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This vintage postcard of the Prichard Hotel was mailed in
1926,
the year it opened.
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HUNTINGTON -- For more than 40 years, from its opening in 1926 until it closed
in its doors in 1970,
The Prichard was one of downtown Huntington's leading
hotels.
The late Frederick C. Prichard boasted he spent more than $1 million to build
and furnish his 13-story hotel.
It's now listed on the National Register of
Historic Places. A Grayson, Kentucky, native, Prichard came to Huntington
after
making a small fortune in the coal business in Fayette County. He also built
another Huntington landmark
structure, the Robson-Prichard Building.
Located on the southwest corner of 6th Avenue and 9th Street, the Prichard
was designed by architect
H. Ziegler Dietz of Indianapolis. It had 300 rooms,
each with its own bathroom, a rarity in hotels
of that day. It also had 14
private dining rooms, a restaurant and a ballroom.
Prichard lost most of his fortune in the Great Depression and was forced to
sell his hotel.
He left Huntington for Texas, hoping to start over there. He
died in 1960 at age 89.
Over the years the Hotel Prichard had some famous guests. In 1949, singing
cowboy Gene Autry stayed there
when he was in town for a show. His horse
Champion slept elsewhere. But a chimpanzee named J. Fred Muggs
was an honored
guest in 1956 when the cast of television's "Today" show came to Huntington.
John F. Kennedy,
his wife Jackie and his brother Ted all stayed at The Prichard
during JFK's 1960 presidential campaign.
In 1970, Polan Realty of Huntington purchased the old hotel and converted it
into offices and apartments.
In recent years, police complained the building was
often the scene of illegal drug activity and other crime.
In 2014, current owner Shane Polan christened the building with a new name -
Hope Tower - and
launched an effort to transform it into a comprehensive,
spiritually based addiction recovery center.
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Note: This Article and picture appeared in the Herald-Dispatch Newspaper on Aug. 17 , 2015
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