The Marshall Hall of Fame Café opened in August 2001. It is a restaurant dedicated to showing the highlights and memories of Marshall University sports. To the right inside&nbsp;of the restaurant's entrance, is a display&nbsp;that contains different props from the movie We Are Marshall,&nbsp;which was released in 2006.The front&nbsp;left side of the restaurant includes an original&nbsp;painted mural by the artist Tim Decker, and the restaurant as a whole&nbsp;depicts the history of &nbsp;different Marshall sports teams and icons through the university's history, spanning from&nbsp;1837&nbsp;to 2001. Some significant moments included within&nbsp;the mural are the Hightower pass from the football game against WVU, the 1947 Men's&nbsp;National Basketball Championship, and the first win for the 1971 Marshall University&nbsp;football team, a victory against&nbsp;Xavier, which was the university's first win following the loss of&nbsp;football players and community members in&nbsp;the 1970 plane crash.Continuing through the restaurant, people will find&nbsp;glass cases that are&nbsp;filled with&nbsp;signed memorabilia from different Marshall players. There are pictures of Randy Moss, Chad Pennington, and Byron Leftwich, among other stars&nbsp;from the school's history. On the floor of the restaurant is the&nbsp;"Walk of Fame," which is made of&nbsp;tiles showing the names of all the Marshall All-Americans in various sports.The Marshall Hall of Fame Café is a museum that&nbsp;honors all Marshall players and teams throughout the years. The back wall&nbsp;is lined with&nbsp;newspaper articles and photos&nbsp;dedicated to the Marshall 1970 plane crash victims.&nbsp;This is a really important part of the Marshall University and Huntington&nbsp;community because the plane crash is a strong memory in the hearts of all Marshall Alumni, students, and residents of Huntington.&nbsp;The museum displays are free to the public.

this picture is of the room dedicated to the We are Marshall movie.

The Integration of Marshall University Athletics

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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.

Marshall University Sports History Display at the Hall of Fame Cafe

Institution

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.

Collis Potter Huntington was born on October 22, 1821, in Harwinton, Connecticut. Huntington was raised in a poor household; he left at the age of fourteen to travel throughout the South as a peddler selling watches and other merchandise. Huntington's second entrepreneurial endeavor was in the form of a general store in Oneonta, New York. Sometime around 1849, he journeyed to California during its gold rush and established a store that sold mining equipment. This business proved highly successful, and Huntington quickly became significantly wealthy. He utilized these profits to invest in other business opportunities, expanding his financial clout.Huntington was very active in the Republican Party, and his involvement sparked interest in the railroad industry. In 1860, he joined a partnership with Mark Hopkins, Leland Stanford, and Charles Crocker, who became known historically as the “Big Four.” With an investment of $1,500, Huntington and the other members of the Big Four created the Central Pacific Railroad Company. In 1862, Huntington secured a commission from the U.S. government to build the western half of what would be the Transcontinental Railroad. The railroad was completed on May 10, 1869, when the Central Pacific linked with the Union Pacific.The completion of the Transcontinental Railroad earned Huntington a great deal of fame, and in November 1869 he singlehandedly purchased control of the struggling Chesapeake &amp; Ohio Railroad in Virginia. The C&amp;O sought to extend their line to connect the James River in Virginia with the Ohio River in West Virginia, but damages caused during the Civil War had derailed these plans. Huntington agreed to provide the necessary funding to build the railroad in exchange for being appointed president of the C&amp;O. He actively helped plan the route of the rail line through the Appalachian Mountains and selected a plot of land along the Ohio River to be the site of its terminus. Construction of the terminus, immediately dubbed Huntington, began in 1871. Huntington himself was not very involved in the creation of the city other than choosing the location, and much of the planning was left to his brother-in-law Delos W. Emmons and engineer Rufus Cook. The C&amp;O’s expanded line was completed in 1873.During the 1880s, Huntington also extended the C&amp;O further east to the port of Newport News, Virginia (which he also founded), and west to Cincinnati. This enabled coal from West Virginia to be transported to even farther markets. The rapid expansion of the lines proved a great strain to the C&amp;O, and in 1887 the company went into default. It was saved when J. P. Morgan purchased a controlling stake in the company, but Huntington was pushed out as result. He still retained control of the Central Pacific and Southern Pacific Railroads, the Newport News Shipyard, and owned vast amounts of land across the country. Huntington died in 1900 with a net worth of around $70 million.Around 1924 Huntington’s widow Arabella and his favorite nephew Henry commissioned a sculpture of the city’s founder in his honor. The eight-foot bronze statue was sculpted by artist Gutzon Borglum, who later achieved international recognition as the creator of the Mount Rushmore monument. The statue was unveiled on October 23, 1924, in a ceremony attended by approximately 7,000 people. The Huntington Boy Scout Band gave a performance and Pastor M. L. Woods of the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church delivered the invocation. Neither Borglum nor the Huntington family attended the ceremony.The Collis P. Huntington statue originally stood in front of the C&amp;O depot. In May 1977, it was moved to Heritage Station, a newly-created retail center that had formerly been Huntington’s Baltimore &amp; Ohio Railroad depot. In 1999 CSX Transportation, which occupied the former C&amp;O depot, requested that the statue be returned to its original location. Some speculated that CSX desired the move because it was the successor company to the C&amp;O, whereas Collis P. Huntington had no affiliation with the B&amp;O. The statue was moved back to the C&amp;O depot in 2000 with the understanding that CSX pay for its transportation costs, but that the statue remain under the ownership of the Greater Huntington Park and Recreation District.

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.

Collis P. Huntington Statue

The roots of the Chesapeake &amp; Ohio Railway can be traced to earlier railroads founded during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In 1850, the Virginia Central Railroad extended west to Charlottesville and was pushing westward to the Alleghenies. To complete the line across the mountains, officials chartered a state-subsidized railroad called the Covington &amp; Ohio, later the Chesapeake &amp; Ohio Railroad. Following the war, however, railroad officials had to look outside the South for the funds to continue building their railroad. They eventually attracted the attention of Collis P. Huntington, one of the “Big Four” involved in building the Central Pacific portion of the Transcontinental Railroad. Huntington purchased the struggling Chesapeake &amp; Ohio Railroad and provided the money needed to complete the line to the Ohio River. He selected a plot of land along the river to be its terminus, which was incorporated as the city of Huntington in 1871.   Along with being the railroad’s western terminus, Huntington was chosen as a location for the railroad’s passenger station and repair and service facilities. Located on the south side of Seventh Avenue between Ninth and Tenth Streets, the C&amp;O’s three-story passenger depot was completed in 1872, even before the new rail line was finished between Huntington and Richmond, Virginia. The first passenger train arrived at the station from Richmond on January 29, 1873. The occasion was a cause for joyful celebration, according to a Richmond newspaper: “Punctual to the hour, the headlights of the engine appeared around the bend and she rushed screaming into the town. The first train from Richmond to Huntington! To say that the occupants of the train were welcomed would be a feeble way of expressing the enthusiastic display. A yell burst forth as they came up to the platform and the passengers were almost dragged out by eager hands.” The depot would welcome passengers for the next forty years, as the new city grew around it. In the early twentieth century, the C&amp;O Railway built nine new passenger stations along its route, all designed in an impressive, red brick Colonial Revival style. Huntington’s station, which was showing its age by that time, was one of the nine depots to be replaced with a newer building. Once the station was completed in 1913, the original depot from 1872 was demolished. In September of 1918, a few months after the United States had entered World War I, the Huntington Red Cross Canteen was established at the station. From then until September 1919, the canteen provided traveling troops with supplies and food. As the flu pandemic surged through Huntington in the fall and winter of 1918, the canteen also generated reports and illness cards concerning the infected soldiers who passed through the depot. Around 1924, Collis P. Huntington’s widow Arabella and his nephew Henry commissioned artist Gutzon Borglum, who later received recognition for designing Mount Rushmore, to create a statue of the city’s founder. The eight-foot bronze statue was unveiled on October 23, 1924 in a ceremony attended by approximately seven thousand people. The C&amp;O station was again the site of a crowd in 1948 when candidate Harry Truman gave a speech there during his “Whistle Stop Tour.” Following a 31,000-mile train ride across the country, and over three hundred speeches during the tour, Truman won the presidential election against Thomas Dewey.As the city of Huntington developed over the years, the C&amp;O Railroad did the same. During the 1880s, the railroad’s coal resources began to be developed and shipped eastward, as the company acquired and constructed smaller coal-hauling railroads across West Virginia. Although this expansion proved unsustainable and the company briefly faced foreclosure, it had recovered by the turn of the twentieth century and more than doubled the mileage that it operated. The railway continued expanding its holdings throughout the Midwest and was able to complete the previously mentioned remodelings of its major stations. Thanks to its coal traffic, the C&amp;O was less affected by the Great Depression than other rail companies, and it continued growing for decades after. In 1963, the company acquired control of the Baltimore &amp; Ohio Railroad, the country’s oldest railroad at the time. In 1972, the C&amp;O, B&amp;O, and Western Maryland Railroads became known as the Chessie System, and eight years later, the Chessie System merged with Seaboard Coast Line Industries to become CSX Transportation.  Although the C&amp;O Railroad expanded throughout the twentieth century, passenger rail service entered a decline in the years after the Second World War due to rising competition from airlines and the highway system. After years of declining business, the last C&amp;O passenger train left the Huntington station on April 30, 1971. In the years that followed, CSX Transportation used the former passenger depot to house administrative offices for its Huntington Division. In January 2016, however, CSX announced that it was reducing its operations from ten to nine divisions, and that the Huntington Division’s administrative responsibilities would be reassigned. The announcement left the depot’s fate uncertain, along with that of a mini-museum located in the eastern end of the building. While there was much speculation at the time about how to preserve the historic depot, plans have not yet been announced and the building is still owned by CSX. In addition, although the station has not regularly served passengers since 1971, it currently serves as the departure site for a tourist train to the New River Gorge area each fall.

