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WELCH, W.VA.
Welch, WV is the largest city in and county seat of McDowell County.
Reenactment of the assassination of Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers by Baldwin-Felts detectives on the McDowell County courthouse steps; the
very spot where the murder took place on Aug. 1, 1921. This was to promote Jean Battlo's drama "The Terror of the Tug." In 1920 Hatfield had stood up
to the Baldwin-Felts mine guards in defence of local miners at Matewan in Mingo County, where he was the Police Chief, culminating in a shootout in which Albert & Lee Felts, five other mine guards, and the mayor of
Matewan (Cabell Testerman). A year later, when Hatfield and his friend had to go to the courthouse in Welch, the Baldwin-Felts extracted their revenge.
It's a testament to the engineers and builders
that these Welch homes haven't slid off the hillside yet. Train tunnel is on the right of the photo.
More hillside homes.
When you live in Welch you often have to climb
stairs. Nice cut stone work, and nicely maintained into the 21st Century.
Valley bottoms in McDowell County are narrow.
If you think this a lot of homes to put on this
steep hillside, realize that 20 years ago there were even more homes there.
Row of large homes, Tug Fork in the lower
left of the picture.
To have any kind of back yard someone terraced
the rear of this lot.
In Welch you usually can't build out, so you have
to build up. This was where people parked their cars.
More garages under apartments.
Illustrating more vertical construction, the building on the left is 5 stories tall.
Homes overlooking Downtown Welch.
Downtown Welch was once booming. One older man
once told me that he never went to Welch on Saturday because there was no place to park and you could hardly walk
down the street.
Marquee Cinemas on left, Social Security Administration,
on the right, and the old Welch High School on the hillside in the background.
A downtown grown quiet.
Downtown Welch - Flat Iron Drug Store on the left.
Display inside Flat Iron Drug Store.
Flat Iron Drug Store's soda fountain is still
intact, but no longer used for that purpose.
A coal truck rolls through Welch.
Historic structures.
Buildings along the Tug Fork.
The backs of many homes in McDowell County are
held up by tall support columns.
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