Editor’s note: This is the 395th in a series of articles recalling vanished Huntington scenes.
UNTINGTON — In 1921, Oscar Lee Stanard constructed a five-story building at the northwest corner of 7th Avenue and 10th Street to house his business, the O.L. Stanard Dry Goods Co. The company went out of business in the early 1930s, and the building was then briefly occupied by a grocery business.
Beginning in 1936, the structure was occupied by series of dress factories. Over the years, the factory changed ownership and names several times.
First, it was known as the Sterling Company. During World War II, the facility manufactured tents and uniforms for American troops. Around 1947, the factory was taken over by another dressmaker, Reliance Manufacturing Company, an Indiana company.
By 1954, the facility had again changed names to the Huntington Manufacturing Company, and by 1959 was making 180,000 dresses each month. John F. Kennedy visited the dress factory during his successful 1960 primary campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.
By the 1970s, the facility again had a new name, Huntington Industries, a successor company to the Huntington Manufacturing Company. Through the years, the dress factory employed hundreds of Huntington women and became known for its discard sales, which allowed members of the community to buy the factory’s discarded fabric and dresses.
After operating for half a century as a garment factory, the building was left to sit vacant when Huntington Industries went out of business in 1983. The structure remained unoccupied until 1998, when it was purchased by the city of Huntington and repurposed to become the Jean Dean Public Safety Building.
Today it houses the Huntington Police Department and the J. Seaton Taylor Municipal Court.
June 08, 2021 at 11:00AM
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Lost Huntington: The Dress Factory | Lost Huntington - Huntington Herald Dispatch
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