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.

Huntington C&O Railroad Depot

Frederick C. Prichard was born in 1871 in Grayson,
Kentucky. He achieved initial prosperity through working in the coal business
in Fayette County, West Virginia. Later he and his wife Alice moved to
Huntington where he became president of the Huntington Banking &amp; Trust Co.
In 1909 Prichard and businessman Houghton A. Robson constructed the first part
of the Robson-Prichard Building on 9th Street (a second part was
added in 1926). Today it is known as the Guaranty Bank Building. 

Around 1925 Prichard began construction on a $1
million hotel building on Sixth Avenue. The Hotel Prichard&nbsp;was built in
conjunction with a school for orphans the family had established in Ona, West
Virginia. Frederick and Alice were strong supporters for the school due to the
fact that the couple never had children themselves. The intention was for both institutions
to support each other; the Hotel Prichard would generate revenue for the
Prichard School, while the school’s farm could supply food for the hotel’s
restaurant. The Hotel Prichard was completed and opened by 1926. The
thirteen-story brick building was designed in the Neoclassical Revival style by
Indianapolis architect Henry Zeigler Dietz. The hotel’s partnership with the
Prichard School in Ona initially succeeded for the first couple years. In 1928,
however, Frederick Prichard’s finances were severely damaged. He sold the hotel
and other properties and moved to Texas, where he died in 1960.

Despite the loss of Frederick, the Prichard quickly
developed a reputation as one of the top-tier hotels in Huntington. It
initially contained 300 guest rooms –each with its own private bathroom– as well
as a ballroom, a luxurious restaurant called the Hunt Club, and fourteen
private dining rooms. John F. Kennedy and his family stayed at the hotel during
his 1960 primary campaign. Other noted guests included singer and actor Gene
Autry, and the 1956 cast of NBC’s Today
show. According to Huntington: An
Illustrated History, the Prichard was home to WSAZ, the city’s first radio
station, from around 1926 to 1931. From 1939 to 1940 it housed the studio for
the radio station WCMI, the second in Huntington. The Prichard was also for
many years a popular site for hosting high school proms.

The Hotel Prichard closed in 1970 and was purchased
by Polan Realty, which converted it into a mixed-use apartment and office
building. The first floor also became home to several local businesses. By the
2000s the Prichard had become associated with crime and drug activity. Aging
infrastructure and multiple fires also posed problems for the building. In 2014
Eddie James Ministries and Huntington’s Christ Temple Church partnered with
Polan Realty to repurpose the Prichard as Hope Tower, a faith-based drug
rehabilitation facility. Drug addicts could live in the building while also
receiving treatment and education. The project was shuttered only a year later
after city inspectors identified numerous building code violations and ordered
the eviction of all tenants. In December 2016 it was reported that Christ
Temple Church had acquired the Prichard and was in the process of renovating
the structure. As of 2019 the church’s plans for the building had not been
publicly released.

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.

The Hotel Prichard

Frederick Prichard and his business partner, Houghton A. Robson, hired Cincinnati architects Elzner and Anderson to design the ten-story Robson-Prichard building, which would house their real estate offices. The building would have 175 office spaces, fireproof vaults, combination locks in all offices, a vacuum steam heating system, ice water fountains on each floor, hot and cold water in each room, and lighting by bottled gas and electricity. It opened for business in 1910, with the Huntington Banking and Trust Company and a coffee shop on the first floor. Prichard and Robson housed their real estate office on the fourth floor of the building, while other Huntington-based businesses such as the Island Creek Coal Company and Lumberman’s Insurance Company had offices on the remaining floors. Along with other prominent banks in Huntington, the Huntington Banking and Trust Company collapsed during the Great Depression and did not reopen. The Cincinnati-based Western and Southern Life Insurance Company foreclosed on the bank, and the building sat empty until 1939, when Sterling Diddle founded the Guaranty Bank and Trust Company on its first floor. The new bank occupied the building until it moved to another location in the early 1950s. The name of the Robson-Prichard Building was changed to the Guaranty Bank Building due to the success of the newly established bank.In 1946, Western and Southern Life Insurance Company sold the building to Sheriff Don Chafin of Logan, West Virginia. Chafin was well-known for his involvement in the Battle of Blair Mountain in 1921. A fierce opponent of unionization, Chafin had mobilized a force of deputies, national guardsmen, and local townspeople to prevent armed miners from marching across Logan County to free imprisoned miners in Mingo County. Chafin resided in the penthouse of the Robson-Prichard Building, which he installed in 1947, until his death in 1954. Concerned for his safety, he installed guards in the lobby as well as at the top of the elevator. Shortly before his death, Chafin had the building renamed after himself. After his passing, the Chafin Building was sold to the C&amp;O Railway, which housed its engineering department there from 1957 to 1977. While it was owned by the C&amp;O Railway, the building’s lobby was occupied by Stonewall Jackson Life Insurance Company. In 1977, the Chafin Building was purchased by lawyer Stanley Prizer, who then sold the building to John Hankins in 1997. After Hankins purchased the building, he was approached by Sterling Hall, grandson of Sterling Diddle, who requested that the structure be renamed the Guaranty Bank Building after he reopened Guaranty Bank on the first floor. The first floor lobby area has since housed First Sentry Bank, which merged with Guaranty Bank in 2009, as well as the downtown branch of Fifth Third Bank. As of September 2019, it currently houses United Bank, and the building has been renamed the United Bank Building. Various local law firms have occupied the top floors over the years; currently, Anspach Law houses the tenth floor below the penthouse. The owner of the building, John Hankins, is remodeling the remaining floors, and has recently remodeled the penthouse where he resides.

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.

The Guaranty Bank Building

The population of Huntington boomed in the late 1800s with the success of the railroad industry. In 1902, a federal judicial district was established for southern West Virginia, drastically raising the number of federal court cases in the area and greatly increasing business at post offices. Construction began in 1905 on a federal building that would address the needs of the growing city. The architectural firm Parker &amp; Thomas of Boston and Baltimore was chosen to design the building, following the Tarsney Act of 1893, which allowed architects of federal buildings to be chosen via competition among private firms. Completed in 1907, the three-story building was designed in the Beaux-Arts style typical of American public architecture at the time, though the ornamentation of the limestone exterior is less elaborate in comparison to other buildings of the style. The interior of the building is adorned with marble and ornamental iron fixtures.By 1910, Huntington had become West Virginia’s largest city, with a population of 31,000 people. At this point, it became necessary for the federal building to expand. In June of that year, Congress permitted the purchase of additional land surrounding the structure. When the addition was completed in 1919, the building almost quadrupled in size. Marquees were placed over the building’s entrances in the 1920s, and a third and final addition was completed in 1937. Notably, both additions were designed to continue the original style and keep the building visually consistent. In 1962, the lobby of the post office was remodeled to include new entrance doors, vestibules, and light fixtures. In 1964, the courtroom was remodeled. The building continued to serve Huntington as a post office and a federal court house until the 1970s, when the postal department was moved to another location. In 1977, the General Services Administration replaced the post office. In 1980, the building was renamed after Judge Sidney L. Christie, a district judge in Huntington from 1964 until his death in 1973. Still a federal building today, the building retains its historic character over a century after its construction. It forms part of a cluster of public architecture in downtown Huntington, including the Cabell County Courthouse, Huntington City Hall, and the former Carnegie Public Library. Built between 1899 and 1902, these buildings stand as a reminder of Huntington’s prosperity at the turn of the 20th century.

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.

