Barlow-Henderson Co.
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Children are pictured in
front of the burned
ruins of the Barlow-Henderson building.
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Courtesy of Special Collections, Marshall Library
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In the late
1890s and early 1900s, Huntington saw the opening of a
number of wholesale houses that supplied an array of merchandise
to retail stores in several states. One of the first was the
Barlow-Henderson Wholesale Dry Goods Co., which
was founded in 1892, with B.F. Barlow as president
and manager and Charles W. Watts
as secretary and treasurer.
In 1895, Barlow-Henderson
built a massive, nine-story building
on the northeast corner of 3rd Avenue and 11th Street. Soon
some people began calling it Huntington’s “first skyscraper.”
Although the building was clad in brick and stone, its framework
was fashioned from wood, which quickly caught fire when
a 1905 blaze erupted. The spectacular fire quickly
spread and all but brought the big
building to the ground
In 1898, G.N. Biggs became
involved in the business
and the name was changed to Biggs-Watts & Co.
When Biggs retired in 1906, C. Lloyd Ritter
entered the business and the name was
changed to Watts, Ritter & Co.
with Watts as president.
1914, a new seven-story
building was erected on the
former site of the burned Barlow-Henderson building.
It housed the Watts, Ritter offices and warehouse
on the first five floors, while Huntington Lodge
53 of the Masons occupied the top two floors.
Watts, Ritter built a five-story addition to
the east in 1922, and added two
more stories to it in 1926
Watts, Ritter passed from
local ownership in 1930 when it
was sold to Ely & Walker of St. Lewis, although it retained
the Watts, Ritter name. Ely & Walker shut down Watts,
Ritter in 1959, bringing an end to a business
that had been part of Huntington
for nearly 70 years.
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Note: This Article and picture appeared in the Herald-Dispatch Newspaper on Aug. 27, 2024.
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