Town of the Week

Huntington, West Virginia
May 8, 1999

The first man to ride his own rail car, from the Atlantic to the Pacific over tracks he either owned or controlled, was Collis P. Huntington. He owned the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway. At one time, the western end of the railroad reached only to the Ohio River. It was here that he built a town where West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky meet.

Huntington stretches for 11 miles along the river, and, as one of the few planned cities in America, has 100-foot wide streets, wide enough for four stagecoaches to park or pass. Huntington's Heritage Village features an old Victorian passenger station and the community's first bank. It was robbed by Jesse James right after it opened for business.

This town of 55,000 people is home to the state's largest art museum, The Huntington; and of Marshall University. Railroading is still important here with locomotive repair and rail car manufacturing shops; mining equipment manufacturing and specialty glassblowing. The Huntington Mall is the state's largest, and the Town's East End Concrete Bridge, spanning the Ohio River, is a mile long. Passing under the bridge are two sternwheelers which dock at Huntington and offer cruises, the P.A. Denny and the Camden Queen. The home of the largest radio museum in the east is our Town of the Week, Huntington, West Virginia.