------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Huntington second City Hall housed the city offices, the fire
department, the police department,
the city jail and for a number of years the county government as well.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HUNTINGTON -- When Huntington was founded in 1871, its first City Hall
was a
small frame building built in the 800 block of 4th Avenue.
In 1886, the city bought a tract of land on the east side of 9th Street just
north of 5th Avenue
and there erected Huntington's second City Hall - a large
red brick building that housed
the city offices, the fire department, the police
department and the city jail.
When the county seat was moved from Barboursville to Huntington
in 1887, the
county government shared use of the city building.
County officials planned to immediately construct a suitable courthouse in
Huntington and to that end purchased
the city block bounded by 4th and 5th
avenues between 7th and 8th streets. But financial problems delayed
a start on
construction, with the new courthouse not completed until 1901. It wasn't until
then
that the county government could be removed from the crowded city building.
In 1902, the Cabell County Public Library was erected on the northeast corner
of 5th Avenue and 9th Street, immediately next to the city building.
In 1911, Huntington's city fathers decided that the growing town deserved a
larger, grander city hall.
They purchased a tract of land on the northeast
corner of 5th Avenue and 8th Street as the site,
paying the then-unheard-of sum
of $46,000 for it. Verus T. Ritter, one of the city's best-known
architects, was
hired to design the new building, which was completed in 1915.
The no-longer-needed city building on 9th Street was demolished and its site
used for construction
of a new three-story building for the Deardorff-Sisler
department store, which moved there from
its former 4th Avenue location. The
department store went out of business in 1930,
but the building still stands,
now used for offices.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Note: This Article and picture appeared in the Herald-Dispatch Newspaper on Oct. 12 , 2015
-----------------------------------------------------------
[ Back ]