Huntington, West Virginia

Huntington is a city located in the U.S. State of West Virginia along the Ohio River. Most of the city is in Cabell County, for which it is the county seat of government. A small portion of the city, mainly the neighborhood of Westmoreland, is in Wayne County. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 51,475 (47,341 in Cabell County, 4,134 in Wayne County). Huntington is a part of the Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH, Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). As of the 2000 census, the MSA had a population of 288,649. Huntington is the second largest city in West Virginia, behind Charleston.

History

The city was named for Collis P. Huntington, who founded Huntington in 1870 as the western terminus for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) on the land west of the mouth of the Guyandotte River at the Ohio River. It was created as a railroad town for the C&O, when it initially stretched from Richmond, Virginia to the Ohio River. It became a huge shops center for the railroad, which expanded east to Newport News (and coal piers) and westerly to eventually reach Cincinnati and Chicago in the following years.

Huntington was incorporated in 1871, but was really a massive addition to Guyandotte, an earlier city that is now a neighborhood of Huntington, was first built upon in 1799. The land that is now part of both Guyandotte and Huntington was originally part of the 28,628 acre French and Indian War veteran's Savage Grant.

Historically, the old Federal Era town of Guyandotte has homes dating back to 1820 and a graveyard containing 18th century French and Colonial-era settlers, including surnames such as LeTulle, Holderby, and Buffington. Huntington was known as Holderby's Landing prior to 1871 and the Buffington family held the tracts of land that became the Huntington Land Company. The Buffingtons were the only revolutionary-era Savage Grant claimants to continuously reside within the area, and later generations of Buffingtons were associated with Marshall College (later a university) were business partners of Collis P. Huntington. Albert Gallatin Jenkins, a Confederate Army General, had his plantation home in nearby Lesage, which has since become a historical landmark.

At the time of Huntington's founding, Holderby's Landing was already the home of Marshall College, a normal school that had been founded in 1837 as Marshall Academy. Originally, Marshall Academy was essentially a boarding school, under the control of the Southern Methodist Church, for wealthy high school students. In 1857, the school became Marshall College, which in turn became a public institution in 1867. The college later became Marshall University in 1961 and now occupies a large portion of the city to the immidiate east of the downtown CBD.

Huntington grew to nearly 100,000 in population by the 1950s thanks to a successful coal and chemical industry. However, due to coal losing some of its prominence as a fuel, the city has lost much of its industrial base including several factories in industries such as glassworks, steel, and locomotive parts. Huntington is now effectively a regional medical community - the two hospitals, St. Mary's and Cabell-Huntington, are the largest employers - and a university town, thanks to the presence of Marshall University, which has an enrollment of approximately 16,000 students.

On November 14, 1970, a major tragedy struck Huntington when most of the Marshall University football team, coaches, and staff, along with several local supporters (75 people in all) were killed in a plane crash near the Tri-State Airport after a football game with East Carolina University. The private plane was returning on a rainy and foggy night, and the pilot misjudged the landing and flew the plane into the side of a mountain. Each year on the anniversary of the crash, those who died are still mourned in a ceremony at Marshall University. A number of the victims of the plane crash are buried in a grave site in the Spring Hill Cemetery in Huntington, and 20th Street, the road that leads from the cemetery to Marshall University, has been renamed Marshall Memorial Boulevard in honor of those killed in the plane crash.

Despite being located to the south of the area traditionally defined as the Rust belt, the city suffered from the trend of heavy deindustrialization experienced in cities of the Upper Midwest during the 1970s. This trend has been one of the factors that has resulted Huntington's population decline over the last several decades.

In the 1970s, federal urban renewal programs destroyed part of the downtown, but in 2005 the Pullman Square retail and entertainment center, aided by the Tri-State Transit Authority, revived the downtown "Superblock" area, leading to rising downtown usage. The Harris Riverfront Park promenade is now well-attended along the Ohio River downtown. Victorian architecture downtown is growing in popularity among new residents.

Demographics

As of the census ² of 2000, there are 51,475 people, 22,955 households, and 12,235 families residing in the city. The population density is 1,248.4/km² (3,234.1/mi²). There are 25,888 housing units at an average density of 627.9/km² (1,626.5/mi²). The racial makeup of the city is 89.61% White, 7.49% Black or African American, 0.20% Native American, 0.82% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 0.30% from other races, and 1.53% from two or more races. 0.85% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There are 22,955 households out of which 20.6% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 36.9% are married couples living together, 13.1% have a female householder with no husband present, and 46.7% are non-families. 37.6% of all households are made up of individuals and 15.1% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.12 and the average family size is 2.80.

The age distribution, which is strongly influenced by Marshall's presence, is 17.7% under the age of 18, 17.5% from 18 to 24, 24.9% from 25 to 44, 21.8% from 45 to 64, and 18.0% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 37 years. For every 100 females there are 88.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 85.8 males.

The median income for a household in the city is $23,234, and the median income for a family is $34,756. Males have a median income of $30,040 versus $21,198 for females. The per capita income for the city is $16,717. 24.7% of the population and 17.5% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 29.8% of those under the age of 18 and 12.5% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.

Law and government

Huntington has, since 1985, operated under a strong mayor/city council form of government. The mayor is elected to four-year terms in partisan elections contested at the same time as United States presidential elections. The current mayor is David Felinton, a Democrat who is currently in his second term. Mayors in Huntington are not term-limited and have the authority to veto acts of the city council.

