He returned to Huntington in 1900 and with partner George B. Clay opened a shoe factory.
 (The firm later became the Norvell-Chambers Shoe Co. and today survives as the
Kipling Shoe Co., which operates retail stores in Milton and Point Pleasant.)

In 1910, Newberry sold his interest in the partnership and struck out on his own, founding the
Jeff Newberry Co., a shoe wholesaler. His new firm, located in the Flooding Building at
1029-31 3rd Ave, immediately prospered, and he decided it needed a building all its own.

Completed in 1915, the seven-story structure located on the southeast corner of 3rd Avenue and 11th Street
was built of reinforced concrete, brick and terra cotta. Newberry christened the combination
office/warehouse "The Home of Better Shoes." For years, the company was one of the
many busy wholesale houses that once lined 3rd Avenue.

On Newberry's death, his widow Charlotte took over as company president,
with well-known Huntington attorney George S. Wallace as vice president.

The company went out of business in the early 1960s, and National Credit located in the building.
 Later the Huntington Urban Renewal Authority acquired the building and demolished it. Today, its
corner site is the parking lot for the office of Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, 1117 3rd Ave.