Episode 113

full
Published on:

3rd Sep 2026

The House That Kept Its Own Receipts

Get ready for a different kind of episode on Tri-State Time Machine! Today, we’re cracking open the story of 4401 Magazine Avenue. It's a house in Huntington that’s packed with secrets, surprises, and a whole lot of history tucked away in its attic. I focus on what happens when you find yourself not just buying a home, but inheriting decades of old photos, handwritten letters, vintage receipts, and enough neighborhood lore to keep any history buff busy for years.

It's interesting how a house can be way more than just four walls. Built over an original structure, this place reveals its past through quirky rooflines, old family cards, and remodeling plans scribbled on yellowed paper. I talk about the the detective work involved in putting these puzzle pieces together, sometimes leading to more questions than answers.

My research leads to looking into the lives of railroad workers, the women who owned property when it wasn’t the norm, and the shifting identity of Westmoreland, from powder mills and explosions to golf courses and block parties. I find out about the house’s ties to the Huntington Fire Department, the mystery of who actually first called it home, and the powerful connections between neighbors that have kept memories alive even when official records fall short.

If you love digging into the stories behind old houses, or you just want to hear about the quirks and mysteries that come from living in a place with real history, this episode’s got you covered. Come hang out as I share what it’s like to live inside the layers of 4401 Magazine Avenue. And maybe inspire you to take a closer look at your own walls!

If you have a memory you would want me to talk more about, just send me an email at TSTM@mail.com. Or post a comment on the Tri-State Machine FB Group page.

Welcome to the Tri-State Time Machine.

I'm your host Vanessa Hankins. This is a podcast where my guests and I share our memories and present day stories of the Tri-State Area. That's West Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio.

Nothing too serious, no political views, and no ulterior motives.

We're just here to share our fun stories about this great area.

Whether you're a past resident or a current Tri-State resident, I think you're going to have fun with us.

So join in, press play on your podcast player, and welcome to the Tri-State Time Machine! 

https://ts-time-machine.captivate.fm/episode/4401-magazine-avenue

Copyright 2026 Vanessa Hankins

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/

Transcript
Announcer:

This is the Tri-State Time Machine. Each week, your host Vanessa

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Hankins and her guests share memories and stories about the

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past, present, and the future of the tri-state area.

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That's West Virginia, Kentucky, and the Ohio areas. If you

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used to live here or you currently live here, you're going to catch yourself saying

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out loud, wow, I remember that. Now

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here's Vanessa. Hey guys, it's Vanessa with Tri-State

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Time Machine and This

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episode is going to be a tad different, um, and I say that a

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lot, I know that, um, but this one's different in the sense of

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I don't think I've ever done something that was so personally

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intriguing to me. Um, so I'm going to tell you the

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story of my home, and the reason I'm telling

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you that story is because we had had a few friends over a few weeks

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ago for Brandon's birthday,

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and we were just hanging out in the pool, and we were telling some friends

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who had never been over to the house, you know, the story of the house

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and things like that. And he looked over at me and was like,

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you, you need to put that on the podcast. It would be a great episode.

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And the thought had never occurred to me. Like, I knew how excited I was

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about the story of this house, but it never occurred to me that other people

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would be too. So today's episode is really going to revolve around the house,

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but also a little bit more about Westmoreland. And I know we've touched on it

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a little bit, but, um, It's always a fun story. So without

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further ado, here is the story of 4401

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Magazine Avenue, the house that kept its own receipts.

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There are houses that you buy, and then there are

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houses that in a strange way seem to come with an

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assignment. You find the house,

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you sign the papers, you get the keys, you move your own furniture in,

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you You paint over somebody else's colors, fix somebody else's

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plumbing, replace somebody else's bad decisions, and

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eventually the house becomes yours. But every once in a while,

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a house refuses to become only yours. And my

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house that I share with my family and my husband here at

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4401 Magazine Avenue is one of those houses.

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When we bought it, we didn't just inherit structure. We

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inherited boxes, old photographs,

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negatives, letters, Navy papers,

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family cards. And by family cards, I mean these

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people sent a card for every

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holiday. Um, and we're not talking one

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card from one person that was sending cards. I mean, we're talking A lot of

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friends, a lot of relatives were sending cards, you know, for

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Easter, Passover, Christmas,

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birthdays, congratulations on buying an

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automobile, sympathies for the

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loss of a child, you know, a miscarriage. Cards for

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everything. And it was so beautiful because people seemed to

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really take the time to make the effort to let folks know

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that they seen them and they understood, you know. So along with

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those family cards, there's receipts, furniture accounts,

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handwritten agreements, remodeling plans that were later,

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later filed with the city of Huntington, you know, the notes about the plumbing and

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the electrical work, recipes, pieces of people who had

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been gone from this home for decades. And the

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longer I've lived here, the more I've realized that the physical house

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itself is doing the same thing that the papers are doing. It keeps

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showing me pieces of an earlier version of itself.

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There are roof lines that do not make sense until you imagine

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another house underneath the one that sits here today. There are

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changes in the elevation, there are these beautiful arches, there are

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spaces that feel added, enclosed, altered, or absorbed.

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And in the attic, parts of what appear to be the older roof line Are

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still there, almost like the first house was

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never fully, completely erased. And I don't think it

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was. I, I think parts were to fit into the new

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construction, but for the most part, that house still sits here today.

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Um, it was literally— the home that sits today

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was built around, over, and under the original home

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as it sat. It's pretty cool. That was

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really the beginning of this rabbit hole of like, not who owned my

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house so much as it was

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what was my house before it became this house. And as it turns out,

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the answer may be wrapped up in a couple named Herbert and Lucille

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Clements, and in a much larger story about the railroad,

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Huntington, Westmoreland, DuPont Place, World

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War II women owning property and how ordinary

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families disappear from the historical record, even when they have

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left half their lives behind in an attic.

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I think a big deal to recognize is, you

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know, how these boxes were found and why I had decided to keep

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them. When we first moved in the house,

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there there were things left behind from multiple

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owners, from the most recent, um, to the

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ones who had built the addition that we see today, and of course from the

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person who built the original home that sits here. Um,

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I found all these things and these photos, and being a

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history person, I completely fell in love. They were in really, really

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bad shape though, so I had brought them all down from the attic and had

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gone through them, and that's when I found the original negative of

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the home that stand— that stood here originally, or that still stands here

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but was added on to and remodeled.

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Um, that home with a lovely young lady standing in front of it, uh,

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was the beginning of the rabbit hole. Um, at that

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point I was a stay-at-home mom and our laundry room was downstairs in what

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is or was the original cellar for the home that was

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built here at this location in West Merlin.

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And after I had gotten those things out, we had been

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here a few weeks before I'd made it to the attic to go through that

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stuff. But after

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everyone had gone for the day, you know, James had gone to school,

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Brandon had gone to work, and it would just be me and Carly, weird

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things started happening around the house. And The

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only thing that I could explain it, and I and I don't know.

