Standard Printing & Publishing Co.

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The three-story building at 914 5th. Ave. was home to the former
Standard Printing & Publishing Co. from 1932 to 1968.

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HUNTINGTON -- The Standard Printing & Publishing Co. was founded in 1903
 with C. L. Ritter as president and William W. McCue as superintendent.

McCue came to Huntington from Virginia where, when he began learning the printing trade, he lived on a farm several
 miles distant from the print shop in Lynchburg. To reach work each morning he left the farm about 3 a.m. and walked
to the shop. Rising at 3 a.m. and walking to work became a life-long habit with him, and so he was generally
 at his desk at Standard Printing long before the sun came up.

In 1932, Herman P. Dean became the principal stockholder in Standard Printing and moved the business
 to a three-story building at 914 5th Ave. The building had been built in 1927 to house the Herald-Dispatch,
but the newspaper's stay in it was brief as it soon merged with the Huntington Advertiser to form the
 Huntington Publishing Co. The Herald-Dispatch then abandoned its building
 and moved to the Advertiser's building at 5th Avenue and 10th Street.

Dean successfully operated Standard Printing until 1961 when he sold it to Robert P. McDonough
of Parkersburg. Under McDonough, the firm encountered financial difficulties and was declared
 bankrupt. In 1968, its assets were purchased by Marshall Reynolds, owner of Chapman Printing.

Standard Printing had leased the building at 914 5th Ave. from the estate of former Huntington
 Mayor Rufus Switzer. With the printing firm's bankruptcy, the Standard Building was renamed
 the Switzer Building. In 1997, the law firm of Farrell, Farrell and Farrell LC bought
 the building from  John Hankins, who had purchased it from the Switzer Trust,
maintained by the former First Huntington National Bank.

At that time, the West Virginia Department of Employment Security was leasing the building's
first floor. The law firm gutted and renovated the second and third floors. A year later,
the Department of  Employment Security vacated the premises which allowed the
 law firm to renovate the first floor. The building was then renamed the
Farrell Building in honor of Dr. Joseph M. Farrell, the father of
 Michael, Paul and Joseph Farrell Jr.

The building's present occupant is the law firm of Farrell, White & Legg, PLLC.
The Herald-Dispatch name can be seen carved in stone above its front entrance.

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Note:  This Article and picture appeared in the Herald-Dispatch Newspaper on Oct. 17, 2016

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