A Building with three Names

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The Inland Building was one of the three names given the
 six-story office building that long stood at 702 4th Ave.


File photo | The Herald-Dispatch

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A six-story office building that stood at 702 4th Ave., across
 the street from the Cabell County Courthouse, was long
an important part of downtown Huntington.
Over the years, the building had
three different names.

First known as the Simms-Keller Building, the brick and steel
 structure was built by Henry Simms and George W. Keller.
Simms was an influential Huntington attorney and Keller
was engaged in the oil-producing business. The two
men erected the building in 1925 and soon filled
 it with the offices of coal companies
and other businesses.

In 1942, the Simms-Keller Building was purchased by
Huntington businessman and civic leader J. Hanly
Morgan to house the Inland Mutual Insurance
 Co. in which he was involved. So the
structure was renamed the
Inland Building.

For a number of years, Medical Arts Supply Co.
occupied the first floor of the 4th Avenue
building. (Today, Medical Arts is
located at 949 6th Ave.)

In 1953, Morgan sold the building to the Kelly-Hatfield Land Co.,
which used it to house the offices of its Guyan Eagle Coal Co.
that had been located in Amherstdale, West Virginia.
With the sale, the name of the structure was once
again changed, this time to the
Kelly-Hatfield Building.

In the 1970s, the Huntington Urban Renewal Authority
 launched an ambitious reshaping of the city’s
downtown, acquiring and leveling many
 older structures. Among the buildings
demolished was the 4th Avenue
office buildingthat over the
 years had carried three
different names.

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Note:  This Article and picture appeared in the Herald-Dispatch Newspaper on Sep. 12, 2023.

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