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Believe in what you want to believe. I'm just telling you my experience. But things

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started happening around the house, and I never felt unsafe.

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But things would move across the room.

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I never felt alone. I didn't feel fearful

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of this thing or spirit, or I I don't even know what to call

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it, and I don't even I don't know what I think that it was. I

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just know that it had a A feel that it was

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a male presence, and he hovered very closely to me in

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everything that I was doing. And it was only in certain parts of the

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house, which of course I, I had not

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put two and two together of what I know now to be the original home

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here. But what led to— I would only feel him in spaces that

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were the original home, and I thought that was really weird. Um, but

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it got to the point where I didn't like the feeling of not feeling alone

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in the home. And I cleaned everything up as much

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as I could. There were like these little bugs eating the paper and things like

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that, but I cleaned all that up and I

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purchased a like sealed up plastic

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storage tote and I put everything in there and put it

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right back where I found it in the old box and I left it

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alone. And you know, that's been 12, 13 years ago.

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Um, after having that

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conversation a few weeks ago in the pool, I was like, you know what, I'm

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gonna pull that stuff back out because I would— I would— I'd

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like to deep dive. Um, and you guys will laugh, and some of you may

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have seen it on my Facebook if we're social media friends, but, uh, when I

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pulled it back out of the attic, I was sure to let them know that

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I was only messing with their belongings because I

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wanted to tell the story of this house that we have grown

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to love and let them know that, you know, we're

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thankful and the story deserved to be told, and that I would put everything

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back as soon as I had uncovered what I needed for the story. Um,

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and I haven't had any experiences so far. I hope it

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stays that way. I think they're happy with me for telling their story. I hope

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so. We'll see. I'll update you later if anything crazy starts

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happening. Um, but let's get into this. You know, this is Part 1,

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before Magazine Avenue was a residential street.

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So before I ever get to Herbert Clements, there's another piece of the

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story that I think makes the address

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itself more interesting. So why in the world

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is it called Magazine Avenue? The answer appears to go back to the industrial landscape

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that existed here before this stretch of Westmoreland became the residential neighborhood.

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Neighborhood. That we all know today. Near what is now

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Magazine Avenue and Burlington Road stood the Kellogg Powder Works,

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a gunpowder and manufacturing operation in the Westmoreland area.

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Historical accounts of the site specifically connect the street name Magazine with the

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old meaning of the word. A magazine was a place used to store gunpowder and

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other explosives. So the name of the street that my house sits on

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may literally be left over from the days when explosives were being

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manufactured and stored in this part of the Huntington area. And

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that's already like a good local history story, but the powder

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works were not some quiet industrial neighbor. On the morning of

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January 18th, 1892, the Kellogg Powder Mills exploded.

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An account published a few days later in the Ironton Register described people in

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Ironton, Ohio, roughly 14 miles away,

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feeling buildings and windows tremble so strongly that they first

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thought that an earthquake had occurred. Think about that for a second.

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Before my house, before DuPont Place was plotted

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into the lots that we recognize today, there was an explosives

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operation in this landscape capable of sending shock across the Ohio

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and into communities miles away. 14 miles

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away. It's wild. The powder works were

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made up of separate buildings spaced apart for safety, which tells you something

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about how expected danger to be

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happening on that location was. And in

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1892, a blast was not remembered as a one-time freak

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accident. Newspaper accounts described explosions there as a

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recurring danger. By 1903, when the powder

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operation resumed after years of idleness under the Phoenix Powder name,

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residents in Kellogg and across the river in Burlington were reportedly

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so concerned about another explosion that there was talk of damage suits and

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even an injunction to stop the plant from operating. A Huntington Herald

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account reprinted the Time and said previous explosions

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had been frequent, that people had lost their lives during the plant's earlier

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years of operations. Residents were not arguing that gunpowder had

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no purpose. They were arguing that making it next to where people lived

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was dangerous. And obviously we know that. Um,

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I, I guess they were living and learning.

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At that time? That matters for the house's story

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because it completely changes the mental picture of this area. Magazine Avenue was not

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born as a sleepy residential street. This western edge of Huntington had

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industry, explosive manufacturing, railroad activity,

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river connections, and then gradually subdivisions, houses,

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recreation, and then family neighborhoods. By

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1911, the revised map of DuPont Place was on record.

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That's the same year that the Westmoreland Country Club opened just east of Camden Park

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near the mouth of the Twelve Pole Creek. So within a relatively short span, this

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landscape was moving from dangerous industrial uses into a place where residential lots

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were being laid out and a country club was operating nearby.

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That contrast is almost hard to picture now. You know, powder mills

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capable of shaking windows across the river, a country club and golf course,

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Camden Park. railroad workers and new residential lots, all part of

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the same western Huntington story. And that is the ground that

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4401 Magazine Avenue eventually rises out of. I

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think a lot of people confuse Magazine Avenue when I say my address as,

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um, it should have been named for like a publishing company, um, but when in

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reality the explanation is much more explosive.

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Hahaha, get what I did there? Anyways, um, let's move on

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to part 2. Um, let's put this house on the map. But before we get

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to Herbert and Lucille and all of the people in the boxes, it helps to

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place 4401 geographically. The legal description that we

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eventually confirmed for the house is Lot 11, Block 14 of DuPont

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Place. And that matters because for a while I was

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tracing the wrong property. I found a deed involving Lucille Clements,

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Nevia Blackmon, and Philosse Ray and followed it backwards through decades of

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owners. It was very fascinating, and I got all

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the way back to the DuPont Place Improvement Company. And then I

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realized that's not my house. It was actually a

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different DuPont Place lot about a block away. So

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that detour was really frustrating, but it also taught me something important.

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DuPont Place was not an accidental collection of houses that simply grew here.

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It was plotted. Uh, the revised map was recorded in 1911.

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Lots and blocks were laid out so sold, resold, mortgaged, inherited,

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and sometimes divided. So when we say 4401 Magazine Avenue,

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we're talking about a little piece of a planned early 20th century

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neighborhood whose paper history should exist somewhere, even if the

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modern county databases seem determined to

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keep it hid from me and my research.

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West Huntington itself was shaped by forces much bigger than one house, obviously.

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Huntington was fundamentally a railroad city. The Chesapeake and

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Ohio Railway was not simply an employer among many. The

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railroad helped create Huntington in the first place. The C&O established major

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shop facilities here, and the city became

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kind of a gateway— or not kind of, it was— it was a gateway between

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Appalachian coal country and national markets. That matters to our

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story because the man whose name appears on the remodeling papers from a house was

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a railroad electrician. Herbert Malcolm Clements

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was not just somebody who happened to work around electricity. By

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1930, the census lists him as an electrician in the railroad

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shop. In 1942, his draft registration specifically

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identifies the C&O Railroad as his employer. So

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in 1950, he is still an electrician working in the railroad

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industry. So when we later find an H.M. Clements

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writing detailed notes about electrical service, wiring, outlets, lighting,

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garage controls, plumbing, and structural changes here at 4401

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Magazine, we are looking at a homeowner whose working

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life had trained him to understand systems, machinery,

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construction, and electricity. And that makes the house plans feel

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different to me. They stop looking like paperwork that somebody handed

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to a contractor and started looking like the work of a man who

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probably had opinions about every wire. In the wall.

