Kenney Music Co.

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Stores in the 300 block of 9th Street in Huntington were inundated by the 1937 flood.
This photo shows Kibler Clothes, Kay Jewelers and the Kenney Music Co.
Note the sign on the Kenney building advertising its “Removal Sale”
 as it readied its move to a new 3rd Avenue location.

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HUNTINGTON — For more than 60 years, Huntington area
 music lovers flocked to the Kenney Music Co.

The music store opened in 1918 at 331 9th St. Initially
named the Shaw-Kenney store, it was later
renamed the Kenney-Chaffin store.

 In 1920, Jack Kenney and his wife, Alta Dennis Kenney, changed
the name again, this time to simply the Kenney Music Co.

 In 1937, Kenney Music was one of many downtown
 Huntington businesses inundated by that year’s
 record-setting Ohio River flood.

The following year the store moved to a new, larger home —
a two-story brick building at 930 3rd Ave. that
previously had housed a grocery store.

Kenney’s was where you went to shop for everything from sheet music
and records to musical instruments of all types and sizes. The building
had a large freight elevator at the back of the store that proved
 ideal for moving pianos, organs and other musical
 equipment between floors.

 If you took piano lessons at the store and maybe arrived a
bit early for your appointment, you could stand in the
lobby and listen to the latest hit records playing
 over loud speakers the store set up outside
for the benefit of passersby 

The 3rd Avenue building was remodeled in 1942 and ultimately
was demolished during the urban renewal days of the 1970s.
 Forced to relocate, Kenney Music moved to a five-story
 building at 746 4th Ave. that had been built
by Capitol Furniture Co.

At one time, Kenney’s was said to be the largest music
store between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. According
 to records in the West Virginia Secretary of
State’s office, the store went out
of business in 1981.

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Note:  This Article and picture appeared in the Herald-Dispatch Newspaper on Nov. 23, 2021.

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