West By God Virginia
As long as I was going to be in Ohio, I figured I’d leverage my time with a few visits to my company’s customers. The account managers in Charleston, WV and Indianapolis took me up on the offer of my time, so I had a chance to visit college roomie Steve Towne in Indy, and friend Dannie Walker in Charleston.
Elizabeth and I met in WV, spent the first couple years out of school there, and were married at Kanawah United Presby. I haven’t been back there for at least 15 years, so it was fun to get a chance to catch up an old friend (much older than I am) and check out some of my old haunts.
Our favorite restaurant, Tudor’s Biscuit World, is still going strong. Kanawah Presby finally seems to have resolved that dispute about ceiling fans in the sanctuary (along with installing a beautiful sounding and looking semi-tracker organ). A. James is long gone, but he’s got a nephew in politics. Danny Jones, who did a great job as L’il Abner back in the day, is not selling sandwiches or sheriffing, but is now mayoring, and the city seems to be doing well.
Capital Street has fewer stores than ever, but had a new ice cream shop and a sort of left-leaning new bookstore. The building where I used to work has had a makeover. Blossom Dairy still exists, as does the nut shop.
After a day of customer meetings, I drove over to Dannie Walkers, who has retired to a life of fast cars, gardening, and trolling the web for the high-meg movies. We went to dinner in a Mexican restaurant. Charleston has Indian food, and even sushi. How wierd is that? You can even get a latte in the lobby of the hotel. Its almost like being in…..well, Cleveland.
My first apartment was just a block east of the capital, and the apartment where Elizabeth and I lived when were married was just to the west, so I asked Dannie to drive down to the other side of town for a night shoot.
Lincoln is still walking at midnight, mountaineers are still always free, but the dome has been pimped up with some shiny gold leaf. The rumor always used to be that Gov. Moore had scraped off the gold and sold it. Whatever happened , it sure looked like gold paint back in the day. Its shiny bright, now.
Here’s the complete gallery of pictures from that trip.
June 22nd, 2009 at 9:50 pm
Small world…..I recently completed a renovation of 209 Capitol Street for the law firm of Bailey & Glasser. They used to be in the brick building with the turret,but now reside in the historic building that was once Woolworths just up the street. The book store you mentioned is presumably Taylor Books which has an art gallery that will likely provide some of the artwork in this space. There’s also a really swank original 50′s diner around the corner still sporting its sunken service pit for the counter eaters….and it has really good food!
June 22nd, 2009 at 10:18 pm
How funny is that? I spent parts of 3 years in Charleston, but haven’t been back for about 15 years. I forget what my street address was, because we had a box number. My office was on the 2nd floor of the building at the SE corner of Lee St and Capital St, overlooking the site of the original Capital building. It was pretty dumpy in 1984, but its been totally renovated. Taylor Books was not there, but it might be where the newsstand used to be. Had a nice chat with the woman who runs Taylor Books–she arrived in town after the newsstand was already gone.
I couldn’t figure out what happened to some of the buildings on Cap St. That’s the one two doors down from the Paris Cafe (used to be the MacDonalds–how funny is that)? Here’s a picture from a fire in Woolworths in 49 http://www.wvgazette.com/News/200903040159
One of those two buildings used to be a night spot called Muldoons. It had a raised dance floor with lights underneath it, and a mezzanine. I think it must be the one between the cafe and the one you renovated. I couldn’t figure out what had happened to that building–it had a nice 1930s facade on it that must have been covered up during the Muldoons era.
I think the diner would be Blossom Dairy. That and the nut shop are about all that’s left from 24 years ago. The library is moving out of that beautiful building across from the cafe/former MacDonalds.
June 23rd, 2009 at 8:05 pm
I don’t know much about the history, but did know about the fire and have seen this article. Here is a link to the firm I used to work at where I started the project. (http://www.gbbn.com/Portfolio/Detail/Bailey_&_Glasser/?pfImgID=1974) I am now finishing it on contract back to that firm. Due to the Historical Society regs, we were required to maintain the 80′s facade that was applied to the original one…makes no sense, but that’s what they made us do. Lot’s of weird things inside that were parts of bad later year renovations that we had to maintain.
Still – too funny. Such a small world.
Spend much time on the dance foor at Muldoons didya??!!
Yes, the diner is Blossom…you are good!!