United States Post Office and Court House

Huntington’s first city hall was created shortly after the city was incorporated in 1871. It was a simple, twenty-four-foot by fourteen-foot frame structure on the corner of Ninth Street and Fourth Avenue. This was merely a temporary structure; in 1886 the city council built a larger, red brick building on the 400 block of Ninth Street. In addition to the municipal government, this facility also housed Huntington’s fire department, police department, and jail. From 1887 until 1901 it also housed the Cabell County Court until a new courthouse building was constructed.In February 1911 city leaders determined that Huntington needed a larger, more impressive city hall to signify the city’s growth and prosperity. A plot of land was purchased on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Eighth Street for $44,000, an extravagant sum at the time. The new city hall would be located across the street from both the Cabell County Courthouse and the post office building (today the Sidney L. Christie Federal Building); it was also a short walk away from the Carnegie Public Library. These facilities made this area on Fifth Avenue the center of governmental and civic activity in Huntington.Local architect Verus T. Ritter was contracted to design the new city hall. Some of his other notable works in Huntington included the Huntington High School building, Huntington National Bank Building, Central Christian Church, and Johnson Memorial Methodist Church. Construction of City Hall was completed by 1915 at a cost of around $115,000. The building was designed in the Neoclassical style, which was a common feature of public buildings at that time. The structure included brick, granite, and limestone, with some terra-cotta ornamentation and Corinthian columns. Shortly after the opening of the new city hall, the former building from 1886 was demolished.One notable component of City Hall is a 2,500 seat auditorium located in the center of the building. The ornate facility hosts a number of community performances and events. At one point the auditorium sat disused and was used as storage space. During the 1980s proposals were floated to convert the auditorium into offices. Instead the auditorium was restored as part of a series of renovations and redecorating to City Hall undertaken by the City of Huntington Foundation in the late 1980s. The refurbishment project was directed by Jean Stephenson; in honor of her efforts, the auditorium was renamed the Jean Stephenson Auditorium in 1992.Republican State Convention, Huntington, WV, August 1916The Republican State Convention was held at Huntington City Hall on August 10, 1916. The purpose of the convention was to select presidential electors for the state, nominate two candidates for the West Virginia supreme court of appeals, and set a state Republican platform. During the convention, the issue of women’s suffrage was a central issue because of the upcoming public referendum on the topic in November 1916. After several attempts, the West Virginia House and Senate had voted in 1915 to send a women’s suffrage amendment to the state constitution through to a public vote. As a result, suffrage leaders were very active in 1916 campaigning for support at the polls.Suffragist Antoinette Funk, former chair of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, addressed the Republican State Convention in favor of suffrage. Claire K. (Mrs. O. D.) Oliphant spoke against women’s suffrage, representing the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage. The West Virginia Republican Party did include a woman suffrage “plank” in their party platform that read: “The Republican Party submitted to a vote of the people of West Virginia an amendment to our constitution giving the right to vote to women. It is the belief of this convention that the best purposes of government will be advanced by the widest participation in public affairs of all intelligent citizens and we do not believe that the power to participate wisely in public affairs is limited to sex.” Final Meeting of the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association:In September 1920, after the ratification of the 19th Amendment and in preparation for the first election in which women would go to the polls, the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association met for the last time in Huntington. Presiding over the final convention was WVESA president Julia Ruhl. This convention was followed by the founding of its replacement organization, the West Virginia League of Women Voters. The National League of Women Voters was founded in early 1920 by the women of the National American Woman Suffrage Association to help women engage with voting and politics once the 19th Amendment was ratified. The work of ratification and suffrage complete, West Virginia’s women joined the new organization and focused on the new goals of training women to engage in this new citizenship responsibility. President of the National League of Women Voters, Maud Wood Park, spoke at the Huntington meeting. Julia Ruhl was chosen as the first chairman of the West Virginia League of Women Voters with Mary C. Burks (Huntington, WV), Mrs. J. B. Stratton (Williamson, WV), and Mrs. H. D. Rummell (Charleston, WV) as the other officers. On the board of directors were Dr. Harriet B. Jones, Mrs. W. L. Lipscomb, Elsie Murphy, and Mrs. John A. Shields. At the conclusion of the Huntington meeting Marie B. Ames of St. Louis held a citizenship school to educate women about political issues, and this kicked off a state-wide effort to register women to vote before the November 1920 election.President of the Huntington Equal Suffrage Association, Nancy Murray Mann, opened the 1920 meeting of the WVESA with opening remarks that stated, in part:"I feel very much like a battle-scarred veteran this morning, felicitating his comrades in arms; for arent’ you my comrades?Have we not fought a good fight, held many a skirmish, managed many a maneuver, bivouac[k]ed for days and nights at the very seat of justice, marching ever with our faces to the foe, never raised the white flag, never learned the word retreat?But today the weariness of battle is forgotten, the bitterness buried and we remember only to rejoice in a victory we have won; not alone for the women of West Virginia, but for the women of America; but as we are assembled here in convention today, is it not into that we pause and pay tribute to the women who have given us this great gift of enfranchisement; the women who had the vision, the confidence and the courage to make that vision [come] true? The women who trod the lonely way, though the night was dark and the road was long and steep and winding, through sleepless vigils and hours of self sacrifice they have led us to the mount of triumph and the rights and privileges they fought so splendidly to win for us, must be held sacred and inviolate."Nancy Murray Mann was born in Bridgeport, West Virginia in 1868. Almost twenty years after marrying Frank Nixon Mann, she moved to Huntington with her husband where she became active in the WCTU and Women’s Club. Mann founded the Huntington Chapter of the Y.W.C.A and served as its first president. Mann was also involved in politics for first the Democratic and later Republican parties. In 1930 Mann was appointed to the Federal Industrial Institution for Women in Alderson, West Virginia as a member of the board of advisors. At a democratic party meeting in 1922, Mann stated that “I do not believe the vote itself is of so much importance, but rather our duty toward the vote and our purpose to make the vote count…”

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.

Huntington City Hall

Cabell County was formed in 1809 from the western
portion of Kanawha County and named after Virginia Governor William H. Cabell.
The very first meeting of the Cabell County court was held in the home of
William Merritt around Barboursville; afterwards the town of Guyandotte was
made the official county seat. In 1814 the seat was moved to Barboursville. It
briefly relocated to Guyandotte again in 1863 due to the threat of Confederate
forces in Barboursville, but the seat was returned there in 1865 at the end of
the Civil War. The growing new city of Huntington was designated the Cabell
County seat in 1887 after voters’ approval in a referendum.

The Cabell County Court at first shared space with
Huntington City Hall at the 400 block of Ninth Street while plans were made for
the creation of a formal courthouse. In 1892 the county commission purchased a
tract of land between Fourth and Fifth Avenue and Seventh and Eighth Street,
known as Block 90, for around $24,000. The decision initially proved
controversial; critics complained that the plot of land was too large and too
far away from the central business district. Actual construction of a
courthouse was delayed when the Panic of 1893 harmed the community’s finances.
In 1895 the county commission accepted a design proposal from the Kansas City
architectural firm of Gunn and Curtiss; the Moses Construction Company of
Chicago was contracted to build the structure. Local architect James B. Stewart
was commissioned to oversee the project. The sandstone foundation of the
building was soon built but more financial problems delayed further work on the
courthouse for several years. 

Construction officially resumed with a
cornerstone-laying and time capsule ceremony on November 11, 1899. Cabell
County spent around $95,000 building the courthouse, along with an additional
$83,000 in interest in bonds that had been sold to raise money. The Beaux Art
Classical style building was one of the grandest courthouses ever built in West
Virginia. The two-story stone structure contained facilities for the circuit
court, the county court, the county clerk, and a jail. It was topped with a
large dome containing a clock and bell tower. &nbsp;The jail reportedly made national news in 1932
when eighteen prisoners escaped by sawing their way out and overpowering two
guards. The continued growth of Huntington and increased demand for court
services to be expanded twice, with a west wing built in 1923 and an east wing
in 1940.

Neglect and inadequate maintenance throughout the
twentieth century caused concerns about the building’s appearance and
structural integrity by the 1990s. A series of renovations were undergone
between 1997 and 2000 that included the restoration of the courthouse dome; the
repairing of loose masonry and water damage; and new paint. The dome was also
covered in golf leafing thanks to a donation from local attorney John Hankins.
In 2014 the original bell was removed and placed on display on the courthouse
grounds after the bell tower was found to be in an extreme state of
deterioration. 

Along with the bell, there are a number of monuments
scattered throughout the courthouse grounds dedicated to various subjects. A
stone commemorating the James River and Kanawha Turnpike was placed in 1939. In
1941 a monument to Revolutionary War veterans buried in Cabell County was
installed. In 1953 a monument was placed honoring Cabell County soldiers from
the War of 1812. In 1959 a tablet was installed commemorating the 150th
anniversary of the creation of Cabell County. The most recent monument was
placed in 1987 to note the bicentennial of U.S. Constitution.

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.

Cabell County Courthouse

There is relatively little information about the cast iron statue of a Union soldier that once stood at this location. Newspaper sources indicate that the statue was erected in the 1890s, likely by members of the Grand Army of the Republic. In 1915, a group of residents with Southern affinities announced their intention to erect a statue of a Confederate soldier in the city's Ritter Park. The group hoped to win support for their plan among residents--most of whom observed a tradition of silence about the memory of a war that had divided residents throughout the region--by "balancing" the park's interpretation by moving the statue of the Union soldier to Ritter Park as well. This plan upset many residents who hoped to avoid controversy, especially those who remembered the actions of Confederate raiders and were proud of the state's allegiance to the Union. From the perspective of these residents, erecting a statue of a Confederate soldier "would be discreditable to the Union cause." As locals debated the issue, a number of conflicts erupted. The ensuing controversy came to a head when residents woke up to find that the Union statue had disappeared. Some residents reported that they had seen men loading the statue on a wagon, but did not report the occurrence because they assumed that the men were moving the statue to Ritter Park. To this day, no one knows the fate of that Union soldier.  Several other Union monuments disappeared throughout the state. As a result, there are more Confederate monuments in the state than there are monuments honoring the majority of West Virginians who supported the Union. Because West Virginia was created in opposition to secession, the creation of pro-Confederate monuments in the early 20th century and the simultaneous destruction of Union memorials illustrates how historical interpretations are often contentious.

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. 