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A little bit of local context. Westmoreland after the war.

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The book Gate to Westmoreland has been helpful here, even when it does not

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even name the Clemenses directly. What it does give us is the

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neighborhood that they were living inside. The book describes Westmoreland after World War II

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as an established growing community rather than an isolated edge of

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town. The late 1940s and 1950s brought roadwork,

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businesses, family, school, recreation, and constant movement through the

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western end of Huntington. One detail that I especially like is

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the Four Pole Creek story. The book describes the beginning

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work, uh, in the 1940s on a new 4-lane bridge connecting

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West Huntington with the Waverly Road side, and

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that bridge was opened around 1950. That sounds like a

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small infrastructure fact, but imagine what it meant to the people living there.

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Roads changing, traffic patterns changing, new businesses becoming easier

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to reach, property becoming more accessible, neighborhoods that had

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once felt separated becoming more connected.

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Camden Park was nearby and very much part of the social landscape.

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Route 60 businesses served the area. Westmoreland was a place where

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railroad workers, tradespeople, families, shop owners, firefighters,

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and generations of neighbors Built ordinary lives side by

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side. That is the world that Herbert and Lula,

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and later Herbert and Lucille, occupied.

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They were not living on some forgotten rural track. They were living

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in a working neighborhood attached to one of the most industrially

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important cities in the region. So, let's

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talk about Herbert before 4401.

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Herbert Malcolm Clements was born in Huntington in 1902.

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We have a small disagreement among records over the exact July

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date, so I'm not going to pretend that this part is settled,

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but 1902 and Huntington are solid. We know that

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for a fact. So by 1920, Herbert was 17

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and living with his family in Washington, D.C. That discovery was especially interesting

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because the archive contains old Clements material tied to

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324 Pennsylvania Avenue Southeast in Washington.

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What once looked like a random out-of-state paper suddenly fits into the

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family's geography. So by 1929, Herbert was

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back in the Ohio Valley and marrying Lula Elizabeth Schnack

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in Lawrence County, Ohio. And Lula turned out to be

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her own entire side quest.

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Her birth name was Lula Elizabeth Schnack. And her parents

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were John H. Shanack and Isabel Carter. That discovery

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explained why the Shanack name kept appearing through the archives and

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appeared to be on a lot of the papers that I had found

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in the attic. So Lula appears to have married before Herbert

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more than once. We found evidence connecting her first

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marriage was to a George Atkins and then to a

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Joseph Dexter Wagner in 1927. When she

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married Joseph Wagner, the record identifies her as Lula Schenack

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Adkins. So I went back from that. So then in August of

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1929, Lula Wagner marries Herbert Clements.

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By the 1930 census, Herbert and Lula were living together in Lawrence County,

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Ohio, with Herbert's widowed mother Martha living in the household as

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well. Herbert was already a railroad shop electrician.

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So the 1940 census finds Herbert and Lula together again, this

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time in Huntington, and Lula's parents, John and Isabel Schnack, are

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living in the household as well. And then

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comes one of the strangest pieces of their history, or their story, I guess.

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In May of 1942, Herbert and Lula

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married each other again in Missouri. We know

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that they had already married in 1929, and we know that they were living together

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in 1930. We know that they were together in 1940,

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and yet we also have a 1942 marriage certificate.

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I couldn't quite figure that out, so I don't yet know why.

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Maybe there was a divorce and a reconciliation. Maybe there was a legal problem with

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the first marriage. Maybe something about Lula's earlier marriages

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complicated their status. Maybe there was court records sitting somewhere that will

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make this whole thing obvious. But I haven't found that. So until

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I do, the honest version of the story is simply this:

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Herbert and Lula appear to have married each other twice. I will

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tell you, when digging and trying to find this information, I did have

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to become a member and pay for— not a

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lot, but pay for several records to

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find this information. Because it's— unless you're in this field, I

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mean, And I don't even know if for them it's easy, so I don't want

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to speak for them. But this digging up the past and the

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census and the records and all that stuff, it's work.

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And literally every answer that I found created a new question.

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So we're going to jump over to kind of another little side story

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in 1942, the St. Charles connection.

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Herbert's World War II draft card gives us one of the clearest snapshots of him

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before his military service. In February of 1942, he was living at

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523 Jefferson Road in Huntington. He

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identified the C&O Railroad as his employer, and his mailing

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address was the St. Charles Hotel in St. Charles, Missouri, and his

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work location was connected to American Car and Foundry there.

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That St. Charles detail is not random. American Car and Foundry's

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St. Charles plant was a major railcar manufacturing operation.

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During the World War II period, the plant also turned heavily toward military production,

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including tanks and hospital cars. So Herbert, a railroad

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electrician from Huntington, was another heavily industrial

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railroad manufacturing city as the United States entered the war.

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And 3 months after his draft registration, Herbert and

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Lula married again in the St. Charles area. We may never know

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whether his work assignment had brought them there for the wedding Or whether the wedding

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was part of a larger attempt to reset the marriage before wartime service, but

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the geography now makes sense. So let's move on to another part.

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So part 4, we're going to talk about war, the Seabees, and

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coming home. Herbert's military archive is

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extraordinary because it's not one neat service record.

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It's the clutter of a real wartime life. There are

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dog tags, Navy envelopes, censored mail,

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Seabee newspapers, official photographs,

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memoranda, Thanksgiving menus,

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telegrams, Pacific photographs, letters

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home. Herbert served in the United States Naval Reserve and was

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associated with the Naval Construction Battalion 127, the Seabees.

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The Seabees were builders in uniform. They constructed and maintained

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the infrastructure that the Navy needed to operate. Bases, roads,

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airfields, utilities, docks, shops, and everything in between.

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That makes Herbert's electrical background especially relevant. A

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railroad electrician was exactly the kind of skilled tradesman that wartime

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construction units could use. The surviving material places the

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127th in the broader Pacific War, but with the archive containing

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photographs labeled Hawaii, the Philippines—

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I'm not even sure how to pronounce this, so I'm not even gonna try, but

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L-E-Y-T-E, and then New Guinea. We

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have to be careful though because a photograph in Herbert's collection does not

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automatically prove that Herbert personally stood everywhere pictured.

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Servicemen traded and collected photographs, and that was well known.

