Huntington, West Virginia

Huntington is a city in Cabell and Wayne counties, West Virginia. The county seat of Cabell County, the city is located at the confluence of the Ohio and Guyandotte rivers. Huntington is the second-most populous city in West Virginia, with a population of 46,842 as of the 2020 census. Its metro area, the Huntington-Ashland metropolitan area, is the largest in West Virginia, spanning seven counties across three states and having a population of 376,155 at the 2020 census.
Surrounded by extensive natural resources, the area was first settled in 1775 as Holderby's Landing. Its location was selected as ideal for the western terminus of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, which founded Huntington as one of the nation's first planned communities to facilitate transportation industries. The city quickly developed after the railroad's completion in 1871 and is eponymously named for the railroad company's founder, Collis Potter Huntington. The city became a hub for manufacturing, transportation, and industrialization, with an industrial sector based in coal, oil, chemicals and steel. After World War II, due to the shutdown of these industries, the city lost nearly 46% of its population, from a peak of 86,353 in 1950 to 54,844 in 1990.
Huntington is a vital rail-to-river transfer point for the marine transportation industry. It is home to the Port of Huntington Tri-State, the second-busiest inland port in the United States. Also, it is considered a scenic locale in the western foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. The city is the home of Marshall University as well as the Huntington Museum of Art, Mountain Health Arena, Camden Park, one of the world's oldest amusement parks; and the headquarters of the CSX Transportation-Huntington Division.

[@chall6602]

I was born in Huntington in 1941. Dad worked for the Huntington Dispatch newspaper, as did my grandfather. My grandma worked at Jim's Restaurant, I saw it as you drove past it. I remember life there as peaceful and nice. We left in 1951, moved to Columbus Ohio. I have visited Huntington a couple of times since then. I am glad it is still there. We would go see the floodwall, it was a local tourist attraction. God bless you Huntington.

[@johnmortison5763]

Thanks for the tour. I was born and raised in Huntington. It was nice to see the changes made over the years. There used to be a brick manufacturing facility on what is now Hal Greer Blvd that turned out fantastic quantities of bricks made from the local clay. That's why you see so many brick houses and buildings as well as brick paved streets in the older parts of town.

[@tanyab7318]

It's good as far as you went. But you missed nearly half of the city. Thanks for the memories!

[@aldoushuxleysghost]

You drove past where Romeo's Spaghetti House used to be in the 1980s. I haven't been to Huntington since 1996, but dining out every Friday at Romeo's is a very nice childhood memory

[@outquick]

Is that a flood wall?

[@414travel]

Think so