"You know it's bad to ride all the time, you ought to walk some time, Sometimes you ride you might miss something, You might walk along the street and walk over a $100 bill you don't know. Instead of riding in your Cadillac, ride, ride, ride, walk sometime. Walking was before riding. We must learn to walk. This is my home right in Huntington, West Virginia, and I walked them mountains until it was pitiful, and I kept on walking and walking until I got where I am today... Just get up and start to walk."
-- Huntington native, "Diamond Teeth" Mary Smith McClain, the legendary blues singer who played The White House and Chicago Blues Festival before passing away in 2000.
On Dec. 13, I got an almost cryptic e-mail from Ed Dawson, our executive editor, that was filled with numbers, streets, building names and specific directions.
Either Ed was moonlighting as an Indiana Jones and passing on directions to the Temple of Doom or he was sending a subtle hint that after talking about it for several years, it was prime time for the paper to put together a downtown walking tour of Huntington.
The latter was the case, and after a couple months of procrastination, followed by feverish research, and more than a few beads of sweat, today we unveil a historic walking tour of downtown Huntington that begins and ends at Pullman Square.
Taking about 45 minutes to an hour to complete, the almost three-mile walk takes folks into Huntington's Downtown Historic District, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.
Since there are 59 buildings of historic and architectural importance in that 315 acres, we had to whittle that down to about 40 points of interest.
To research our walk we took out a monster stack of now overdue books from the Cabell County Library including Jim Casto's "Huntington: An Illustrated History," Doris Miller's "a Centennial History of Huntington, W.Va.," George Seldon Wallace's "Huntington Through Seventy-Five Years," and Don Daniel McMillian's "Huntington: Image of America Series," and "Huntington: The Edwardian Age's Modern Movement."
Editorial Page Editor Jim Ross also found the priceless 1985 bound report by The Cabell County Landmark Commission's "A Survey of Downtown Huntington, West Virginia."
Some of the great features along the walk include contemporary art works such as "Continuous Ascent," the steel sculpture made by the good folks at Special Metals, which also made the heat-resistant alloys that coated Apollo XI for man's first moon walk.
And, of course, the Collis P. Huntington statue made by Gutzon Borglum, who three years after completing the Huntington statue started on another work of art -- Mount Rushmore, a work of art that consumed him from 1927 until his death in 1941.
We've also pointed out some of Huntington's architectural treasures such as the Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center and just across 4th Avenue, the grand former hotel, the Frederick Hotel that took 3.7 million bricks to build.
There is also Huntington's stunning Avenue of Churches along 5th Avenue and the copper-domed Cabell County Courthouse.
We've pointed out some fascinating trivia, pop culture and legends that range from a downtown garage being paid for with a suitcase full of cash, to a city that has been a "blaze" with Hollywood connections for quite some time.
We also point out some of the on-going restoration projects from Old Main Corridor and Pullman Square to the streetscape makeover along 3rd Avenue.
To make the walk accessible to as many people as possible, we have a map printed inside today's Life section.
That map and tour will also be available for download as a PDF file on our Web site at www.herald-dispatch.com.
Also available is a podcast that has audio and visual elements. People with iPods or MP3 players can download the podcast that includes deeper descriptions, some cool streams of local music, and photos taken along the way.
The tour will also be available in an upcoming brochure that will be distributed around town.
If you think time stands still in Huntington, just ask the historic Reuschlein's Clock, time is on the move, and now, after a long winter, hopefully, so are we.
Enjoy the walk.
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