THE CITY BUILDING & FIFTH STREET

The Parkersburg City Building in the 1960s.
Photo courtesy of Kevin R. Morehead.

The new Parkersburg City Building at Fifth and Market in 1897.
Photo courtesy of Dan Kemper.

The City Building on the northwest corner of Fifth & Market was built
in 1895 and torn down in 1981. Behind it is the First Methodist Church.

The City Building circa 1907.		Looking down Fifth toward Juliana from Market Street during the 1913 flood. Note the Hippodrome Theater (later replaced by the Smoot Theater) between the City Building and the Methodist Church.

Looking west on Fifth Street from the top of the City Building in the early 1900s, the large building dominating the center of the photo was the old Post Office & Custom House. Trinity Episcopal Church and its rectory at the lower left are still standing. The main steeple belongs to First Methodist Church.

First Methodist Church was built on the northeast corner of Fifth and Juliana in 1874 and razed in 1911. The grassy area in the right foreground later became the Smoot Theater.

Flood scene of 1937, Fifth at Market Street, Parkersburg-Belpre Bridge in the background.

Looking west on Fifth from Market during the 1937 flood, showing
the Smoot Theater, the Post Office and Trinity Church.
(Photo courtesy of Artcraft Studio, 519-521 Market Street, Parkersburg, WV 26101; (304) 485-5771.)

Looking east on Fifth Street from Juliana in 1950. From left are Dudley's Florist,
Ruth Furniture Company, the Smoot Theater, WPAR radio, and the City Building.

Looking west toward Fifth & Market during the 1913 flood.

The Wood County Bank, seen here around 1908, stood on the southwest corner.
		Credit: Thanks to Eileen Robinson.

The Wood County Bank stood on the southwest corner.

The Parkersburg fire and police department wagons at the Fifth Street entrance, in 1907.

Parkersburg Mayor A.C. Murdock sent this 1904 letter to the B & O Railroad
requesting a half fare ticket to Pennsboro for a constituent.

The buildings on the southeast corner collapsed on June 9, 1964.

An old, three-story brick building on the southeast corner of Fifth and Market
collapsed on June 9, 1964, during a renovation. Nobody was badly injured.

Standing at the corner of Fifth and Market, the photographer looks east toward Avery Street in June 1964.

On Market, looking toward Fifth Street during the 1913 flood.

The City Building was torn down in 1980.

Photo by Dave Ferrell, courtesy of Dan Kemper.

Looking down on Parkersburg in the late 1960s. The City Building is in the middle of the photograph, and Fifth Street
runs diagonally from top to bottom. The Sixth Street approach to the the railroad bridge is on the right.
(Photo by Harry Barnett, courtesy of Dan Kemper.)

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