914 5th Avenue
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The Herald-Dispatch name can be seen carved in stone
over the office building at 914 5th Avenue. But while
the newspaper erected the building, its
stay in the structure was brief.
James E. Casto | Submitted
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The Herald-Dispatch name can be seen carved in stone
over the office building at 914 5th Ave. But while
the newspaper erected the building, its stay
in the handsome structure was brief.
As the 1920s arrived, Huntington’s two rival newspapers —
the afternoon
Advertiser and the morning Herald-Dispatch — were locked in a fierce
battle, each trying to win the most readers. On May 21, 1923, Joseph
Harvey Long, the publisher of the Advertiser, celebrated his 60th
birthday by turning the ceremonial first shovel of dirt for a new
newspaper building on the corner of 5th Avenue and 10th
Street. The building quickly became the talk of the town.
Not to be outdone, Dave Gideon, the publisher of
The Herald-Dispatch, immediately built his
own paper a new building just a few
doors away, at 914 5th Ave.
The battle between the two papers raged for months and
might
have gone on longer, but in 1927 they merged to form the
Huntington Publishing Co., with Long as chairman and
Gideon as president. The staff of The Herald-
Dispatch abandoned their building and
moved into the Advertiser’s.
In 1932, Huntington businessman Herman P. Dean purchased
the Standard Printing & Publishing Co. and moved it into
the building at 914 5th Ave., which had been built for
The Herald-Dispatch. Dean leased the building
from former Huntington Mayor Rufus Switzer.
Dean sold Standard Printing in 1961. A few
years later the company’s new owner
went bankrupt and the 5th Avenue
building it had occupied became
known as the Switzer
Building.
In 1997, the law firm now known as Farrell, White and
Legg bought the 5th Avenue building from attorney
John Hankins, who had purchased it
from the Switzer Trust.
At that time, the West Virginia Department of Employment
Security leased the building’s first floor. The law firm
gutted and renovated the second and third floors.
A year later, the Department of Employment
Security vacated the premises, which
allowed the law firm to renovate the
first floor. Following the renovation
of the first floor in 1998, the
building was renamed the
Farrell Building.
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Note: This Article and picture appeared in the Herald-Dispatch Newspaper on June 25, 2024.
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