The Lost Union Statue (1915)

Scottish-American industrialist Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) became one of the richest men in history thanks to the enormous success of his Carnegie Steel Company. Early on he expressed a great interest in philanthropy, and he strongly advocated that the wealthy should give away the fortunes they had accumulated. By the end of his life Carnegie had donated the majority of his wealth to various charitable causes, libraries in particular. Carnegie credited access to a free library during his childhood as one of the main reasons for his success, and he wanted to make knowledge as widely available as possible. From 1883 until his death in 1919 Carnegie provided grants for the construction of around 2,800 free, public libraries around the world, including 1,700 in the United States.Carnegie offered grants for eight communities in West Virginia: Wheeling, Huntington, Parkersburg, Bethany College, Hinton, Bluefield, Williamson, and Charleston. However, he stipulated that communities had to be able to contribute ten percent of the construction cost annually for continued maintenance of a library, and they had to provide property for it to be located on. Because of these stipulations only Huntington, Hinton, Parkersburg, and Bethany College accepted the grant. Huntington was initially offered $25,000 for a library, which was soon increased to $35,000. The city government provided a plot of land on the corner of Ninth Street and Fifth Avenue, an area known at the time as Government Square, and ownership was conveyed to the local Board of Education. Construction of the Carnegie Public Library, as it was named, began in the spring of 1902. It was completed by December 1903 and opened in a grand ceremony on January 1, 1904. Adrianne Burns was hired to serve as the first librarian.Huntington architect James B. Stewart designed the library, which was created in the Beaux Arts Classical style; this was similar to many other Carnegie libraries. Features included a large basement, Ionic columns, terra cotta ornamentation, and stone ashlar walls. The names of several literary and classical figures, such as Socrates, were carved at the top of the building. The library started out with 750 books but grew quickly; by 1908 it had 6,000 volumes in its possession. The building’s interior was renovated in the 1930s to accommodate this growth, with the changes overseen by architect Albert F. Tucker.The Carnegie Public Library was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. That same year it closed upon the completion of the new and larger Cabell County Public Library directly across the street. Soon afterwards the old building was repurposed to house Huntington Junior College, which left much of the original interior intact. The for-profit college was established in 1936 by Chester A. Riley Jr., who wanted to provide students with job skills relevant to Huntington’s industries. The school originally offered courses in skills such as bookkeeping, shorthand, and typing. Today it operates eight Associate’s Degree programs ranging from business management to medical coding.

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.

Carnegie Public Library, Huntington, West Virginia

African Americans used nonviolent protest tactics against segregation for generations prior to the modern civil rights movement, including dozens of African Americans who refused to give up their seat within railcars and other forms of public transportation in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. African Americans held formal sit-ins to protest racial discrimination at libraries and places of public accommodation in the years prior to World War II, including a 1939 sit-in within an Alexandria, Virginia library that only allowed white patrons. During the 1940s, students and community members in northern and western cities held organized and sustained sit-ins within restaurants in Midwestern university towns. A sit-in at a segregated lunch counter at Wichita's Dockhum drug store in 1958 served as a harbinger of things to come in 1960. Sit-ins at segregated lunch counters attracted national attention in the spring of 1960 following a sit-in by four college students in Greensboro, NC. On February 1st, four students occupied seats at the lunch counter at a local Woolworth. Additional students joined the protest which grew until over three hundred protesters filled the store on February 5th. News of this protest inspired similar sit-ins throughout North Carolina the following week. By the end of the month, there were sit-ins in dozens of southern cities and hundreds of restaurants and lunch counters ended their policy of racial segregation.   The situation in Huntington mirrored the national trend towards racial integration, but the owner of this particular restaurant refused to serve African Americans even the other restaurants opened their doors to all customers. Few African Americans wished to eat at the White Pantry, which had a reputation of sub-standard food and service, but by 1963, a growing number of Huntingtonians decided that they would challenge the owner's racial bigotry. Students at Marshall University, led by community members, utilized the civil rights organization known as the Civic Interest Progressives to organize sustained protests at the White Pantry. The support of attorney Hebert Henderson was critical to the ultimate success of these sit-ins, but students such as basketball standout Phil Carter were physically attacked by the owner during these events. In addition, the owner ordered employees to spray pesticides next to Black protesters, mop the floor with ammonia, and even lit a sulfur cake causing noxious fumes that forced the students to leave. Even after the court ordered the restaurant owner to serve all patrons, discrimination continued, including servers who delivered uncooked food to Black patrons as directed by the restaurant owner.During the sit-ins at the White Pantry, the owner physically attacked students and even burned sulfur cakes to release toxic fumes that forced the protesters to leave the premises. Gustavus Cleckly and Cicero Fain were arrested on trespassing charges by the Huntington Police Department. The police later served the two civil rights organizers with "John Doe" warrants. (A "John Doe" warrant is used for the arrest of a person whose name is unknown, and is sometimes used to arrest a person known by sight and not by name).From an interview conducted in 2020 by Delcie Davis, a former employee during the sit-ins who served as a hostess and cook at the age of 17, more information can be discovered about the tactics and attitudes of the restaurant owner. Davis confirmed that the owner used many of the tactics that harmed the student protesters but did not believe that the owner ever used a cattle prod. However, she indicated that even after the restaurant was ordered to serve all customers, he declared that the law "did not dictate how I cook" and deliberately sent raw and under-cooked meals to African American patrons. While she was employed for years as a hostess, she often times worked as a short order cook when needed. She indicated that this would sometimes result in altercations as Black patrons responded to the raw bacon and eggs they were served for breakfast. The intent of the owner, Davis indicated, was to continue his practice of only serving white customers by discouraging Black patrons without explicitly refusing service as he had in the past.The atmosphere around the restaurant grew more notorious and the proximity of the police station likely prevented violence. However, Davis confirmed that the owner lit surfer cakes and took other actions that put students in danger and sometimes also placed his staff in an uncomfortable position. For more information about the sit-ins and share-ins, as well as the organization of the Civic Interest Progressives, please click on the videos and article by Isaac McKown. McKown's research was conducted as part of Marshall University's Carter G. Woodson Project. Located within Marshall's history department website, the Woodson Project hosts a number of articles about African American history in West Virginia. These articles are based upon research in local archives, newspapers, and interviews with longtime Huntington residents.

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.

Sit-in at the White Pantry, 1963

Huntington’s downtown developed and flourished from
1900 to 1930 because of the railroad that made the city a hub for industry. As
Huntington’s industries took off, local businesses, hotels, and churches formed
in the downtown area. Banks were established in large and elaborate buildings
during the 1920s to accommodate the booming local economy. The Union Bank and
Trust Company hired the architectural firm of Meaner and Handloser to construct
an office building on the corner of 9th Street and 4th Avenue, the heart of
downtown Huntington; Meaner and Handloser were responsible for designing many
of the city’s prominent buildings during the 1920s. The fifteen-story structure
was built in the Renaissance Revival style; the bottom and uppermost floors
were given an ashlar stone façade, while the remaining floors were brick. 

The building was completed in 1924 and initially housed
the Union Bank and Trust Company. It was the company’s second facility; previously
it had operated from a simple frame building on 9th Street and 4th
Avenue. The Union Bank heavily promoted the new building throughout its
construction. The bank’s tenure was short-lived however, as the stock market
crash in 1929 forced it to close. In 1943 a group of local businessmen
purchased the structure and renamed it the West Virginia Building, because it
was the tallest commercial building in the state at the time.

The first floor was remodeled and opened as a
Walgreens Drug Store in 1937. The business flourished for many years and was
said to have the best soda fountain in Huntington. One employee at the
Walgreens was Virginia Ruth Egnor, who later became famous as the 1950s television
star Dagmar. The store closed in 1961 after Walgreens’ corporate headquarters
declined to renew its lease. Another drug store, the Thrift Drug Company, occupied
the space for a brief time but quickly folded. When news station WSAZ converted
from radio to television in 1949, their offices were temporarily located in the
West Virginia Building so that they could utilize the building’s height for
broadcasting. When a nearby movie theater burned in 1950, the station crew
pointed a television camera out a window and broadcast the fire live. 

The following years saw the West Virginia Building
serve variously as commercial space and apartment units, including housing for
Marshall University students. The building began to deteriorate, and in 1981 it
was purchased by the firm of Perry, Monroe &amp; Perry for a mere $500,000. The
company spent years and millions of dollars refurbishing the structure. Most of
the remaining office space was turned into apartments; utilities were installed
or upgraded; and the top floor was converted into a restaurant space. In 2007
the building was acquired by Well Street Properties, LLC, a New York-based
company. 

Local businessman Alex Vence purchased the West
Virginia Building in 2013 and continued the series of renovations that had been
ongoing since the 1980s. The living spaces were renovated into upscale luxury
apartment units and cosmetic improvements were made to the exterior. One of the
most notable changes was the installation of a multi-colored LED lighting
program on the top two floors of the building; it was modeled after the lighting
system for the Empire State Building and changes color to commemorate various events
and holidays. The conversion of the West Virginia Building in the 2010s was
credited with improving the downtown Huntington economy and served as a successful
model of adaptive reuse for historic structures.

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. 