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But the Hawaii connection is strong, and official histories of the 127th

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place the battalion in Hawaii before later Pacific

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assignments. Then, in August of 1945, the

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tone changes. Herbert is in California and he's trying to get home. And we

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know this because of the letters that he writes home to his wife here in

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Huntington. He sends telegrams. He

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writes from San Pedro and Terminal Island. On

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August 15th, as the war ends, he writes about the wild celebration in

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California. You know, whistles and paper flying from buildings

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and people pouring into the streets and horns honking and

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Underneath the victory of celebration is a much more private story, though.

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Jack, at this point, is worried about his marriage. He wonders whether

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Lula wants him back. He talks about mistakes and distance and

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loneliness and trying to straighten things out when he gets home. That

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matters because we also found a handwritten separation agreement between,

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between Herbert and Lula. And it's undated, but it

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shows their marriage had a real period of strain or had

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periods of strain. This is part of the history that I love. The big

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historical event is V-J Day. The

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tiny historical event is a husband sitting in

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California on the right side of— on the night that the world is

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celebrating, worried that his wife in Huntington may not want him anymore.

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And both are history.

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Some of it is the history, you know, that newspapers tell. But

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the other part is the history that my attic has told me.

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So let's move back into— or not back into, let's move forward

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to part 5, the Herbert and Lula back in Huntington

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days. So by 1950, Herbert and Lula

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are together in Huntington again. Herbert is still listed as a railroad

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electrician according to the census. And then a

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1949 Gold's Furniture account And remember,

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these receipts and books and all these things, they're

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handwritten, and we have them all, and I'm going to show them all to you

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if you'd like that on, on our socials. But

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that account connects Herbert and Lula with a 37 West 3rd Avenue.

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Lula's 1970 death certificate later confirms that address and identifies

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Herbert as her surviving husband. So whatever complications

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existed in their marriage, they remained legally married through Lula's death in February

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of 1970. Lula's death certificate also solved one of the

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archive's oldest mysteries by naming her parents as John H.

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Schnack and Isabella Carter. Suddenly, the Schnack

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dictionary that I found— and it's like a little handheld one, it's so

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cute, leather backing— the photographs, the address

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notes, the family names, they were no longer a random piece of paper.

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Those belonged to Lula's family. So now I had that connection. And it

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means that when we tell Herbert's story, we, we should not

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erase Lula just because 4401 later becomes associated with the sale.

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Lula was part of Herbert's life for decades. So

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let's move on to part 6. When does 4401 enter the

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story? This remains one of the most frustrating gaps.

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We know that Herbert and Lula were at 37 West 3rd Avenue around 1949 to

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1950. And again in 1970. But we

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also know that by the mid-1960s, H.M. Clements

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was connected to a major remodel at

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4401 Magazine Avenue, the home that sits here today. That

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creates a question that I've not yet solved. Was

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4401 another property they owned or managed while maintaining the West 3rd Avenue

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residence? Did Herbert oversee renovations for someone

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else in his circle? Did Magazine Avenue property already belong

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to Lucille? Did Herbert move between these households after

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Lula's death? The documents don't yet let me state

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that answer, so all I have is speculation.

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But what they do let me state is that H.N. Clements and 4401

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Magazine Avenue were connected by the 1960s because the

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remodeling papers say so. The 1966

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house papers. I want to talk about these, and they're very important. The

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papers are the reason that I cannot accept simple modern database line that

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says the house was built here in 1972 and just move

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on, because I have paperwork around 1966

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describing an existing structure receiving substantial changes.

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And remember, I told you in the beginning, if you go into my

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attic The original home, the roof, the old

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boards that were the roof of the home, it's all there.

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Um, it's as if that home was never torn down. They

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just added to, built above, and built below.

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So let's talk about that for a minute. There are notes about plumbing for a

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new powder room. There are new drain locations,

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basement shower work, electrical service, garage doors,

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windows, lighting, new rooms, old rooms, plans

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showing walls and additions and these lovely arches that we know today.

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These are renovation documents. You do not renovate a house in

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1966 that does not exist until 1972.

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That does not automatically mean that the modern record is fraudulent or

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even wrong in the ordinary sense.

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Assessor databases can preserve an

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effective build year, a major rebuild year, a reclassification

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year, or a date associated with a substantial addition. My

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suspicion— and I want to label this clearly a suspicion— is that the

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house underwent such substantial transformation during the Clements

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era that a later assessment treated the remodeled

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house as effectively newer. And that makes

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sense. The physical house supports that possibility. In the attic, the

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older roof plane is still visible. Parts of an

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earlier parapet line appear to

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remain inside the later structure. The layout has the feeling of a smaller

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house that was swallowed by a larger one, just to

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explain that easily. But I still want the old assessor card or

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building permit that says it plainly. Like, I would love that. So far I've not

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had luck. And then there's the negative that I talked about. So

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let's talk about that. Among the family photographs is an

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old negative showing a woman beside a distinctive low house with a flat

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roof and a stepped or

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crenellated parapet. And I'm probably butchering that. I don't think I'm

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saying it correctly. But another negative shows what appears to be the same house from

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a slightly different angle. The first time I saw it,

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which was when we bought the house, you know, and I'd gone through that box

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of heavily damaged and probably gonna ruin

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if somebody didn't take effect, but the first time I saw it, I felt like

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I knew that house. It looked like the weird little architectural skeleton

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that I had been trying to imagine underneath my current house, and that feeling has

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never really left. But feelings aren't evidence.

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So the negative came right from the archive. The Clements papers

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are tied to 4401. The architectural form appears consistent with the

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kind of older structure that could have been incorporated into that later house.

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That is why I call it strongly likely, but I cannot say that this is

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absolutely 4401 until I can match something fixed— a neighboring

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house, lot spacing, driveway, surviving wall,

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porch relationship, or Or another historical photograph. That

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distinction matters to me because the whole point of this project is not to make

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the story prettier than the evidence. It's to

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just preserve what is true and leave the mystery where the mystery still belongs.

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So let's move on to part 7. Let's talk about Lula

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passing and Lucille appearing. Lula

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died in February of 1970. By the early

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1970s, Herbert is appearing in legal records with Lucille

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Clements. At 1972, a deed involving a

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different nearby Dupont Place property identifies Lucille Clements and

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Herbert M. Clements as husband and wife. So at some

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point after Lula's death, Herbert married Lucille. We have not

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yet found their marriage record, and Lucille is still the hardest person in

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the story that I've had to reconstruct. Her later legal

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name appears as Lucille Sims Clements. A

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1983 property form for 4401 shows the

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assessed name as Lucille H. Sims. That is one of the most

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intriguing clues in the whole property story because it suggests that 4401 may

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have been Lucille's property in her own right, possibly

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acquired under the Sims name. But I want to be careful here because we've not

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found the deeds showing how Lucille acquired Lot 11, Block 14.

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But when 4401 finally leaves the Clements circle, it leaves

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through Lucille's estate, not Herbert's. So that

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leads us to part 8, the women's property network.

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And this is a part of the story that really surprised me.

