In 1905, Charles and Kate Heiner began baking bread out of a hotel room in Central City. By the company's fourth year, the Heiners moved their business to a small building on the corner of Washington Avenue in Huntington. Since then, the bakery has expanded several times as its products gained popularity across the region, eventually growing to fill an entire city block. By 1985, Heiner's bakery was distributing 75 varieties of bread, rolls, and buns. In 1996, the company was acquired by Earthgrains Company, which itself was purchased by the Sara Lee Corporation in 2001. The company is currently owned by Grupo Bimbo, but the great-grandson of its founders still serves as plant manager. Heiner's Bakery currently distributes bread through West Virginia, Ohio, parts of Virginia, and eastern Kentucky.
D. E. Abbott & Co. was one of the oldest and longest-lasting industries in the Central City neighborhood of Huntington. It began in 1890 as Addison Thompson and Associates, a glass factory that produced tableware. In 1898 it was acquired by D. E. Abbott (1856-1942), a businessman and photographer, who created a business selling portraits, picture frames, and moldings. The company flourished, and at one point it was the second-largest employer in Huntington. The company scaled back its operations in 1919 but remained open until 1991. For a number of years afterwards the facility was home to the J. Taylor Auto Collection, a private automobile museum. The original office building still stands today, although it is currently unoccupied.
The Hartzell Handle factory was one of the first major industries in Central City. It was built around 1896 by brothers Irvin and Enos Hartzell, who owned or operated a number of handle factories, lumber mills, and other business across the region. This factory was located just south of Washington Avenue and between Fourteenth and Fifteenth Streets. The Hartzell Handle Company specialized in producing hickory wood handles for axes, hatchets, spades, and other tools. It thrived thanks to its close proximity to other major industries, railroads, rivers, and a steady supply of timber from the forests of West Virginia. The exact fate of the factory is unclear but it closed sometime after 1913 and was later demolished. The dwindling supply of hickory timber in West Virginia is cited as the primary reason for its demise.
Constructed in 1938, this Huntington theater was named for Darwin E. Abbott, a prominent photographer who operated a studio and factory in Central City. Before it closed in 1951, the Abbott Theater was a popular attraction in the neighborhood, showing second-run movies at a discounted rate. In 1952, the former cinema was leased to the Community Players, who renovated the building into a theater for stage productions. In 1991, the Community Players decided to stop performing at this theater owing to the estimated cost of necessary repairs to the aging building. In December 1994, the City of Huntington demolished the theater after it was damaged by a fire.
Old Central City Park and Gazebo serve as the central part of this historic Huntington neighborhood and are utilized for entertainment and cultural programs during Old Central City Days. The park is one of several results stemming from a five-phase program to economically redevelop the district beginning in 1988. As part of that plan, the neighborhood was christened "Old Central City" and preservation and development efforts began in earnest in the years that followed. Before becoming part of Huntington, Central City was an independent town from 1893 to 1909 that included many of the largest factories in the region. Central City was established by a group of local businessmen who sought to entice industries into the area. During its brief existence, Central City became home to major businesses such as Heiner’s Bakery, the Fesenmeier Brewery, D. E. Abbott and Company, Duncan Box and Lumber Company, and the Huntington Tumbler Company. In 1909 Central City was formally annexed by Huntington and became known as the neighborhood of West Huntington or Fourteenth Street West. After years of deindustrialization, urban decay, and rising crime, revitalization efforts were launched in the late 1980s to inject new economic growth in the neighborhood. Now known as Old Central City, the district is promoted as a cultural and historical center. It has been dubbed by Huntington as the “Antique Capital of West Virginia.” Old Central City is home to a number of locally-owned businesses including multiple antique shops and a farmers’ market. In June of every year, this park and gazebo are the center of a street festival known as Old Central City Days.
The Huntington Tumbler Company was one of the earliest glass factories to exist in the area. It opened as the West Virginia Flint Bottle Company around 1891 along with the nearby Central City Window Glass Company, which was owned by the same investors. It was acquired by the Zihlman family in 1901, who renamed the company and expanded its range of products. Huntington Tumbler became known for making ornate, high quality glass pieces such as tumblers, stemware, vases, and candlesticks. Its glassware was sold both locally and internationally, with products exported to places such as Latin America and Europe. The economic downturn caused by the Great Depression forced the business to close in 1932. The factory was demolished in the 1940s, leaving no physical remnants.
This location was home to the leading brewery in Huntington during the 20th century. Founded as the American Brewing Company prior to the Yost Law which made West Virginia a dry state in 1914, this facilty converted from producing beer to processing meat. On December 5, 1933, Fesenmeier Brewing Company again began producing beer at this location. The brewery spanned an entire city block in Old Central City until it ceased operation in 1972 and was later demolished in order to make room for the current shopping center.
One of the earliest industries to be established in the region, the Central City Bung Company was located here and operated from 1894 to 1918. John C. Hale opened the facility in 1894 after a previous bung factory he was involved with in Wirt County was destroyed in a fire. The factory was located on the southwest corner of Monroe Avenue and Fourteenth Street West. The company produced only one product: wooden plugs used for sealing whiskey barrels known as bungs. The niche market for bungs made the company one of the largest suppliers of the product in the world. The Central City company produced and shipped bungs that were used to plug barrels in Europe and Asia. At one point Central City was nicknamed the "Bung Capital of the World" thanks to this business. The rise of the Temperance movement during the 1910s saw the demand for whiskey barrels and bungs, to fall dramatically. The factory closed in 1918 and the building was demolished around 1930.
The Duncan Box & Lumber Company was one of the earliest businesses in what is now Old Central City. The company was founded around 1895 and lasted longer than nearly every Huntington firm. The business specialized in manufacturing wood boxes, crates, and pallets for breweries, the military, and customers who shipped their goods from the growing river and railroad town. In later years, the company was known for custom millwork, cabinetry, lumber, and hardware supplies. Duncan Box outlasted other local companies and became one of the last surviving industries from the days of Central City. For most of its history, the company was owned and operated by the Duncan family. In 2012 the family sold the business to another local family who hoped they might reverse the trend that saw the closure of several family-owned hardware stores. This proved unsuccessful, however, and Duncan Box closed in 2015 after 120 years of operation.
Maintained by many volunteers of the Collis P. Huntington Railroad Historical Society, this open-air museum features a dozen historic railcars and one of the very last working steam locomotives ever built for a Class 1 railroad in the U.S. The Chesapeake & Ohio Railway 1308 locomotive was built in 1949 by Baldwin Locomotive Works. This train was a specifically built as a 2-6-6-2s system and was the last one built in the series. The design of this locomotive was specifically crafted for a lightweight and agile look and feel to navigate through KY and WV for coal mining. This historic locomotive made it's very last run on February 29, 1956. It was officially added to the National Register of Historical Places in 2003.
This Tour is a Walking Tour.
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Central City was a prosperous industrial town that existed from 1893 until 1909 when it was annexed by the City of Huntington. Today the neighborhood of 14th Street West, the heart of the former town, is a cultural and antique district known as Old Central City. This tour takes you around the street and to the sites of some of the most important industries that once existed in the community.