The West Virginia Building

The Frederick Hotel was built by the Central Realty Company of Huntington at a cost of $400,000, with an additional $100,000 for furnishings bought in Chicago. It was designed by noted local architects Edwin N. Alger and James B. Stewart in the Edwardian Renaissance style. Considered one of the most elegant hotels of the time, it was built using 3.7 million bricks, five railroad cars of glass, 300 tons of iron, 200 telephones, and 4,000 electric lights. The hotel was built on an imposing scale, covering almost the length of a football field. A newspaper article published at the time of its opening labeled it “the greatest building project ever begun in Huntington.” The hotel was named after George Frederick Miller, the primary financer of the project.The Frederick was said to be the most prominent hotel between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. It contained 150 guest rooms (45 of which had private bathrooms), 65 offices, a bar, billiard room, two dining rooms, a ballroom, pharmacy, cigar stand, shoe shine stand, barbershop, and a Turkish bath. Various retail shops were housed on the first floor. The building also boasted its own emergency power generators and a stained glass skylight. At the time of its opening, it was one of the most expensive hotels in the area; it cost anywhere from $2.50 to $4.00 per room for one night. Many noteworthy figures stayed at the Frederick Hotel over the years, including Richard Nixon, Bob Hope, and Liberace, along with many others who came to perform at the Keith-Albee Theatre across the street. Rumors persist that a secret underground tunnel existed connecting the Frederick to the Keith-Albee, but no evidence has been found to support the claim.The hotel also housed two luxury restaurants, the Elephant Walk Club and the Colonade Restaurant. The Elephant Walk Club, created by Huntington businessman Bill Ritter and designer John Jenkins, opened in 1964. It was a private club, open only to members and their guests. Bill Ritter was the president of Central Realty, the company that owned the Frederick Hotel, and decided to open a club in the lobby to attract business to the hotel. He and Jenkins looked for a theme and name for the club for quite some time, until Ritter reportedly woke up in the night and saw a book titled Elephant Walk on his nightstand. Once deciding to use this as the name of the club, they ordered all types of gold elephant sculptures and wallpaper to decorate the lobby. The two men were so committed to this theme that they booked a live circus elephant named Shirley, who entered the club doors on her knees much to the amazement of the club guests. Today, one of the elephant head sculptures still hangs in the hotel behind the lobby desk.Matewan police chief Sid Hatfield and his new bride Jesse Testerman were arrested by Baldwin-Felts agents at the Frederick during their honeymoon in June of 1920. Two weeks after the Battle of Matewan on May 19, Sid Hatfield boarded a train for Huntington with Jessie Testerman; she was the widow of Matewan’s mayor, Cabell Testerman, who had been killed during the incident. Hatfield and Testerman married, but the honeymoon was cut short when the Felts Brothers arrived and arrested Hatfield. Two guns that belonged to Mayor Testerman were found in the newlyweds’ hotel room. Hatfield was accused of murdering the mayor and marrying his widow to take control of the deceased’s estate. Hatfield stood trial but was acquitted for the Matewan shootings. However, a year later Hatfield was murdered on the steps of the court house in Welch by Baldwin-Felts agents.A decline in occupancy rates forced the Frederick Hotel to close on July 30, 1973. The building remains in good condition, thanks in part its use of special repressed brick in its construction. After closing, the Frederick was converted into a mixed-use facility, and today houses a combination of apartments, offices, restaurants, and retail space. The first floor lobby has been preserved and retains much of its original ornamentation. It also displays many artifacts from the early twentieth century including newspapers, pharmaceutical products, and other common items from that era.

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.

Frederick Hotel

The Keith-Albee Theatre in downtown Huntington, West Virginia opened to the public on May 7, 1928. Brothers A. B. and S. J. Hyman built the Keith Albee, with Thomas Lamb as the architect, and added it to their list of theaters along with the State, Orpheum and Huntington. The new theater was constructed under the supervision of vaudeville tycoons B. F. Keith and Edward Albee. The theater became part of their Keith-Albee circuit, the premier vaudeville tour on the East Coast of the United States. American vaudeville was a type of theater performance that was popular from the 1880s to the 1930s, that showcased different specialty acts such as comedy and burlesque. The Scottish-born architect Thomas W. Lamb designed 153 other theaters around the world; unfortunately, only forty-three of these theaters are still open. Seventy-one have been demolished, and the rest will depend upon preservationists for restoration or they will share the same fate.The Keith Albee includes the atmospheric elements that became popular in the largest theaters of the day. The ceiling is designed to resemble the night sky, complete with small lights that were placed in the ceiling to resemble stars. The design also implements intricate gold plasterwork, chandeliers, smoking rooms, and fireplaces in the bathrooms. Lamb exceeded his original $250,000 budget to over two million dollars, which was quite a sizable sum in 1928.The Keith Albee Theater was dubbed a “temple of amusement” by Huntington’s Herald-Dispatch newspaper. In addition to its famous name, the theater boasted the most luxurious modern accommodations, with a new ventilation system, Wurlitzer organ, 8-piece orchestra, and about 20 ushers with their signature red and gold uniforms. The opening day performance on May 8, 1928 featured performer Rae Samuels, nicknamed the “Blue Streak of Vaudeville” for her versatile acting ability..Due to the decline in vaudeville in the 1930s, the Keith Albee started running movies to turn a profit. During this time period, many of these types of movie palaces were torn down or demolished because they could no longer sell tickets and fill seats. The Keith Albee survived the flood of 1937, but changing habits of consumers were more difficult to overcome. Television took a toll on the theatre, and by the 1960s and 1970s plans were in place to convert the large auditorium into three separate movie theaters. Efforts were made by local organizations, such as "Save the Keith," but the theater would be split up anyway with a fourth theater added in a conjoining retail space. The plans were carefully made so that the splitting of the auditorium could be easily reversed, as it was during later renovations. By 2006, the Keith Albee stopped running as a movie theater due to financial woes caused by a larger and more modern movie theater that opened in Pullman Square just two blocks away. The Keith Albee was transferred to the Marshall University Foundation and continues to be the home of the Marshall Artist Series. Since then, renovation projects have been in place to slowly revert the theater back to its original glory. The project has a goal of full restoration by the theater's 100th Anniversary.The Keith Albee is a staple in the history of the Huntington area. It is home to the beloved Marshall Artist Series and it has hosted a few notable film premiers such as "We Are Marshall" and "Rain Man." The theater represents a time period when a trip to the vaudeville palace was a grand event and a time when a trip to a movie palace acted as an escape from reality during hard times. The design and architecture of the building is very unique and represents an important era of theater architecture history.

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. 

Keith Albee Theatre

Shopping arcades were structures containing
commercial spaces and were characterized by their enclosed passageways, which
linked the businesses together. Arcades were prevalent for centuries in Europe
and were commonplace in the United States during the early twentieth century.
The Ritter family of Huntington constructed an arcade on Fourth Avenue in 1925.
The two-story structure featured elements of Italianate and Renaissance Revival
style architecture. It was particularly noteworthy for its ornate interior and
glass ceiling. The facility was known variously as the Huntington Arcade, the
Ritter Arcade, or the Bank Arcade, as it was located adjacent to First
Huntington National Bank. &nbsp;

The arcade was one of the most prominent commercial
centers in downtown Huntington for decades. The first floor contained retail
shops while the second floor housed offices for doctors and other
professionals. A bowling alley, Arcade Lanes, operated in the basement from the
1920s until 1976. The oldest and most well-known business was the Peanut
Shoppe. It originally opened in 1924 as a franchise of the Planters Peanut Co.
but later became independently operated. The small shop sold roasted peanuts
and a variety of other snacks; it was very popular with patrons visiting the
nearby Keith Albee Theater. After over eighty years in operation the Peanut
Shoppe closed in 2008, citing a drop in profits after the Keith Albee stopped
airing movies two years prior. Another long-lasting business in the Arcade is
George’s Tailoring, a tailor shop that has occupied space there since at least
1973 and remains in operation today.

Traffic to the Arcade plummeted after the
construction of the Huntington Mall in 1981. One by one, businesses closed
until the building became nearly vacant. In 2009 it was purchased by Universal
Holdings, LLC with the goal of transforming it into condominiums. The company spent
$2.5 million renovating the Arcade into 26 modern condos, along with tenant amenities
such as a conference room, fitness center, and lounge; interior ornamentation and
the original glass ceiling were restored and preserved as well. Two spaces were
also set aside for businesses, including one for George’s Tailoring. The
building, rebranded as the Huntington Galleria, opened to tenants in 2014. It
is one of many historic buildings in downtown Huntington that was saved through
adaptive reuse in the 2000s and 2010s. An August 2014 article in The State Journal claimed that it is the
last surviving arcade in West Virginia.

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. 

Huntington Arcade

When the city of Huntington was founded in 1871, enterprising businessmen soon flocked to the growing industrial and commercial center. Alongside the retailers and hotels that comprised its small downtown, it was necessary for the young city to have a bank. In 1888, the First National Bank was organized by George F. Miller, J. L. Caldwell, D. I. Smith, W. H. Hagen and other prominent businessmen. Caldwell served as its first president until his death in 1923, and Miller was executive vice president until he passed away in 1910. The bank was located in an elegant stone building at 926 3rd Avenue, which is now the site of Pullman Square. First National Bank was the second bank to open in Huntington, after the Bank of Huntington was chartered in 1875. The Bank of Huntington, which was the site of a notorious bank heist in 1875, merged with the Commercial National Bank in 1894 to form the Huntington National Bank.As Huntington grew, becoming West Virginia’s largest city by 1910, the First National Bank prospered and soon required a larger space. In 1912, the owners of the First National Bank purchased a lot at the southwest corner of 4th Avenue and 10th Street. The lot had formerly been the site of the First Methodist Episcopal Church, which was constructed in 1875. Architect Verus T. Ritter was hired to design the new twelve-story bank building. Ritter was one of Huntington's most famous architects and had designed many other notable buildings in the city, such as the Johnson Memorial Methodist Church and Huntington City Hall. He designed the new bank in the Renaissance Revival architectural style, with an embellished first floor facade and a flat roof with decorative overhanging eaves. Upon its completion in 1914, the bank occupied the ground floor while the office spaces on the building’s upper floors were quickly rented by doctors, lawyers, and other professionals. In 1925, the First National Bank merged with the Huntington National Bank to form the First Huntington National Bank (FHNB). With this change, the bank needed more space, prompting the construction of a twelve-story addition on the south side of the building along 10th Street. The expansion was designed and overseen by Meanor and Handloser, another prominent architectural firm in Huntington. They followed the design style of the original building so well that it was difficult to tell where the first building ended and the new section began. In 1977, the First Huntington National Bank relocated to a new building on 5th Avenue, where it became the first bank in the area to offer 24-hour services. The Old National Bank of Huntington moved into the 4th Avenue building in 1981, before the St. James Condominium Association purchased and renamed the building six years later. The new owners paid $6.7 million for both the building and for the extensive renovations that they made. While the Old National Bank remained the ground floor tenant, the upper six floors were remodeled into luxury apartments. After the Old National Bank closed, the Fifth-Third Bank operated a branch out of the building’s ground floor from 2001 to 2011. As of 2019, the First State Bank of Barboursville occupies the first and second floors of the St. James Building. There are also a number of businesses and offices on the floors above, including the Huntington branch of the Word House Inc., McClure Goad PLLC., and Bailes, Craig &amp; Yon PLLC. The sixth through twelfth floors hold apartments managed by the St. James Condominium Association.