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And it's not to say that women

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owning property was unheard of in this time, but it

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wasn't as common as either a man tied to her

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property or a man with a woman tied to the property. So

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Lucille was repeatedly connected to legal documents to 2 other women, women,

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Neva Blackmon and Flossie W. Ray. In

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1971, a different DuPont Place property was conveyed to

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Neva Blackmon, Lucille Clements, and Flossie Ray with

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survivorship rights. That property turned out to

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not be 4401, but it was nearby. It's actually a

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house that I can see out my front door and side door. And then Flossie,

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who lived at 4246 Magazine Avenue,

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executed a power of attorney naming Lucille and Neva as people who

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could act for her. Later, Herbert and Lucille both

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gave Neva broad powers of attorney. These are not

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casual connections. Whether these women were relatives, lifelong

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friends, or some combination of the both remains unsolved.

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But they trusted one another with property, money, and legal authority.

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That is important because these women owning real estate in the mid-20th century was

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absolutely legal and not unheard of. But Lucille's

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pattern is still interesting. She was not merely listed as somebody's

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wife in every transaction. Property passed through her.

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She participated participated in ownership arrangements. Her will controlled the

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future of 4401. The paper trail gives

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her a level of financial agency that deserves to be part of the story.

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So I want to talk a little bit about the Ray neighborhood clue.

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There is also a strange modern neighborhood echo.

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Flossie Ray's documented address was 4246 Madison Avenue.

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Very close to that property are homes still today associated with the Ray

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surname. One nearby house, now owned by us,

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was described by a current neighbor, Lovella Ray,

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as having been her grandmother's home for as long as the family could

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remember. Her husband Pete does not recognize the name Flossie Ray,

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so I cannot claim a family relationship, but still, I find the

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geography interesting. These legal relationships were not happening

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between people scattered across 3 states. They were

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concentrated in the same small West Huntington landscape where

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I can literally throw a rock and hit these other addresses. So these were neighbors

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to some extent. I don't know what else that looked like, but

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they trusted each other. They depended on one another and they trusted

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them to give power

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of attorney to one another should something happen to them.

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So let's move on to Part 9, June 16th, 1982. June

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16th, 1982 is one of the dates that suddenly starts glowing when you put all

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the paperwork together. On that day, Herbert M. Clements of

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4401 Magazine Avenue executed a broad power of attorney naming

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Neva Blackmon. Lucille Sims Clements of

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4401 Magazine Avenue executed her own broad power of attorney

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naming Neva as well. According to a later deed,

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Lucille's last will and testament was dated that same day. That was

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coordinated estate planning, period. We

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know that. We do not know what triggered it. Age is

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possible, illness is possible, preparing for incapacity is possible,

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preparing for property transaction is possible.

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Documents do not tell us why, so none of those possibilities should be told as

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fact, but the timing tells us that they were organizing their affairs together.

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Herbert, he dies July 1983. Lucille

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also died before the property was conveyed in October 1983 because

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the deed identifies Neva Blackmon and Thurman B.

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Louder as devisees under Lucille's will. The

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exact, the exact date of Lucille's death is still one of the maddening things

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that I have not been able to pin down. And believe me, I have

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looked at countless, countless documents and

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historical files and all these things. That's going to move us into Part

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10. And Part 10 is 4401 leaving the Clements era.

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The 1983 deed is our cleanest title anchor.

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It identifies the property at Lot 11, Block 14, DuPont Place

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as 4401 Magazine. Avenue. Lucille's will had devised the

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property to Neva Blackmon and Thurman B.

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Louder. Neva and Thurman, along with their spouses,

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sold 4401 to Billy E. Adkins.

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The deed was dated October 7th, 1983, and recorded on

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October 13th. The price was $83,000.

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And that sale is the point where modern county records suddenly

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become much easier to follow. In fact, when I tried calling to

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get older property information at the Wayne County Courthouse, I was told

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that the county had nothing before Billy Adkins attached to the property in its modern

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system. Which is exactly why this investigation becomes so

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ridiculous. The history exists. I have the 1966

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house papers in my hands. I have Herbert and Lucille at 4401

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in 1982. I have the 1983 deed explaining

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how Billy acquired it. But the modern database behaves as though the story

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starts with Billy. That is the perfect example of why local

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history disappears. Not because nothing happened, but because

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the systems that we use today are not designed to preserve every older

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layer in an easy, searchable way. And it's so frustrating.

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And that's going to lead us to part 11, what the house itself says.

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When documentary history becomes incomplete, buildings become

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evidence. At 4401, the physical house keeps insisting

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that something older is inside it. The roof structure is one clue.

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The changes in the floor elevation are another. The relationship between

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rooms, the arches, the cellar, the basement spaces, and the way

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later construction seems to wrap around earlier forms all

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matter. The 1966 plans give us a way to test

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those impressions instead of just romanticizing them. One of the things that I want to

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do eventually is take those plans room by room and mark every

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wall as one of 3 things: clearly existing in

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1966, clearly new in 1966, or

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uncertain. If we can reconstruct those pre-renovation footprint

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from the plans, we can compare that footprint directly to the strange little house

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that's in the negative. That may ultimately prove more than any

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deed ever could. Um, so some local context. Why this

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house, or why a house like this,

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matters in Huntington. One of the things that I've become

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increasingly convinced of while doing the Tri-State Time Machine is that Huntington's

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history is not only the Keith-Alvey, it's not Marshall,

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the big railroad buildings, the famous names, the disasters

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that everyone knows. It's also in homes like this. Or

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houses like this. Huntington grew because people came here to work—

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railroad workers, tradesmen, factory workers, merchants,

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clerks, engineers, builders, domestic workers, teachers—

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and families who moved into neighborhoods that expanded around those

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industries. So the C&O built more than tracks.

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It created payrolls. Those payrolls created houses,

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stores, churches, schools, amusement, and neighborhoods. West

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Huntington and Westmoreland sat inside that ecosystem. A

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railroad electrician like Herbert was not a side character in Huntington's

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development. Skilled tradespeople were part of the machinery

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that kept the entire city functioning, and the house itself

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reflects that working city history. It was not frozen in the

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architectural moment. It changed when its owners needed change.

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Rooms were added, systems were modernized, Garages changed,

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windows changed, electricity changed, and the house adapted.

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That is what most real houses do. The beautiful old

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houses that we preserve as museum pieces are important, but the altered

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houses may tell an even more ordinary and honest story. People

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stayed, improved, improvised, enclosed,

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rewired, expanded, and made do.

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And that's going to move us into Part 12. The questions that still

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keep me up: Who first bought Lot

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11, Block 14 from the DuPont Place development?

