Kipling Shoe Co.

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Kipling Shoe Co. in Milton, WV

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It all started with buttoned high tops, the fashion trend when the Newberry-Clay Shoe Company
opened its doors in 1900.  The wholesale shoe company was located at the corner of Second
Avenue and Tenth Street, directly across the alley from the entrance to a jobbing house.

Jeff Newberry was the president and George B. Clay was Vice-president.  Ten years after
the company was founded, Newberry retired and the company was renamed the Norvell-
Chambers Shoe Company.  The factory divorced from the jobbing house and was operated
by Mountain State Shoe Company, a subsidiary corporation.

In 1913 Mountain State Shoe Company was taken over by Walter E. Perry of Cincinnati
and George W. Norvell, who changed the name to Perry-Norvell Shoe Company. G. R.
Kinney Company acquired the stock in this company in 1920 and two years later moved
to a modern fireproof structure at 25th Street and Guyan Avenue.  Shoes manufactured
by this company were sold through 330 retail stores of G. R. Kinney Company, of New
York City.  The plant employed 350 people, Sixty percent were women. The gross
annual business was in the excess of one and a half million dollars. in 1928,
Norvell-Chambers Shoe Company changed its name to Kipling Shoe Company.
This company is now owned and operated by Carroll G. Osburn.  Store # 1
is located at 1221 Main Street, Milton, WV.  Store # 2 is located at Rt. 2
Bypass, Pt. Pleasant, WV.  Store #3 is located at 216 Davis Avenue,
Elkins, WV.

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Shoe factory in Huntington, WV

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Shoe Rack in the factory's showroom.

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Kipling Shoe Store -- Red House, WV

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