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.

The St. James Building (First National Bank)

The Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks
originated with a British entertainer named Charles Vivian who traveled to New
York City in 1867 to pursue his music career. Vivian connected with other
entertainers in the city and they formed and informal social and drinking club
called the Jolly Corks. After one of their members died and left a family
behind with no means of support, the group decided to devote their energy to
helping the needy. The Elks Lodge was formally established on February 16, 1868
and over the years lodges sprung up in many major cities. Historically the Elks
have worked to promote patriotism, support impoverished or homeless veterans,
and organize youth athletic programs. Huntington’s Elk Lodge engages in a
variety of community and charitable programs including flag retirement
ceremonies and fundraising dinners for veterans. 

Elks Lodge 313 was established in Huntington on
January 1, 1895. For the first decade the lodge moved among locations until
plans were made to create a permanent building. Construction of the lodge hall on
Fourth Avenue began in 1909 and was completed within a year at a cost of
$50,000. It opened for use in a ceremony on January 1, 1910 that was attended
by 1,000 people and included a dance and a cannon salute. The three-story stone
structure was designed in the Beaux Arts style by local architect and lodge
member William B. Smith and included features such as tall Corinthian columns.
The building contained a public restaurant in the basement; offices and a
reading room on the first floor; the lodge meeting room on the second floor;
and a ballroom on the third floor. The lodge hall underwent a $250,000
renovation in 1957; Elks membership peaked at this time with around 2,000
members. 

By the 2010s the Elk Lodge in Huntington had
declined to fewer than 500 members. The basement restaurant closed and building
maintenance became too expensive for the lodge to handle. In 2017 the lodge
sold their hall to B&amp;D Realty for $275,000. The company proceeded with a
$1.5 million project to remodel the building into luxury housing. Several
buildings behind the hall were demolished to make room for a parking lot, and
the three floors were converted into nine apartments. Because of the building’s
historic status, the company worked to preserve the exterior and some of the
original architectural elements. The third floor retains the original flooring
as well. The apartment complex, named the Elk’s Luxury Lofts, opened to tenants
in late 2018. Huntington’s Elks Lodge 313 remains in operation at an alternate
location.

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. 

Huntington Elks Lodge 313 (1909-2017)

After a Ford auto showroom burned down at 1030 4th Avenue in the early 1920s, plans for a theater to be built in its place were announced. The structure was quickly built, but the project was financially unstable and eventually put on hold. After standing vacant for three years, the building was purchased by Smith Amusement Company in 1925 and the theater was rapidly completed in time for its opening night of November 15, 1925. The decor of the Palace Theater was as grand as its name would suggest. Its box office was elegantly finished in bronze and gold and had room for two cashiers. The walls of the exterior lobby were marble-trimmed, with bronze cases featuring advertisements for current and upcoming films. The main auditorium, which could seat up to 1325 people, contained stadium-style seating that was divided between the ground floor and a balcony. The Palace Theater opened during a decade of great expansion for the American film industry, during which “picture palaces” that could hold over two thousand people were constructed across the country. Vaudeville remained a popular form of entertainment throughout the 1920s, but the rapid growth of the film industry meant that many theaters came to feature brief movie clips alongside live performances. The theaters of Huntington’s Fourth Avenue reflected this trend: the Orpheum, built in 1914, as well as the Keith-Albee, which opened in 1928, showed films as well as vaudeville performances before vaudeville declined permanently in the 1930s. Several theaters exclusively showed movies, including a variety of nickelodeons built along Third Avenue as early as 1906.Over the years, the Palace became a popular destination for Huntington moviegoers and a staple of the businesses along Fourth Avenue. A small snack bar named the Sugar Bowl, which was renamed the Orange Bowl around 1963, was opened next to the theater. In April 1962, the Palace was picketed by representatives of the NAACP in protest of the theater’s policy of “part-time integration” in which African Americans were only allowed into the theater for religious films.The Greater Huntington Theater Corporation purchased the Palace and renamed it the Camelot in the 1970s. The corporation was founded by Abe and Saul Hyman, who had opened the ornate Keith-Albee Theatre a block away from the Palace in 1928 and operated multiple other theaters in the tri-state area. The Palace Theater’s sign was redone to reflect its new name: a neon knight and a horizontal sign reading “Camelot” came to replace the vertical “Palace” above the marquee. In the 1980s, the second floor balcony was converted into another screening room, reflecting the trend towards multi-screen theaters at the time. The Orange Bowl was also converted into a video game arcade at this time.  After the opening of Marquee Cinemas, a sixteen-screen multiplex, in Pullman Square in November 2004, business at the Camelot dropped significantly. The Greater Huntington Theater Corporation closed the Camelot on January 6, 2006, and the Keith-Albee was shut down on January 22 for the same reasons. The closing of classic downtown theaters like the Camelot and the Keith-Albee was not unique to the Huntington area: as modern multiplex theaters were built, they drove business away from historic but outdated cinemas across the country.Shortly after the Camelot was closed in 2006, Jessica Lynn Fox and her husband bought the theater so that it could be preserved and repurposed into a dance studio currently called 4th Avenue Arts. Fox, a Huntington native, has trained and worked with a number of professional companies throughout the country, and previously taught in Washington, D.C. Formerly called Jeslyn Performing Arts Center, 4th Avenue Arts offers dance, pilates, and theater to the Huntington community.The Palace (later Camelot) Theater was one of several small movie theaters in downtown Huntington that provided entertainment to moviegoers for decades before it was closed. Along with other Fourth Avenue movie houses like the Keith-Albee and the Orpheum (later the Cinema Theater), the Palace represents the history of American cinema, from its dramatic rise in the 1920s to the decline of small theaters by the early 2000s. It is also an important part of Huntington’s story, representing the rise, decline, and revitalization of its historic downtown.

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.  

The Palace Theater (Camelot Theater)

Prohibition in West Virginia began in 1914, several years before it went into effect nationwide. As in many parts of the United States, the temperance movement had been gaining traction in West Virginia for decades before the 18th Amendment, thanks to groups like the Anti-Saloon League and the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. Claiming that alcohol was at the root of the ills of American society, these organizations campaigned tirelessly for local and national prohibition laws. By 1910, 37 of West Virginia’s 55 counties were dry, with a statewide prohibition amendment enacted at midnight on June 30, 1914. In 1919, West Virginia became the 21st state to ratify the national prohibition amendment, which went into effect under the Volstead Act in January 1920. As saloons across the country closed their doors, the illegal production and distribution of alcohol boomed. In West Virginia, which was already known for its moonshine industry, bootlegging flourished. At this time, “the Strip” along 4th Avenue between 10th and 11th Streets of downtown Huntington became a prime location for speakeasies, gambling dens, and brothels. The Strip included Crescent Pool Hall, where bootlegged whiskey could be purchased, and an apartment above the State Theater where people could buy illegal drinks. Between the pool hall and theater were apartments that housed brothels, along with “alley joints” where people could purchase alcohol. William Allen Cross was the manager of several downtown theaters during the Prohibition era, including the Keith Albee and the State Theater. In a 1974 interview, Cross discussed the Strip during Prohibition and told stories of bootlegging at the time. Cross did not make moonshine himself, but he was a regular buyer of illegal liquor and knew the Strip well. He and his friends drank moonshine out of “horse quarts,” and he had his moonshine delivered to him while he was at work. Cross' supplier had a distillery in Merritt's Creek, and he recalled that there were numerous others in the area, including in an abandoned coal field in Scotstown, Ohio. According to Cross, local law enforcement rarely bothered bootleggers, as bribes in the form of booze or money, known as “rake-offs,” were common. National prohibition ended on December 5, 1933 with the ratification of the 21st Amendment. In 1934, West Virginia voters approved amendments to the state constitution, which officially permitted the production, sale, and transporting of alcohol within the state. According to Cross, business along the Strip declined significantly after Prohibition ended. Once people could buy alcohol legally once again, the gambling joints and brothels that seemed to go hand in hand with bootleggers also lost business. By 1945, the illicit activities that gave the Strip its notoriety had disappeared or relocated elsewhere, leaving the district to become just another part of Huntington’s downtown.

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. 

