Cabell County, West Virginia

On the way between Butler County, Ohio and the Democratic convention in Charleston, I stopped for two nights June 8 and 9, in Huntington, the county seat and largest city in Cabell County. This was my forty-eighth county visit, marking the end of four years that I have lived in Morgantown. The 2010 census shows Cabell County is the third largest in West Virginia by population, after Kanawha (Charleston) and Berkeley (Martinsburg). Since 2010, it appears my home county of Monongalia has surpassed Cabell for the number three spot. Huntington is still the second largest city in the state.

My first county in this fourth year was Boyd County, Kentucky, containing Ashland, the other major city in the Huntington-Ashland metropolitan area. I was a month behind, and visited Ashland in August, 2015. Both cities have parks on the Ohio River, across from...Ohio. Ashland looks more prosperous, and seemed more southern somehow, more casual and relaxed.

I liked Huntington. I stayed on US 60, the old road from Norfolk to Los Angeles, just east of town on the way to Barboursville, the suburb with the mall and all the stores. There were thirty-seven places on The National Register in Cabell County, and I figured, foolishly as it turns out, that I could visit all of them in a day and a half, it being only 150 miles from Butler County to Cabell, a half-day drive. I arranged the places from what I thought was west to east, but was in fact east to west. Once I realized what I had done, I decided to run with it.

I arrived after one, following online instructions that took me on pretty little back roads through southeastern Ohio. I'm sure something was wrong, because I spent lots of time on US 60, when I should have been on parallel I-64. I had a quick lunch, then headed out to the east end of the county, to the town of Milton. Near there is Morris Memorial Hospital, now vacant. It was built in 1936 by Works Progress Administration as a hospital for children with polio. It closed in 1960, was used as a nursing home after that, and has been vacant since 2009.

Also near Milton is Pumpkin Park, home of West Virginia's Pumpkin Festival, and the Mud River Covered Bridge. from 1875 relocated to the park in 2001. Blenko Glass, an historic maker of art glass, is near the park

 This is the two-block center of Milton:

I headed west to Barboursville, the big suburb of Huntington. It's the home of Huntington Mall. I took a break to check out the Mall. There is a Macy's and a BAM (Books-A-Million) where I bought the bound copy of the first six issues of the new, updated "Archie" comics. Yes, I 'm a fan. I headed back to the motel, checked in and fell asleep. Joe and I stayed at this motel at the end of our second day of driving back from his cousin's bar mitzvah in Memphis in September 2014.

I wanted something reasonably healthy for dinner. I remembered that there was a House of Pancakes outside the mall in Barboursville. I headed there. I had fish on spinach with a so-called Alfredo  sauce. It wasn't great. All along Route 60, there were fast-food restaurants, but nothing healthier than Subway. I thought this would be a step up. The menu said "Ask our servers about our selection of teas." I did. They only had one kind of tea. I felt like the people there were looking at me. After my trip to Butler County, being out in the southern sun, I was darker than usual, the darkest one in the restaurant. And I was alone. In a designer t-shirt. The manager came over and greeted everyone in the restaurant except me. Some think I make this stuff up, but ask anyone who is not entirely white, is gender ambiguous, or looks somehow different, and they will tell you I'm not.

I headed into Barboursville proper, where there is a historic district, and the Victorian Thornburg House.

Before dark, I was able to get into the east end of Huntington. There is a bridge in Rotary Park, a wooded hillside above the east end.

There was a separate town of Guyandotte, Virginia, before the Civil War, predating modern Huntington, but now in the city. It was hard to find, because much of it is walled off from the Ohio and Guyandotte Rivers. Interstate 64 also walls off part of the area. I've learned that there was  a flood on the Ohio and its tributaries in 1913, up to the second story in Augusta, Kentucky and Middletown and Ripley, Ohio. I imagine that is why there are walls along the rivers in Huntington. Before heading back to the motel, I found two historic houses in Guyandotte. The top pic is the Thomas Carroll House, built originally in 1810 with later additions, and now a public park; the other is the home of Zachary Taylor Wellington, built in 1847, and extensively remodeled in 1870. Wellington was a popular politician. Union soldiers were recruited in Guyandotte in 1861, and they were attacked that year by Confederates. Union soldiers came back and burned much of the town, because its people were apparently sympathizers with the Southern cause. There was a plaque at the Carroll House, but not remembering the details, I found information on e-WV, the West Virginia online encyclopedia.