Huntington's city councillors are also elected to four-year terms at the same time as the mayor. There are eleven members of the council, nine of whom represent single-member districts, while the other two are elected at-large by the city as a whole. Huntington's city council has the authority to draft and debate ordinances and can override a mayoral veto with a two-thirds majority. There are currently ten Democrats and one Republican on the city council.

District	City Councillor	District	City Councillor
District 1	James Ritter (D)	District 7	Scott Caserta (D)
District 2	Teresa Loudermilk (D)	District 8	P. D. Adkins (D)
District 3	Frances Jackson (D)	District 9	Jim Insco (D)
District 4	Mary Neely (D)	At Large	Gary Black (D)
District 5	Brandi Jacobs-Jones (D)	At Large	Paul Farrell (D)
District 6	Calvin Kent (R)

Geography of Huntington

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 46.6 km² (18.0 mi²). 41.2 km² (15.9 mi²) of it is land and 5.4 km² (2.1 mi²) of it (11.51%) is water. The Guyandotte River joins the Ohio River in Huntington, about 5 mi (8 km) east of its downtown. It lies in the westernmost and lowest altitude area of West Virginia, and has a temperate four seasons, with hot (70-90 degrees) Summers and snowy (20-50 degrees) Winters. Fall and spring tend to be cool and wet, but Huntington enjoys warmer and milder climate than the hilly uplands of West Virginia which are located in the Allegheny Mountains and the Appalachian Mountains. Huntington is warmed by westerly winds from the Midwest, and made humid by the Ohio River, but avoids the bitter cold and high winds of the interior of West Virginia.

Huntington fills the roughly three-mile wide flood plain of the south bank of the Ohio River for sixty city blocks and portions of the hills to the immediate south. The city's primary public recreation center is Ritter Park (named Charles L. Ritter who donated the land). The park area encompasses a walking and cycling path, tennis courts, an outdoor amphitheater, a multi-terraced rose garden, and a stone-tiered reflecting pond built by the Works Progress Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps in the late 1930s. Four Pole Creek, runs the entire length of Ritter Park and the creek is crossed by numerous wooden and stone footbridges.

Culture of Huntington

The Huntington Museum of Art is located in the hills above Ritter Park, and a radio technology museum is located near the west end of the park. The Cabell County Courthouse Building and Carnegie Library downtown also have historical interest, and the administration building, Old Main, on the Marshall University campus dates to the 1840s and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Keith Albee Theater, a Vaudeville palace from the 1920s, is the architectural masterpiece of the downtown area, and 5th Avenue is noted for its many historical church buildings. Traditional "drive-in" hotdog stands are popular in the city, with popular locally-based favorites including Stewart's Original Hot Dogs, Frostop, Sam's Hot Dogs, and Hillbilly Hot Dogs. Camden Park, a small theme park is just west of the Westmoreland neighborhood and is also the site of an Adena Native American burial mound.

Medically, St. Mary's Hospital and the Cabell-Huntington Hospital provide health care for the greater metropolitan area. In addition, the Marshall University Medical School, now known as the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine in honor of a major benefactor, has a comprehensive cancer care center and has a national reputation as a leader in rural health care delivery.

A banking and commerce center for the area between 1880 and the present, Huntington developed along the river's shore with its 19th century urban industry. The Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad had its western terminus in Huntington and railroad tracks bifurcate the city today. The railroad was historically the leading Huntington industry, along with coal, railcars, nickel, steel and glass.

Transportation

Roads

Huntington is located along Interstate 64, which skirts the city to the south. US 60, the historic Midland Trail, runs through downtown from west to east, and US 52 runs through West Huntington on a north-south trajectory as it approaches from the coalfields and the Big Sandy River valley to the south and enters Ohio. The town is the northern terminus for WV 10, which connects Huntington with Princeton, West Virginia. It is also the southern terminus of West Virginia State Route 2|WV 2]], which parallels the entirety of West Virginia's section of the Ohio River.

Huntington possesses a grid-like street pattern and several wide boulevard-style avenues, most notably 3rd & 5th Aves. The East End Bridge, the Robert C. Byrd Bridge, and the West Huntington Bridge span the Ohio River to link Huntington with Proctorville, Ohio and Chesapeake, Ohio.

Rail

Since its founding as the western terminus of the C&O Railroad, Huntington has served as a major break of bulk point between rail traffic and the Ohio River/Mississippi River | watershed. Much of the coal mined in southern West Virginia is brought to Huntington via locomotive to be transported by river barges to industrial centers in other parts of the United States. CSX, the successor company to C&O, continues to maintain an office and rail yard in the city.

The city was once a hub for passenger rail service in the region, but accounts for a significantly smaller portion of rail traffic than in the early decades of the 20th century. Huntington, however, has an Amtrak station that lies on the Cardinal/Hoosier State line that runs between New York City and Chicago via Washington, DC and Cincinnati.

River

Huntington is the largest inland port in the United States in both in terms of total tonnage and ton-miles. This is due in large part to the coal traffic from the railroads and the petroleum products produced by the Marathon Petroleum Company oil refinery in nearby Catlettsburg, Kentucky that use the Port of Huntington to load their products onto barges.

References

External links

ハンティングトン (ウェストバージニア州) | Huntington (Wirginia Zachodnia)

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