"The Strip": Prohibition and Bootlegging in Huntington

During the first few decades of the twentieth century, Huntington enjoyed immense success as a hub for the coal and railroad industries, with luxurious office buildings, banks, and hotels filling its downtown. The Coal Exchange Company was a holding company organized by railroad moguls D.C. Schonthal, A. Solof and H.A. Zeller. The three men managed several companies and owned real estate throughout Huntington at the time. In the mid-1920s, Schonthal, Solof, and Zeller commissioned the construction of a building to serve as the headquarters for their company. They hired Wilbur J. Meanor and Edward Handloser as the architects of the new high-rise. Meanor &amp; Handloser was one of the most successful architectural firms in the state of West Virginia during the early twentieth century. The duo had offices in both Huntington and Charleston, and were responsible for constructing some of the most iconic buildings in each city. In Huntington, Meanor and Handloser designed the First National Bank Building, the WWI Memorial Arch, and Ohev Sholom Synagogue, as well as many of the city’s grandest homes.  Completed in 1925, the Coal Exchange Building stood at a towering 160 feet and fourteen stories, making it one of the tallest buildings of the Huntington skyline. The owners reportedly spent $1.2 million to construct the building - nearly $15 million in today's dollars. The Coal Exchange’s lobby and walls were lined with marble, and the entrance contained three elevators. It held coal company employee offices and the Coal Exchange Bank on the ground floor. Doctors and lawyers also utilized office space in the building because it offered larger and finer offices than other buildings in Huntington at the time. The Coal Exchange Building did not host its original tenants for long, however. Like many other banks across the United States, the Coal Exchange Bank failed during the Great Depression and never reopened. Around 1933, the Coal Exchange Building was sold at a county auction to the C&amp;O Railway, who located their engineering department and other offices in the building. The C&amp;O was the tenant during the historic flood of 1937: a plaque located on the first floor of the building still shows how much water entered the building during the flood. After the C&amp;O merged with several other rail companies that eventually became CSX Transportation, the company left the building and Kaiser Drug Store occupied the ground floor. Over the years, the building has changed ownership several times and has housed various local businesses and offices. Most recently, the Coal Exchange Building was home to Glenn's Sporting Goods, Knuckle Sandwich, Kindred Communications, the Herd Insider, Greater Huntington Theater Corporation, Jenkins-Fenstermaker Law Firm, and the Marshall University Research Corporation, among others. Kindred Communications was a resident of the building for over three decades, utilizing its height for radio transmissions. While it has not been fully renovated, several upgrades to the building have been made over time, including modernized elevators, a rubber roof, a new heat-exchanger and boiler system, electrical work, and updated plumbing. In 2009, the building was at 55% occupancy, with several empty floors, but by 2019 it was completely vacant. In August 2019, the Coal Exchange Building, along with a smaller neighboring building, was sold at a public auction for $550,000. Whirlwind Properties LLC, a real estate investment firm, was the highest bidder, but it yielded the sale to McGuire Realty, which was representing Jay Barta. Barta owns several buildings in Huntington, including the recently-renovated DoubleTree hotel. Though it will take several years, Barta plans to fully renovate the Coal Exchange Building by making a retail space on the ground floor and converting the upper floors into apartments or offices.

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. 

Coal Exchange Building

The Freemason Huntington Lodge No. 53 was organized in
1872; only a year after the city was incorporated. The Freemasons were one of
several national fraternal organizations to establish branches during
Huntington’s early decades. Others included the Elks Lodge and the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows. For its first forty years the Lodge held meetings at
varying locations around the city. In 1909 it purchased a plot of land at the
corner of Third Avenue and Eleventh Street for $15,000. The property had
previously been used as a bicycle sales lot. In 1912 a seven-story building was
constructed on the site to serve as a permanent Masonic Temple. Columbus, Ohio
architect Wilbur T. Mills was chosen to design the building; his other notable
works included the Columbus Carnegie Public Library. The Masonic Temple was
completed and dedicated in 1914 at a cost of $200,000. The top two floors were
reserved for Freemason activities, while the remaining five floors were quickly
rented by the Watts, Ritter Wholesale Drygoods Company. 

Watts, Ritter &amp; Co. traces back to 1892 with the
founding of the Barlow-Henderson Company. Originally headed by B. F. Barlow, it
was one of the earliest wholesale businesses in Huntington. Wholesale stores,
also known as jobbing houses, acquired merchandise in bulk and then sold that
to retailers in the surrounding area. Huntington became an ideal location for
wholesale businesses in the late 1800s as manufacturing industries grew and
transportation was readily available. Many of the wholesale businesses in
Huntington sold their goods to stores in coal mining communities around the
region. 

The Barlow-Henderson Company erected a seven-story
building in 1895, but it was destroyed in a massive fire in 1905. The following
year the business was taken over by Charles W. Watts and C. Lloyd Ritter, and
the name was changed to Watts, Ritter &amp; Co. In 1914 the company moved into
the first five floors of the Masonic Temple, using it as both a warehouse and
office space. Watts, Ritter &amp; Co. prospered during the following years and
eventually outgrew the space. In 1922 it built a five-story annex on the east
side of the Masonic Temple; two more stories were added in 1926. The new
addition was more simplistic in design than the original portion but still
blended in well. In 1930 Watts, Ritter &amp; Co. was purchased by Ely &amp;
Walker of St. Louis, Missouri, but the same name was kept. In 1959 Ely &amp;
Walker consolidated some of their operations nationwide, which resulted in
Watts, Ritter &amp; Co. being shuttered. 

Much of the building remained vacant for many years,
until it was purchased by Tom Way and Dave Ferguson in 1989. Together the pair
invested two million dollars to refurbish the structure and transform it into a
contemporary, upscale office building. The new changes included the addition of
more windows and the construction of a rooftop patio for gatherings. The
building reopened in 1990 under the name River Tower and became home to law
firms and other businesses. River Tower notably hosted the movie wrap party for
the premier of the 2006 film We Are
Marshall; Matthew McConaghey and other actors from the movie reportedly
attended. The Masonic Lodge continues to operate from the top floors of the
building’s western half as well.

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.

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

Huntington, West Virginia was historically known as a thriving railroad town thanks to Collis P. Huntington, the Chesapeake &amp; Ohio Railroad (C&amp;O), and the Baltimore &amp; Ohio Railroad (B&amp;O). Originally, Huntington served as the westernmost depot on the C&amp;O Railroad, which traveled south through the coalfields and into Richmond and Newport News on the East Coast. Collis P. Huntington chose this location along the Ohio River so that the steamboat and railroad systems could link together, thus making Huntington a boom town in 1871. The B&amp;O depot was constructed in 1892, when the B&amp;O line was extended into the city. The extension of the B&amp;O, coupled with the C&amp;O and the Ohio River, made Huntington a major regional destination for travelers and trade.The first B&amp;O train departed Huntington on August 10, 1892.  The B&amp;O depot made news in December 1892, when Tom Collins and Burrell Forgey boarded a train at the site and attempted to rob it. At 16th street, Collins and Forgey put their masks on and began shooting at the ceiling of the train car. Passengers listened to the robbers’ demands, all except Oscar Dic, who attempted to disarm one of the robbers. Captain Samuel Mathison, Chairman of the Democratic State Executive Committee, attempted to help Dic. When Mathison and Dic took the pistol away from one robber, he pulled out another gun and shot Dic point blank in the face. The other robber was shooting at the end of the train car as W. A. Zingerly, the train ticket collector, appeared and began shooting at the robbers. Both robbers were shot, but they were able to pull the bell-rope and jump off at the Guyandotte Station. The escaped robbers were caught three days later in Bradrick, Ohio, just across the river from Huntington. Collins and Burrell were sentenced to twelve years in the state penitentiary.  By 1900, the B&amp;O trains arriving and departing from the depot were carrying passengers, mail, and freight. The B&amp;O Railroad profited from the coal industry so much that it allowed them to expand and give Huntington passengers access to thirteen different states by 1917. The railroad industry was wildly popular in the community during the 1920s, and became the most utilized form of transportation as the majority of Huntington residents did not yet own cars. However, when the Great Depression struck in the 1930s, service at the Huntington depot was reduced to only two trains daily. World War II once briefly revived the industry in Huntington as war supplies were carried by trains and gas rationing led to an increase in passenger usage.  Passenger train use declined once again in the post-war era, and the popular Pullman Cars were slowly phased out; nighttime trains stopped running in 1953, and all daytime passenger trains were halted in 1957. One of the Pullman Cars now sits on the Heritage Station property. The collapse in passenger train popularity was due primarily to the availability of automobiles and the construction of the interstate highway system. Freight trains still passed through the Huntington Depot until the line was closed in 1965. Afterwards the depot sat empty until 1977, when the Urban Renewal Authority started to restore the entire train station so that it could be re-purposed as an artisan center. It opened as Heritage Station, a retail facility offering spaces for new local businesses and artisans. Since the 1970s Heritage Station has hosted numerous shops, restaurants, and community events. The original depot building houses the Huntington Area Convention &amp; Visitors Bureau, which promotes tourism in the local area.  Elk River Coal &amp; Lumber Company #10 Steam Locomotive In front of the Depot stands the Elk River Coal &amp; Lumber Company #10 Steam Locomotive, also on the National Register of Historic Places. This locomotive operated on the Buffalo Creek &amp; Gailey Railroad between 1950 and 1959, largely carrying mine waste from Rich Run Mine (Walden, WV) to a “gob pile” (a pile of material removed while digging) a short distance away. #10 was taken out of service in 1959 and placed in storage for a few years before being given to the Huntington Railway Museum, Inc./Collis P. Huntington Railroad Historical Society, Inc. in 1963. CPHRHS moved the locomotive to Huntington and put her into storage at the Chesapeake &amp; Ohio’s Huntington Locomotive Shops. When Heritage Station opened in 1977 the locomotive was moved here, and ownership passed to The Greater Huntington Park and Recreation District that same year. Originally, #10 was repainted to represent a Baltimore &amp; Ohio locomotive with the number 4559 to represent the last B &amp; O steam locomotive to operate in Huntington, but that was an incorrect designation. The engine was restored in 2000 and its correct ERC&amp;LC #10 lettering was repainted. The #10 locomotive was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.

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. 