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When was the first house actually built? How did Lucille Sims

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acquire the property? Was Lucille related to Neva

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Blackmon, Flossie Ray, or Thurman Louder? When

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did Herbert marry Lucille? Was 4401

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already Lucille's home? home while Herbert and Lula were still living at 37

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West 3rd Avenue? Why do the

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1966 plans exist under H.N. Clement's name if the

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modern Lick records treat it later as the

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1972 as the house's build year? And is

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that woman in the old negative standing beside the original version of my

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house— who is she? Is that Lula? Is

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that Lucy? Still, um, and why were their names so

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close? Like, did this guy have a pattern? I'm kidding.

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Um, but those are the questions that I still cannot answer honestly,

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and I think it's important to leave them open rather than fill them in with

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just a story, because the story would sound good. I, I don't want that.

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So let's move into part 13, what I think happened. And again,

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this is just my current theory, clearly labeled As theory,

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I believe that there was an earlier house on Lot 11, Block 14 before the

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house took its present form. I strongly suspect that the

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strange flat-roofed house that's in this

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negative is the earlier version of 4401. I believe that

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Herbert Clements was involved in a substantial renovation or expansion of the

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property beginning by the mid-1960s. Given Herbert's

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decades-long career as a railroad electrician and his CV background,

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I suspect that he was personally involved in the technical decisions and the renovation

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rather than functioning only as a passive homeowner. I

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suspect that Lucille either owned 4401 before marrying

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Herbert or acquired it independently under the Sims name

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because later the title history passes through her estate and the property

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remained assessed as Lucille H. Sims. And I suspect

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that Neva, Flossie, Lucille, and Thurman

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belonged to a close family or a chosen family network whose relationships were

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obvious to them and therefore rarely explained in the legal documents

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that were left behind. Every one of those ideas

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fit the evidence, but none of them is completely proven yet.

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So, Part 14: The Human Thing That the Records Can't Tell Me.

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What frustrates me the most is that I can tell you where Herbert worked in

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1930. I can tell you where he was registered for in the draft in

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1942. I can tell you which Navy unit appears in his

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papers. I can tell you what day he wrote home when the war ended.

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I can tell you the book and page number where property was recorded.

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I can tell you that Lucille signed a power of attorney on June 16th,

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1982. But I still cannot tell you what Lucille

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sounded like when she laughed. I

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cannot tell you whether Herbert was

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difficult or generous or funny or quiet. I cannot

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tell you whether they sat on the porch every morning.

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I can't tell you if the neighbors liked them. I can't tell

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you why they kept so many photographs or why so many of these photographs and

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papers stayed behind. That's the wall that you eventually hit with records.

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Documents are very good at proving that somebody existed. They are much worse

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explaining who somebody was. So

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I guess to kind of wrap this up, or start towards wrapping it up,

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and I think this would be like an unfinished story. I started this because I

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wanted to know how my old house, or how old my house really was.

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Instead, I found a Herbert Malcolm Clemex, a

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railroad electrician, a CB, a husband, a complicated human being. I

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found Lula Elizabeth Shanack, whose name changed enough

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times to make genealogy feel like a practical joke.

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And, you know, I do know that one of her husbands

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died by disease that, you know, we later found medicines to prevent, but

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she lived a life. I found Lucille Sims Clements, a woman who

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appears to have controlled property and estate decisions in her own right but

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remains almost impossible to find in ordinary

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biographical records. I found Neva Blackmon and

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Flossie Ray and Thurman Louder circling the story without yet explaining who

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they were to one another. I found a neighborhood laid out on a

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1911 DuPont place map. I found a house being renovated in the

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1960s even though a modern database wants to tell me that it was built later.

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I found a negative that may show the house before almost everything I

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recognized was added to it. So I still cannot give you a

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neat little plaque that says built in this year by this person, but I

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can give you something that I think is more interesting. I can give you the

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layers. The railroad layer, the war layer, The

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marriages, the neighborhood, the women holding property together,

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the renovation, the estate planning, the sale,

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the box of photographs nobody carried away. And maybe that is what a

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house really is after enough time passes. Not one story,

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but a stack of them.

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So I want to give like a little rundown.

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And I may do this at the very end, but so for now I want

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to do like a little call out. If you remember a Herbert,

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who actually went by Jack, we found, Clements, a Lula Shanack

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Clements, a Lucille Sims Clements, a Neva Blackmon,

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a Flossie Ray, a Thurman Louder, or if your

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family lived around Magazine Avenue, DuPont Place, Auburn Road, Westmoreland,

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or West Huntington in the 1940s through the 1980s, I would love

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to hear from you. I'm especially looking for anyone who remembers

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4401 Magazine before the later renovations, anyone

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that knows how Lucille acquired the property, or anyone who can identify the

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relationships among Lucille, Neva, Flossie, and Thurman.

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Sometimes the missing source is not another courthouse record. Sometimes it's somebody's

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grandmother saying, oh, I know exactly who that was.

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I do want to talk about some additional things. One of the funniest parts of

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this entire process was spending hours carefully tracing a property deed

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backward, only to discover that it was not my house. The deed involved

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Lucille Clements, Neva Blackmon, and Flossie Ray, so everything about it

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felt right. And I followed it from the 1970s into the 1950s

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through tax delinquency, heirs, buyers, sellers, and eventually back to

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the DuPont Place Improvement Company. And then the old map showed me that

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the parcel was Lot 19, Block 20. And my house is Lot

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11, Block 14. So I had reconstructed the history of

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somebody else's lot. But that mistake taught me how these deed chains

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work. It showed me how deeply interconnected Lucille and her circle were with

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the property in the neighborhood. And it gave me a better understanding of Dupont

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Place itself. So even if the wrong rabbit hole turned out to

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belong to the same Warren— Warren. I wasted time,

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but I learned a lot. I also, I want to

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talk a little bit about Herbert's records chronologically. One profession keeps

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showing up. 1930, electrician in the railroad shop.

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1942, C&O railroad employee. World War II, Navy Seabee

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serviceman in a construction battalion environment where skilled

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trades mattered. 1950, an electrician in the railroad industry.

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1960, Detailed house renovation notes involving upgraded

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electrical service, outlets, lighting, garage controls, and relayed systems.

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That is one of the strongest through lines in the entire

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archive. It also makes me wonder how much of the surviving house

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contains Herbert's own handiwork. I cannot prove that he personally

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wired it, and I do not want to say that he did, but the idea

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that he was closely supervising or influencing the electrical work is

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much more than a random guess.

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I want to talk also about why 1972 may not mean what people think that

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it means. Modern real estate websites love one

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clean number: year built. For 4401, that number

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often appears as 1972. But historical houses are

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rarely that cooperative. If an older structure was heavily

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enlarged, rebuilt, reclassified, or reassessed, later

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databases can preserve the effective age of the remodeled structure instead of

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the date somebody first poured a foundation on the lot. That is why I'm

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not trying to disprove 1972 for the sake of being contrary.

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I am trying to understand what 1972 represents because the

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1966 remodeling material proves something was already there.

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The question is whether 1972 marks the completion of a long renovation

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A later addition, an assessor update, or something else entirely.

