317 9th St. Building
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Courtsey of James E. Casto
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This postcard view of the Building at 317 9th St. was mailed
in 1911.
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HUNTINGTON -- Hinton attorney and political figure William R. Thompson
moved to Huntington in 1892
and went into practice with prominent local attorney Z.T. Vinson. In 1909, they
built a six-story office building
on a narrow lot at 317 9th St., at the alley on the west side of the block
between 3rd and 4th Avenues.
Designed by noted Huntington architect Edwin N. Alger, the building would be
known by varied
names over the next 50 years. This vintage postcard, mailed in 1911, identifies
the structure as the
"Thompson Building," but other sources at the time referred to it as the
"Vinson-Thompson Building."
The Huntington City Directory for 1921-22 listed the law firm of Vinson,
Thompson, Meek and
Renshaw as occupying the penthouse offices on the sixth floor, but the building
itself is
identified as the "Holswade Office Building." Williams G. Holswade
was secretary
of Security Savings and Loan, which also occupied quarters in the
building. Other tenants
listed included the Logan Coal Operators Association and the R.J. Reynolds
Tobacco Co.
The 1940 City Directory called the structure the "Ninth Street Building,"
and from 1949 on it was listed as the "Security Insurance Building."
The building's tenants according to the 1961 City Directory included Jaskow
Furs, City Optical,
the Presbyterian Church Education Department, attorney Herbert H. Henderson,
attorneys
Tomkies & Tomkies and Dr. Richard A. Woelfel, DDS. Today, Huntington attorney
Michael Woelfel recalls that when he was a teenager his dentist father
pressed him and his brother into service cleaning the old building.
The building burned shortly thereafter and was then demolished as part of the
city's
downtown urban renewal effort. Today, its postage stamp-sized site remains a
vacant lot.
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Note: This Article and picture appeared in the Herald-Dispatch Newspaper on June 2, 2014.
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