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The Herald-Dispatch file Photo
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The Butler Furniture building, shown here in a
1959 photo, was
demolished in 2001.
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HUNTINGTON --
In 1905, William Freeman Butler opened a Huntington furniture store that would
operate for more than 80 years. In its earliest years, the Butler Furniture Co.
not only sold furniture
but also
provided undertaking services - a combination
that would be unthinkable today
but was common for furniture stores at the time.
The original
Butler's furniture store occupied a site on the west side of the 400 block
of
20th Street.
In 1915, the business erected and moved into a new three-story
building across 20th Street from its original location.
W.F. Butler
died on Christmas Day, 1949. Long before his death, ill health caused him to
turn over management
of his store to his son and daughter. John G. Butler and
Ruth E. Butler took over the store in 1929 and for the
next 50-plus years the
brother and sister team helped generations
of local shoppers select furnishings
for their homes.
A 1955
addition doubled the store's size. In 1959, the company acquired
a two-story
building
to the north on 20th Street and built a two-story connecting annex.
The Butlers
retired in 1987, selling their family-owned store to a group of local investors
headed
by Kenneth Stettler Jr. Later. When the store closed, Marshall University
purchased the building.
Initially, Marshall used the building for storage. Then,
in 2001, the old building was demolished
to provide badly needed additional
parking spaces for the adjacent Joan C. Edwards Stadium.
John Butler passed away shortly after his retirement and his sister Ruth died in 2005.
The brother
and sister were long-time supporters of both athletics and academics at
Marshall.
In 2006, the president's sky box at Edwards Stadium was named in their
honor.
Their
names are also on the university's Pathway of Prominence, which
recognizes
those who have been exceptionally generous supporters of the school.
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Note: This Article and picture appeared in the Herald-Dispatch Newspaper on Sep. 29 , 2014
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