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This Vintage view of the 9th. Street Walgreens looks to have
been
shot in the late 1930's or 1940's.
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HUNTINGTON - - In 1924-25, Huntington's Union Bank & Trust Co. built itself a
handsome 15-story building at 4th Avenue
and 9th Street - and four years later
went bust, a victim of the Great Depression.
The bank building was then renamed
the West Virginia Building,
as it was the tallest building in the state.
In 1937, the building's former first-floor bank lobby was remodeled to house
a Walgreen Drug Store,
a store that would prove to be a fixture in downtown
Huntington for the next 24 years.
The Walgreen Drug Co. was founded by Charles R. Walgreen Sr. who opened a
store in
Chicago in 1901. By 1913,
Walgreens had opened four more stores. By
1919,
the chain had grown to 20 stores. Its later growth was truly phenomenal.
By 1930, it had 397 stores and would go on to become
the nation's largest drug
store chain.
The Walgreens on 9th Street was an immediate hit with Huntingtonians,
who not
only patronized the busy prescription counter but enjoyed
what many said was the
biggest and best soda fountain in town.
Some customers remember being waited on by Virginia Ruth Egnor, who worked at
the
Walgreens as a cashier, waitress,
sandwich maker and soda jerk. Leaving
Huntington
for New York City and changing her name to Dagmar,
she would go on to
fame as a blonde bombshell on early television.
In September 1961, word came from the company's Chicago headquarters that it
would not be renewing
its lease for the ground floor of the West Virginia
Building. No explanation for the decision was offered.
The Thrift Drug Co. Immediately leased the prime corner location being
vacated by Walgreens and even
bought its inventory and fixtures.
But soon Thrift
Drug was also gone. In the years since, the space
has housed a number of
different businesses.
Its current tenants are Village Collection,
a women's apparel shop, and Prime on 4th, a restaurant.
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Note: This Article and picture appeared in the Herald-Dispatch Newspaper on Aug. 24 , 2015.
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