.

Get a QR Code for this tour

Description

This tour of downtown Huntington begins at the statue of Collis P. Huntington and proceeds to some of the city's historic buildings, theaters, churches, monuments, and markers. The tour includes a number of "time capsule" entries that allow you to experience civil rights demonstrations, bootlegging, and buildings and monuments that have been lost to time. After a stop at the Convention and Visitor's Bureau, the tour continues to the Riverfront Park, an art gallery, and medical history museum. The tour concludes at the Marshall Hall of Fame Cafe, where you can enjoy exhibits related to the history of Marshall sports and well-earned refreshments.

Entries on This Tour

Downtown Huntington Walking Tour

Description

Share