MARKET BETWEEN FIFTH AND SIXTH (intro page)

Courtesy of Roger Mackey, colorized by Russell Colombo.

This 1930s photograph is looking south on Market. On the left are St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church and the Parkersburg National Bank. On the right side of the street are the Gothic looking Parkersburg City Building and (near right) Dils Department Store.		The block looked considerably different at the end of the 19th century.

St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, shown here about 1910 (left) and in the 1930s (center), was erected in 1870, replacing an earlier church that had been built in 1847. St. Xavier is now Parkersburg's oldest church.

		The Parkersburg National Bank, left, at 514 Market. (Photo courtesy of Artcraft Studio, 519-521 Market Street, Parkersburg, WV 26101; (304) 485-5771.)

Market Street was bustling at the turn of the century.

Looking south on Market during the 1913 flood. The City Building is on the right.

		Looking toward Fifth Street during the 1913 flood.

Looking toward the City Building during the 1913 flood.

Looking down Market during the 1913 flood. Note the fire engine.

Looking south on Market just above the corner of Fifth & Market, during the 1937 flood. Businesses along the left side of the street are Vanity Beauty Shoppe, Doctor Jeffers, United Woolen Tailors, the Strand Theater (Ray Milland is starring in Bulldog Drummond Escapes), Reed's Credit Clothing, Royal Furniture. The building with the pointed-roof cupola is the Blennerhassett Hotel. On the right is the Wood County Bank, followed by Stern Brothers, Credit Clothing, Goldenberg Furniture, Lasky's, and the Wood County Courthouse.

Looking south on Market at the corner of Fifth during the January 1937 flood.

Looking south down Market Street from atop the Sixth Street railroad trestle during the 1884 flood. The dome above the rooftops in the top right of the photo was the Wood County Courthouse. (Photo courtesy of Artcraft Studio, 519-521 Market Street, Parkersburg, WV 26101; (304) 485-5771.)

Looking south down Market during the 1913 flood from the
same vantage point as the photo above. The street has
changed completely in the intervening 29 years.
(Photo courtesy of Artcraft Studio, 519-521 Market Street,
Parkersburg, WV 26101; (304) 485-5771.)

Majorettes parade down Market, at the
corner of Fifth Street, in the 1940s.

The Big Red Band marches down Market on 8 May 1945, celebrating the end of WWII in Europe.
(Photo courtesy of Roger Blackburn)

The Parkersburg Big Red Band marches down Market Street on March 27, 1954.

Don and Virginia Huston are standing in front of McCrory's Department Store at
519 Market Street, on New Year's Day, 1958. Dils is just beyond it.
(Photo courtesy of Ginny Gallaher.)

Looking down Market Street during a 1976 Retail Merchants Association street fair. The opening of the Grand
Central shopping mall seven years earlier had devastated Parkersburg's traditional commercial district,
and local shopkeepers tried desperately to lure customers back downtown, with only minimal success.
(Photo by Tim Archer.)

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