Miller Paint

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The Miller Paint Manufacturing Co. moved to 641 Jackson Ave. in 1914.
The first building the company built there was destroyed in a 1920 fire.
 It then built this building, shown in a 1948 view.

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HUNTINGTON — The company that became Miller Paint began in Ashland
in 1898 as a manufacturer of roof paint made from coal tar.

The company moved to Huntington in 1910 when it built a riverbank building
at the foot of Johnson Lane. The tiny building burned in 1912. No sooner
 was it rebuilt than it was washed away by the 1913 flood. In 1914, the
company moved to 641 Jackson Ave. The first building it built
there was destroyed by a second disastrous fire in 1920.

In 1936, J. Greeson, E.W. Miller and his son John W. Miller formed
 a partnership, bought the business and renamed it the Miller Paint
Manufacturing Co. Over the years, the company prided itself on
 making high-quality paint and even incorporated that phrase
 into its brand name, selling “Miller High Quality” paint
 throughout West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio
 and a half dozen other states.

In 1948, the company’s plant was again destroyed by fire. “The
spectacular blaze,” reported the Huntington Advertiser,
 “left little more than a pile of scorched and battered
paint cans where the factory had been
 only a few hours before.”

Again, the company rebuilt. Soon, it was doing more
 business than ever before, typically selling 500,000
to 600,000 gallons of paint a year.

Miller Paint’s customers included the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Co.,
 which used a special alkyd type paint on its rail cars. The state of
West Virginia used thousands of gallons of Miller yellow on its
 license plates. And the city of Huntington turned to Miller
for the traffic paint it used. For its quality house paints,
 Miller Paint used red, yellow and blue dyes made by
Huntington’s Standard Ultramarine & Color Co.

In 1964, Miller Paint changed its name to Columbia Paint
 Corp., which continues to operate at the company’s
 long-time Jackson Avenue location.

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Note:  This Article and picture appeared in the Herald-Dispatch Newspaper on Oct. 13, 2020.

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