Huntington, West Virginia
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{{US City infobox |city=Huntington |state=West Virginia |founded=1785 |incorporated = 1871 |county = Cabell County |mayor = David Felinton |map=WVMap-doton-Huntington.PNG |area = 38.6 km² (14.9 mi²) |area water = 4.7 km² (1.8 mi²) |area percentage = 12.17%| |census yr = 2000 |city pop = 51,475 |metro pop = 288,649 |density=1,248 |north_coord = 38.4191 |west_coord = 82.4452 | time zone = Eastern | utc = 5 |timezone_DST = EDT |web=www.cityofhuntington.com }} 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, with a small part in Wayne County. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 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.
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History
The city was named for Collis P. Huntington, who founded it in 1870 as a headquarters for his Chesapeake and Ohio Railway. Huntington was incorporated in 1871, but its constituent city, Guyandotte, was first built upon in 1799. Huntington is the county seat of Cabell CountyTemplate:GR. Huntington was originally part of the 28,628 acre French and Indian War veteran's Savage Grant authorized by Governor Dinwiddie in 1775.
Historically, the old Federal Era town of Guyandotte, now within the Huntington city limits, has homes dating back to 1820 and a graveyard containing 18th century French and Colonial Revolutionary Era settlers, including the LeTulle, Holderby and Buffington family markers. 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 Savage Grant, and later generations of Buffingtons were associated with Marshall College and Collis P. Huntington. Albert Gallatin Jenkins, a Confederate General, had his plantation home in nearby Lesage, and it is still standing.
Huntington grew to nearly 100,000 in population by the 1950s thanks to a successful coal and chemical industry; because coal has since lost some of its prominence as a fuel and the city has lost much of its industrial base - including glassworks, steel, and manufacturing train parts - Huntington is now effectively a medical community (the two hospitals are the largest employers) and a university town.
On November 14, 1970, a major tragedy struck Huntington when the entire Marshall University football team and many of its civic supporters (75 people in all) were killed in a plane crash near the Tri-State Airport while flying back to Huntington from 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 by flying 50 feet too low while attempting to make the landing descent. Many major community leaders and benefactors were killed in the plane crash in addition to the members of the football team (coaches and players), and each year on November 14, 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 the road that leads from the cemetery to Marshall University has been renamed Marshall Memorial Blvd. in honor and memory of those killed in the plane crash.
Features / Points of Interest
As a well-planned small city, Huntington fills the roughly three-mile wide flood plain of the Ohio River for sixty blocks and beyond this range into the area's hardwood forested hills. The city's centerpiece is Ritter Park, named for philanthropist Charles L. Ritter, who donated the land. The five-mile 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 WPA and CCC in the late 1930s. A natural bird sanctuary, Four Pole Creek, runs the entire length of Ritter Park and the Creek is crossed by numerous wooden and stone foot bridges. 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.
Because of the "rust belt" experience of losing industrial jobs in the 1970s, Huntington's population has declined over the last several decades. A regional metropolitan statistical area center for over twenty counties in the Tri-State Area of West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky; Huntington is structurally positioned to prosper and possibly to attract additional population growth. The housing, hospitals, health industries, communications, banking, and tourism industries, as well as the emergence of Marshall University as a center for bioscience and biotechnology research should support moderate growth over the next few decades.
Architecturally, 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. 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 still very popular and add a "retrospective" aspect to the city. Some of the famous stands includes Stewart's Original Hot Dogs, Frostop, and Sam's Hot Dogs. Camden Park, a small theme park with a wooden rollercoaster is just west of town in Wayne County, West Virginia and is also the site of an Adena Native American burial mound. The U.S. Corps of Engineers constructed locks and dams nearby in the Ohio River and designed the large recreational lakes East Lynn Lake and Beech Fork Lake, just south of Huntington in Wayne County. The Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad was historically the leading Huntington industry, along with coal, railcars, nickel, steel and glass.
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.
One of the libraries at Marshall University is named for former university president James H. Morrow, father of American diplomat Dwight W. Morrow (1873-1931) and grandfather of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, the wife of Charles Lindbergh. The main library since 1995 is the John Deaver Drinko Library, named for major donor John Deaver Drinko, who also funded the Drinko Academy, which is dedicated to bringing in major scholars as visiting scholars and professors. The Drinko Library is recognized as a state-of-the-art technology library, and it is also recognized for its distinctive contemporary architecture. In the community, a volunteer organization, the Huntington Foundation, is active in restoring historical sites.
Enforcement of the Clean Air Act of 1970 has substantially improved the air and water quality of the industrial corridor in Huntington since this pivotal federal legislation outlawed indiscriminate and wasteful chemical emissions. Mountaintop removal and rural stream preservation are still hotly contested issues, with advocates responding through legal and conservation challenges and oversight debates.
About 16,000 students are currently enrolled at Marshall University.
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 C&O Railroad had its western terminus in Huntington and railroad tracks bifurcate the city today. Westmoreland and Central City are being revitalized with new investments in the West End of Huntington, while in the East End there is solid housing stock, suburban neighborhoods and the city's second large park, Rotary Park. The geographic logic and order of Huntington's street plan makes each sector distinctive and the relation between neighborhoods easy to remember.
Demographics
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 is water. The total area is 11.51% 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 (60-90 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. Culturally influenced by the Ohio Valley and Midwest cities of Columbus, Ohio, Cincinatti, Ohio and Louisville, Kentucky, it has a strong, traditional American "Norman Rockwell" visual identity, with its tree-lined streets, sidewalks, brick streets, parks, alleyways and brick homes.
As of the censusTemplate:GR of 2000, there were 51,475 people, 22,955 households, and 12,235 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,248.4/km² (3,234.1/mi²). There were 25,888 housing units at an average density of 627.9/km² (1,626.5/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 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 were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There were 22,955 households out of which 0.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 36.9% were married couples living together, 13.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 46.7% were non-families. 37.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 15.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.0 and the average family size was 2.0.
The age distribution, which is strongly influenced by Marshall University'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 were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 88.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 85.8 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $23,234, and the median income for a family was $34,756. Males had a median income of $30,040 versus $21,198 for females. The per capita income for the city was $16,717. 24.7% of the population and 17.5% of families were below the poverty line. 29.8% of those under the age of 18 and 12.5% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.
Income curves show a low median relative to U.S. norms. While upper middle class $50,000 to $150,000 annual incomes are found in Huntington, there are few wealthy salaried professionals.
Tensions within the community rose when coal industry baron James Fletcher and his wife, Penny Fletcher, were involved in an internationally celebrated murder trial at St. Vincent and the Grenadines in the mid 1990s. Crimes involving methamphetamine and Detroit street gangs are a current hot-button issue in city.
Traditional coal mining and industrial unemployment has exacerbated class conflicts in Huntington, as jobs have remained scarce and often poorly remunerated. Health care, education and other service sector opportunities mark the economy of Huntington, West Virginia.
Trivia
In 2004, the North American Vexillological Association voted Huntington's flag as the second-worst in the United States, beating out only the flag of Pocatello, Idaho. Template:Ref The city has since ordered flags with a new design that should start showing up around town in early 2006.
References
See also
External links
Template:Mapit-US-cityscale
- City of Huntington
- Cabell-Huntington Convention and Visitors Bureau
- Marshall University
- Camden Park
- Pullman Square
- Exploring Huntington
See also