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I want to talk about the paper archives as a

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time capsule. The documents themselves may be my favorite part of all

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of this, and I knew how excited I was the moment that I found them.

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But there is something intimate about seeing a person's life not as a polished

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scrapbook, but as an accumulation. A furniture

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payment book beside Navy photographs, a recipe

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beside financial notes. I think one of them actually even says

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that the recipe is Herbert's cake,

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and I'll find it and I'll post a picture of it. But a power of

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attorney beside a birthday card, a military menu beside a household document.

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Nobody curated this for a museum. That's why it feels real.

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People save what matters in the moment, and decades later, the meaning changes.

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A receipt becomes evidence. A scribbled address becomes a genealogy clue.

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A negative becomes a possible architectural record. That's basically what

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Tri-State Time Machine is built around. And, and I don't know that

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W.G. knew that this is where this would lead, but the idea that ordinary

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things become history if somebody bothers to look twice,

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that's relevant and it matters. It, it's everything that we're

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trying to do here at Tri-State Time Machine.

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So let's talk a little bit about my research notes, and I

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think it'll help us, you know, wrap up some loose details if anybody

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was still questioning. We have confirmed local context used in

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this draft. Huntington's development was deeply tied to Chesapeake and Ohio

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Railway. C&O established major Huntington shop facilities, and the city grew

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as a rail and industrial center. The revised Dupont Place map was recorded in

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1911. The Gate to Westmoreland provides neighborhood context for

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postwar Westmoreland, including growth, local businesses, and the Four Pole

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Creek Bridge improvements around the late 1940s and 1950s.

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Additional outside-of-context used: the American Car and Foundry plant in St.

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Charles, Missouri was a major railcar works and shifted heavily

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into wartime production during World War II, including military equipment and

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hospital cars. Still unproven

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and intentionally labeled, such in the script that we've used here, the

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exact original construction date of 4401, whether the old negative

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definitely shows 4401, how Lucille acquired the

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property, the exact relationships among Lucille and Eva, Flossie and

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Thurman, the reason for Herbert and Lula's apparent

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1942 remarriage, and the meaning of the modern

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1972 build year entry. I also

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want to insert another piece of Westmoreland history that I think

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helps explain what this part of Huntington felt like in the years when DuPont

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Place was being laid out. In 1911, the same year associated

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with the revised DuPont Place map, the Westmoreland Country Club opened just

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east of Camden Park. And we've talked about it in previous episodes,

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but I want to touch on it again because it was near the mouth of

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the Twelphoe Creek. The course was built by Herman Shute, an

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English-born clubmaker and golf professional who became one of the foundational

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figures in Huntington golf. Before Westmoreland, Shute had built the

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old Cabell County Club course near Four Pole Creek. That course had

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problems with flooding, so club leaders looked further west

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and established the Westmoreland course. The Westmoreland clubhouse itself was

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designed by Versus T. Ritter, one of Huntington's important architects.

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I love this detail because it changes how I picture the western end of

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Huntington in the early 20th century. Today it is easy to drive through

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Westmoreland and think almost entirely in terms of the houses,

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Route 60, railroad remnants, and the businesses we know now.

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But in 1911, while neighborhoods were being plotted, there was

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also a country club and a golf course developing near Cannon Park.

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Eventually the Westmoreland course was replaced by Spring Valley Country Club.

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That club became a major piece of West Virginia golf history. Sam Snead

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repeatedly played and won there, and in 1960 Arnold

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Palmer and Art Wall came to Huntington for the West Virginia Open.

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Thousands of spectators reportedly turned out. So within the lifetime

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of Herbert Clemens, this neighborhood went from an early subdivision

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development and a country club landscape to the post-war West

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Moreland that he would have known as a railroad electrician and homeowner.

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That is the larger landscaping surrounding

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4401 Magazine. Railroads, amusement, golf,

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industry, new roads, and residential development all overlapping in

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a surprisingly small area. One

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reason that I keep coming back to the house itself is that Westmoreland's residential

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history has never received the same kind of attention as some of

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Huntington's The city of Huntington, their own planning

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material has noted that Westmoreland contains historic homes and the buildings that are

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not formally listed on the National Register and specifically

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points to places such as the Vinson Family Plantation House and the Vinson Memorial

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Christian Church as neighborhood assets worth preserving. And

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that feels relevant to the story because 4401 may be exactly the kind of place

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that slips through the cracks. Not a mansion with a bronze plaque, but a small

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house that's been plaque, not the home of a governor, but the house of—

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a house whose physical fabric may persevere several

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generations of West Huntington development. The neighborhood

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contains a mix of early 20th century houses and later mid-century homes.

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That mixture is exactly what makes a house like 4401 difficult to date by

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appearance alone. A house can begin as one style and spend decades

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being enlarged until the final product would Looks like it belongs into a completely different

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period. I want to talk some more

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about some Huntington houses. Huntington has houses whose stories are much easier to

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tell because somebody preserved the paperwork and somebody decided early that that house

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mattered. Something I used for an ad for this

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specific episode is the Queen Harvey House, and I

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had a lot of feedback on that. I don't think a lot of people actually

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read the post. They just looked at the picture and decided decided to comment, so

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I didn't really get what I was asking for in the post. But the Quinn

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Harvey House, for example, dates 1874. William Hope Quinn

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Harvey reportedly remodeled its New Orleans-influenced design after

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houses he admired there. The Cabell Hicks House, built in

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1896, survives as one of Huntington's distinctive Queen Anne

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residences and has documented chain of prominent owners.

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Then there are the houses that are historic because they are Representative

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rather than individually famous. Huntington has hundreds of recognizable

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2-story brick houses, sometimes described as Huntington's own residential

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Gothic type, that collectively give

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whole sections of the city their architectural identity.

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Those houses make useful contrast with 4401.

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Nobody appears to have been writing a formal architectural history of Herbert and Lucille's

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home. There was no preservation nomination waiting for me.

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Instead, its history survived accidentally. A roofline sealed

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inside of an attic, old plans left behind in a negative

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in a box, legal documents scattered across county records. And

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that may actually be a more typical way that neighborhood history survives.

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I also— there's a few more things I have to touch on because you

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can't really tell a Westmoreland story without acknowledging Cannon Park. And we've

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talked about it before. We actually had a Fantastic episode. So if you never listened

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to that, go back and listen to it. The park's history reaches

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back to the streetcar era when amusement parks were often developed at the end

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of the transit lines to give people a reason to ride on weekends. And that

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helps explain why the western edge of Huntington was never simply out of the country.

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Recreation, transportation, railroad infrastructure, and residential growth were

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feeding one another. So by the time Herbert and Lula were building their life in

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the region, Families in West Huntington could live near railroad employment,

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travel Route 60, visit Camden Park, which is much different then

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than what it is now, but they could also watch the surrounding neighborhoods

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become increasingly residential. The old Westmoreland Country Club and

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later Spring Valley Country Club add another layer to the same story. This little piece

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of Huntington was serving industrial workers, middle-class families, and

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recreation seekers like golfers and commuters all at once.