I started the next morning thinking I might still hit all the places on the National Register. I headed back east to Barboursville, then north to River Rd., West Virginia Route 2, which follows the length of the Ohio River.  Near the town of Lesage along the river is a former tobacco plantation, run by slaves before the Civil War. The owner, Albert Gallatin Jenkins, became a Confederate general. There is a Native American archaeological site nearby, which is not accessible to the public. The house is abandoned.

I headed back into Huntington, mostly in the flats along the Ohio River, with north-south numbered streets and east-west avenues, also numbered. It should have been easy, but somehow I got confused and wandered around a bit. Like Oakland or Hollywood in California, the wealthy live up in the hills out of the grid. I found quite a few places, but not all.

Former Liggett-Myers Tobacco Warehouse, 9 27th St.

Ricketts House, Washington Blvd, in the hills

Simms School Building, 1080 11th Av.

"Old Main" Marshall University Campus

Marshall University, founded in 1837, is a state university, and has a central spot in Huntington, much as West Virginia University is at the center of Morgantown.

I found Frostop, a 1959 drive-in, complete with wait staff that comes to your car, in central Huntington, and stopped for an inexpensive lunch.

Here are more historic places I found in Huntington:

Ohev Shalom, 1928, now called B'nai Sholom after a merger with B'nai Israel, an Orthodox congregation.B'nai Shalom is Reform and Conservative, 10th Av. and 10th St.

Douglass Jr. and Sr. High, 10th Avenue, the "separate but equal" school for African-Americans, 1924, now a community center.

Freeman Estate, aka Park Hill Farm, McCoy Rd., in the hills, 1914

Cabell County Courthouse, 1899, Fifth Av., between Seventh and Eighth Sts.

Renaissance, part of the Downtown Huntington Historic District, now apartments

Keith-AlbeeTheater and Office Building, Downtown Hntington

River Tower, now a Masonic Temple, just east of downtown, Third Av. and Eleventh St., 1922 and 1926

Harvey House, 1874, Third Av. and Thirteenth St., forlorn between fast food places and auto parts stores

Elk River Coal and Lumber Company Steam Locomotive #10, 1924, now part of a museum, Eleventh St.

I stopped briefly to check messages. A friend said I should relax a bit and try to be less compulsive.

The locomotive was near the Ohio River, so I found an entrance to the park, and walked through. Here are some shots along the river.

I met someone on a bike and asked where the next entrance back into the city was along the wall. He didn't think there was one. We talked a little. I recognized a Great Lakes accent, and he said that he was from Michigan, but went to school in Chicago. He is a librarian, and was in Lawrence, Kansas where his wife was working on an advanced degree. They came to Huntington, because she got a job at Marshall University. They live near B'nai Sholom on 10th Av.

There are beautiful old homes near there, but like much of the city, that neighborhood fell on hard times. There are some hipster young people moving back in. It's convenient to the city center, which has had something of a rebirth.

Pullman Center, along the riverfront near the center of Huntington, has new shops and movies

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After my nap, I went for dinner to Sheetz. Not very adventurous, I know. I capped the evening with soft ice cream from Frostop.

Huntington looks like a "real city" with 1940-era public housing projects like Baltimore's, only integrated. People in the city seemed friendlier than out in the suburbs, and I saw many cars with "Bernie" bumper stickers. The streets and avenues are tree-lined with mostly early twentieth century homes. Unfortunately, many of them were vacant, as the population has declined in recent years, and some seemed to be burned out. Still, there is a major university at Marshall, a revival of sorts in the center of the city, and a pretty and historic downtown. There is an art museum up in the hills.

Due to my stubborn way of doing things, I didn't go west of downtown. I know there was a lot to see there, but this is what I was able to cover. The west end of Huntington is in Wayne County, so maybe I'll explore more on another trip.