Huntington B&O Railroad Depot (Heritage Station)

On August 27, 1902, Mary Smith was born in Huntington, West Virginia. At 13, desperate to escape beatings from her stepmother, she disguised herself as a boy, hopped a train and began performing in the circus. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, she performed in medicine and minstrel shows. In the 1940s, she took the name “Diamond Teeth Mary” when she had diamonds from a bracelet implanted in her front teeth. Mary's half-sister was the famous blues singer Bessie Smith, and the two were later reunited and performed together for a short time. In 1937, Mary watched helplessly as Smith died while in a waiting room of a hospital. Tragedy would strike again in the late 1940s when Mary had the diamonds removed from her teeth to help pay for the expenses of her dying step-mother. McClain's decision to use the diamonds in this manner reflects the difficult path of her early life and her desire to acknowledge her past. According to interviews with McClain, the diamonds came from a bracelet she stole from her stepmother when she left Huntington. Over the years, McClain shared the stage with such well-known performers as Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Big Mama Thornton, Ray Charles, Duke Ellington, and her half-sister Bessie Smith. In 1960, she settled in Bradenton, Florida, and married Clifford McClain, where she became a popular gospel singer. It wasn’t until Mary was 91 that she issued her first recording, “If I Can’t Sell It, I’m Gonna Sit Down On It,” and in 1983, she was featured in the documentary Free Show Tonight.McClain was one of the first recipients of the Florida Heritage Award, and a play about her life premiered at the 2000 Florida Folk Festival. She continued to perform until her death in 2000, appearing at regional blues festivals. At her request, her ashes were sprinkled on the railroad tracks at Huntington, where she hopped her first train. She was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame in 2011.The Diamond Teeth Mary Blues &amp; Arts Festival is held annually at Heritage Station in Huntington. McClain was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame in 2011. Some of her gowns are in the Florida State Museum and the Memphis Blues Museum.

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.

Diamond Teeth Mary Memorial Marker

Harris Riverfront Park was constructed in three phases, much like the flood wall that surrounds it. In&nbsp;1977, the first phase of the park was completed and open to the public with&nbsp;a boat launch ramp, a comfort station, a designated marina area, and a parking area. The city of Huntington conveyed the property to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as part of the cost share requirements of Federal Water Project Recreation Act. Along with the amphitheater, the second phase included an additional comfort station, green space, lower walkway and associated parking areas. The third and final&nbsp;phase of Harris Riverfront Park&nbsp;was completed in 1997, and added a large excursion vessel docking, and also&nbsp;made the park&nbsp;handicap accessible for&nbsp;fishing and&nbsp;infrastructure. The total cost of the park was over $6.6 million, half was paid for by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers while the other&nbsp;half &nbsp;was paid&nbsp;by the city.As of 2016, Harris Riverfront Park also features a &nbsp;playground that was built in 2014, a&nbsp;skate park that was installed in 2015, and a section of the Paul Ambrose Trail for Health (PATH), featuring artwork by renowned nature illustrator Chuck Ripper, with information about wildlife found in and around the Ohio River. Harris Riverfront Park is encompassed by the Huntington Flood Wall that protects downtown Huntington from environmental disasters such as flooding.&nbsp;Although it was not the first, the flooding of the Ohio River in January of 1937 is the worst recorded flooding of the river in history. This flood drove millions from their homes along the Ohio River Valley, and claimed nearly 400 lives. The flood was caused from the thawing of the Ohio River combined with 19 days of pouring rain. The total cost of damages in 1937 was estimated to be $500 million, and today that would be inflated to $7 billion. A flood wall was constructed by the Huntington District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers after this devastating flood. The flood wall has not had to have been fully closed since it's construction.

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.

Harris Riverfront Park

Around 1894, J. W. Valentine opened a successful dry
goods store on 9th Street between 3rd and 4th
Avenues. Shortly afterwards W. H. Newcomb signed on as a business partner, and
the store was called Valentine &amp; Newcomb. Business flourished so well that
in 1902 the partners constructed a new, much larger building between 9th
and 10th Streets. The spacious brick building was designed in the
Chicago style and originally had three stories. Valentine sold his half of the
business in 1907 to a W. H. Newcomb, and the store was subsequently renamed the
Anderson-Newcomb Co. The building underwent several expansions in the following
decades, including the addition of three more floors in 1920.

For a number of years Anderson-Newcomb was among the
most popular department stores in downtown Huntington. It was also a very
progressive store; it was the first business in Huntington to use a delivery
wagon, delivery truck, passenger elevator, telephone switchboard, and paid
vacation time for employees. By 1948 the store was leasing space at the nearby
Frederick Hotel building where it ran an employee cafeteria, fur vault, and a
200-seat auditorium. In 1970 Anderson-Newcomb was purchased by Stone &amp;
Thomas, a regional department store chain based in Wheeling. The store
continued to perform well initially; however, it was hit hard by the opening of
the Huntington Mall during the 1980s. The Stone &amp; Thomas store lingered on
much longer than other businesses in downtown Huntington did, but in 1996 it
finally closed. 

Following the departure of Stone &amp; Thomas the
Anderson-Newcomb building sat vacant for many years. It slowly deteriorated and
turned into an eyesore. In 2010 it was purchased by Marshall University for
$750,000 with the idea of turning it into a hub for the school’s College of Arts
and Media. The proposal was approved by the Board of Governors in 2013 and a
$13 million project was launched to renovate the structure. Edward Tucker
Architects Inc. designed the new changes while construction work was carried
out by Neighborgall Construction. Most of the building’s interior had to be
gutted, although a chimney and parts of the original flooring were preserved.
Sixty-five tons of steel were installed to provide stabilization. The
refurbished facility opened in September 2014 as the Marshall University Visual
Arts Center. The project was hailed by many as an excellent example of adaptive
reuse to bring new life into old urban buildings.

The Visual Arts Center contains classrooms,
workspaces, galleries, and offices for the students and faculty of the College
of Arts and Media’s School of Art and Design. This includes facilities for
students to work with mixed media, videography, photography, painting, drawing,
weaving, and ceramics. Interestingly, Marshall’s visual arts program was
instituted in 1902, the same year that the Anderson-Newcomb Building was
constructed. A display near the front entrance exhibits some artifacts and
memorabilia from the building’s days as a department store. In 2019 the Brad D.
Smith Business Incubator, an institution established to foster and support the
growth of new businesses, opened on the first floor of the 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. 

Marshall University Visual Arts Center

Dr. Joseph Touma is an internationally known ear, nose and throat specialist, and an avid collector of medical antiques. Touma and his family moved to Huntington in the early 1970s, and was impressed by the architecture from the time of Huntington's industrial growth. After establishing his ENT practice, Touma focused on historic preservation in Downtown Huntington. Over 20 years ago, Dr. Touma created Touma Real Estate Holdings, a company that is dedicated to purchasing, restoring, and utilizing Huntington's historic buildings for economic success. The first success story of Touma Real Estate Holdings is the Gideon Building located on the corners of 10th Street and 3rd Avenue; the company historically restored the outside of the building, and completely renovated the interior so that it could hold multiple offices. Today, the Gideon Building still holds multiple successful small businesses that help Huntington's local economy thrive. This success story allowed Touma Real Estate Holdings to continue to restore Downtown Huntington, with a total of seven buildings under their belt today. Dr. Touma's medical antique collection began to take up too much space in his home, so he dedicated the third floor of a historic Downtown Huntington building to display these artifacts. Originally the home of a local successful clothing company, the Century Building is one of the historic properties that Touma Real Estate Holdings has invested in. Wright’s Clothiers has been a staple in Downtown Huntington for nearly a decade, and it is believed that the Century Building was where the store was originally located. Wright's opened for business on the corner of 10th Street and 4th Avenue in 1930 due to the popularity of local shops along 4th Avenue, and left that location in 2016 to move closer to Pullman Square. Wright's is known for being located on 4th Avenue under The Frederick, however it was not the clothing store's first location. The Century Building was originally named Wright and Walker building.The Touma Medical Museum has multiple exhibits on the 4,000 square foot open floor plan on the third floor of the Century Building. This museum houses artifacts collected by Dr. Touma over the past 40 years, and is available by appointment only. The museum was gifted to Marshall University's Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine in 2017.

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.

Touma Medical Museum

The Marshall Hall of Fame Café opened in August 2001. It is a restaurant dedicated to showing the highlights and memories of Marshall University sports. To the right inside&nbsp;of the restaurant's entrance, is a display&nbsp;that contains different props from the movie We Are Marshall,&nbsp;which was released in 2006.The front&nbsp;left side of the restaurant includes an original&nbsp;painted mural by the artist Tim Decker, and the restaurant as a whole&nbsp;depicts the history of &nbsp;different Marshall sports teams and icons through the university's history, spanning from&nbsp;1837&nbsp;to 2001. Some significant moments included within&nbsp;the mural are the Hightower pass from the football game against WVU, the 1947 Men's&nbsp;National Basketball Championship, and the first win for the 1971 Marshall University&nbsp;football team, a victory against&nbsp;Xavier, which was the university's first win following the loss of&nbsp;football players and community members in&nbsp;the 1970 plane crash.Continuing through the restaurant, people will find&nbsp;glass cases that are&nbsp;filled with&nbsp;signed memorabilia from different Marshall players. There are pictures of Randy Moss, Chad Pennington, and Byron Leftwich, among other stars&nbsp;from the school's history. On the floor of the restaurant is the&nbsp;"Walk of Fame," which is made of&nbsp;tiles showing the names of all the Marshall All-Americans in various sports.The Marshall Hall of Fame Café is a museum that&nbsp;honors all Marshall players and teams throughout the years. The back wall&nbsp;is lined with&nbsp;newspaper articles and photos&nbsp;dedicated to the Marshall 1970 plane crash victims.&nbsp;This is a really important part of the Marshall University and Huntington&nbsp;community because the plane crash is a strong memory in the hearts of all Marshall Alumni, students, and residents of Huntington.&nbsp;The museum displays are free to the public.

Downtown Huntington Walking Tour

Marshall University Sports History Display at the Hall of Fame Cafe

Introduction

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Backstory and Context

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Additional Information