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That is the context in which a place like DuPont Place makes sense.

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The other reason Herbert's occupation matters is that houses do not exist

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separately from local economies. The C&O paid people like Herbert.

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Those wages supported mortgages, furniture accounts, renovations,

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local stores, and neighborhood property ownership. The

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1949 Gold's furniture account found for Herbert and Lula

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is almost mundane, but that is precisely

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why it matters. It shows a railroad household spending money in

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Huntington at a furniture store and maintaining a home

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after the war. Then years later, the renovation

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notes at 4401 show another phase of investment: upgraded electrical

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service, plumbing changes, windows, garage work, and additional living space.

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That is economic history written at a household scale. The railroad

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created the job. The job supported the household and the household

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changed the house. The house is still here.

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So before I go back into the Clements paperwork, I think it's worth remembering that

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4401 was never an isolated little mystery house. It's

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set inside a neighborhood being shaped by the same forces that shaped Huntington

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itself: the railroad, the industry, the transportation,

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recreation, post-war growth, And families adapting

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the old properties to new lives. That is why figuring out what happened

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to one house can tell you something about an entire part of town.

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Now I want to tell you a little bit, and I don't

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have this part written down, so it may be a little all over the place,

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but I want to tell you about the word-of-mouth information that I gained on

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this house. So I was told That

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H.M. Clements had told his wife,

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I'm going to assume Lucille at that point, based

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on the records, that because they were not able

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to have children, and we have telegrams and cards

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from Herbert to Lucille

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conveying his sympathies for a lost child.

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And that having children was being— was becoming a

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difficult thing for them. And we have no records that support that there ever was

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children between the two, or even with

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other partners for that matter, because we know that they were both married several

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times. But I was told by a neighbor who

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has since passed that this home that we

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see today that H.N. Clements and Lucille were building,

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Was actually built by our local Huntington Fire

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Department, um, which is super cool. And I

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didn't just get that from my neighbor who has since passed. I also got

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that from a random person who had his daughter stop by

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and talk to me one day while I was having a yard sale in the

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driveway. He passed the house and the memories came flooding back of

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him and his old colleagues on the Huntington Fire Department building

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this home. So he— the story he told to me was exactly

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the story that I was told by this neighbor who was also on the Huntington

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Fire Department.

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So all accounts prove that to be fact,

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although we have no actual historical documents that say

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that. We have the individual

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accounts by 2 separate Human men, um,

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that said to have participated in said build. And the one

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fireman, the neighbor— I mean, he's, he's the direct neighbor to my left, or was

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before his passing. His wife still lives there, um, and she's amazing.

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But, um, so I know that part to be true. I just wish I could

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find some paperwork documenting that. But the stories

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that they had told— and this is the part I wanted to get to— I

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wanted to tell you the the personal stories that I have been told was

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that because they had such difficulty having children, you know, that

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Herbert had told his wife, you know, you treat this home as if it was

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your child. This is your baby. Which makes so much sense because when

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we bought the house, the home still had

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all of the original, uh, window furnishings

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or finishings, you know, so the curtains the blinds— well, not blinds, but

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there were like the

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sheers hanging under the really heavy, high-end velvet

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draperies. And every single set was custom made. And I

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know that because I have the paperwork from Sears' designing

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department at that time that

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designed these curtains for this I know

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that also because when we started looking at the home, it wasn't left behind,

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but we were told that the couch was

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designed for a painting, and the painting is still here in the home. We actually

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kept it, and it's in a new part of our home. But the

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couch was designed specifically for the painting, and the painting was specifically designed

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for the home. And we're— this is a large painting. When you, when you

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see the photo, you'll understand. But also,

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this house, if you've ever watched Mad Men, it's a

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series, I think it was on HBO. This house was very reminiscent of

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that time. This house was designed to entertain.

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Lucille's bathroom had a

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specifically designed bathtub that

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sat beside her makeup stand that had this cute little,

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um, stand that she could sit on, like a stool.

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And it was this like pink and white and

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variations of pinks tile work. And again, I have

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photos of all this before we, um, had redone the—

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that bathroom. Um, and of course, you know,

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all the draperies, they— at the point that we finally got the house,

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um, 12 to 13 years ago,

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The draperies were dry rotting, like they would crumble at your

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touch, so those all had to go. I think I ended up donating them to

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an antique store at Central City. I don't, I don't know what became of them.

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I never circled back. Um, but

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that was super cool. We have the history

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of the kitchen being put in, in the ensuite that was

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downstairs in the basement after the house was added on to. And then

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we have the further documentation of the Atkins family who put in the

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pool. We, we have so many things.

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Another really cool story, and I'm jumping around here, is that we were told the

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electricity was done the way that it was because Herbert was losing

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his vision. So every single room that you enter has

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a light switch in 2 to 3 locations, so you can turn on

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and turn off the lighting

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at every entry into a room. And there's only one room in

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the whole house that just has one entry. Every other room

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has 2. It has an entrance and an exit. You can

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almost make a full circle on our top floor, which I think is really cool.

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The, the kids loved it when they were little because they would just run in

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circles around the house. And of course, when the dogs get crazy, they also love

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to run the circle. Um, another really cool thing is

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that we found a fireplace underneath

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the fireplace in the living room downstairs in the basement, which was

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super cool. There also was— and I, I

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forget what the thing was called, but, um, Lucille

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or Lula, somebody along the way, I think more Lucille than Lula because of the

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dates, did ceramic work. So they had like the big

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furnace that they would heat the ceramics in down there, which that was

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taken out by the time that we were here, but you could still see all

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the hardware of where it sat. And then that fireplace was offset to the

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left of it. We also

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have these letters where they talk about the

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different things and about the loss of the children and

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all of that. So I just, I

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think I'll, I'll end this episode with me having

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more questions than I do answers, but also just having a cool story.

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So what I had envisioned when I had made the post

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to, um, kind of tease or, or look for insight

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on some of these Huntington houses was that someone else would have a cool story

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like mine and would love to share it with you guys. So

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hopefully after this episode airs, that will happen

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and maybe we can deep dive on another home. Or if you have a home

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that you would like help deep diving on, I love to do this

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stuff and I would be happy to help. Um, so

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with that said, guys, we are out of here.

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Thanks for listening to the Tri-State Time Machine. If you have a memory you

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want Vanessa to talk more about, just send her an email at

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tstm@ Or

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About the Podcast

Tri State Time Machine
Memories & Future from the Tri-State Area
Tri-State Time Machine dives into the stories, legends, and hometown voices that make Appalachia—and our corner of WV, OH, and KY—so unforgettable.

About your host

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Vanessa Hankins

Tri-State Time Machine is a podcast about the Tri-State area hosted by local Vanessa Hankins.