Events are set to take place across West Virginia this weekend in remembrance of the victims of 9/11. 2022 marks 21 years since the attack, which claimed the lives of at least five people with ties to the state.
Events are set to take place across West Virginia this weekend in remembrance of the victims of 9/11. 2022 marks 21 years since the attack, which claimed the lives of at least five people with ties to the state.
One event being held in Princeton Sept. 10 is a memorial stair climb up 110 stories, organized by the Princeton Fire Department. It’s the second annual climb, with the first organized for the 20th anniversary last year. For first responders like Lt. Rick Shagoury, the event carries personal weight.
“We lost 343 firefighters and all these first responders. And being a first responder, it just hits home,” Shagoury said.
Registration for the climb is from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m., with the climb itself starting at Hunnicutt Field at 9 a.m. and continuing until 1 p.m.
In Huntington, a vigil at the Healing Field at Spring Hill Cemetery is set up through Tuesday. Huntington native Paul Ambrose, who was on the flight that was crashed into the Pentagon, is buried there. Cemetery operations manager Eldora McCoy said these vigils have meaning for every local community affected.
“As other communities do theirs in their own way, this is our way to remember,” McCoy said.
Flags can be purchased at the cemetery for $35, with proceeds going to the cemetery’s Memorial Bell Tower fund. The vigil is also next to the site’s World Trade Center Artifact Memorial, which was constructed in 2017 from steel rails found at the site of the attack in New York. A ceremony is also set to take place at the cemetery at 2 p.m. Sunday.
Educational assemblies are also scheduled at schools around the state this week, including one at Westwood Middle School.
“Our students weren’t born yet when 9/11 occurred, so this opportunity is about raising awareness and bringing to life for them a very important moment in American history,” Westwood Principal John Conrad said in a news release.
Sen. Joe Manchin recognized the anniversary in a statement Friday.
“Each American grieved and felt the shock of our national vulnerability following the attacks, but we also experienced something else as a nation – our country learned of the great strength, bravery and character of our heroes who inspire us to this day. In the aftermath, we came together as a nation, showing we were united, resilient, and courageous in the face of tragedy,” Manchin said.
Alongside Ambrose, four others connected to the state died during the attacks, including Mary Lou Hague, Chris Gray, Jim Samuel and Shelly Marshall.
The organizations are asking people who can paint inside the lines and who are in 5th grade or older to help with what they’re calling “community paint-ins.”
“The idea is to get people of all ages engaged in the process, take ownership and have the experience of having a hand in the growth of downtown,” said Lori McKinney, founder and director of the RiffRaff Arts Collective. “It’s about creating an entry point for people to get involved, and for those who have fond memories of Mercer Street. It’s a way to come together, reminisce and honor that history as we move into the future. “
The mural will depict the history of downtown Princeton through a collage of images. Mural designer Ellen Elmes based the piece on stories from the community. According to a release, residents reminisced of department stores, popcorn stands, and other nostalgic images as well as more current memories from Mercer Street such as an elephant on parade, butterfly wings and a clown on stilts.
The latest mural design for buildings on Mercer Street in Princeton was designed by Ellen Elmes. The mural will go on the side of a building in Historic Downtown Princeton, WV.
It’s the latest in a host of murals painted along Mercer Street in Princeton since 2013.
Artists are currently painting the design on 18 separate fabric pieces.
“This is a popular technique in public art, painting on “parachute fabric” or “polytab,” McKinney said. “It can be painted anywhere, indoors or outdoors, so weather isn’t a limiting factor, and the artist can paint in their studio at all hours and at their own leisure. It also opens up the ability to collaborate in the creation of the mural anywhere– in the classroom, in the park, anywhere. It will be particularly helpful and cost-effective if we’re working with a muralist who lives out of town.”
Once the pieces are put together, the art will be glued to cover part of a building in the downtown Princeton Historic District. The mural will be 12 feet high and 20 feet wide.
“It is permanent, and actually has a longer life than murals painted onto brick,” McKinney said. “Once it is installed, and sealed with the special varnish from Golden Artist Colors, it’s good to go for years to come.”
McKinney says she and her team are learning this technique from Elmes.
Lori McKinney
/
The mural artists working.
“It’s like paint by numbers, just like a coloring book,” McKinney said. “The colors and sections are marked so you know where to paint, and skilled artists will be guiding and instructing the process.”
The “community paint-ins” will be guided by The RiffRaff’s lead painter, Lacey Vilandry, along with other experienced painters. The events are scheduled for June 12, 19 and 29. If it rains, the “community paint-ins” will move indoors to the back of Appalachian Coffeehouse on Mercer Street.
In 2006, Mercer Street in Princeton was not a place you wanted to take children. It’s the ‘old downtown’ or ‘Main Street’ of the city. West Virginians have seen the story over and over again. And visitors found boarded up storefronts and dilapidated buildings, remnants of a bustling and more prosperous time.
But in the last 15 years, 1,433 new businesses have opened in Mercer County, according to the Secretary of State’s website. The majority of those businesses were based in Princeton.
“It’s definitely been a fun process to enjoy,” said small business co-owner Holley Odle. ‘When I was in high school — I graduated from Princeton — this street was a very unsavory place to be. A lot of trouble, a lot of things that, you know, we’ve pushed out of here.”
Jessica Lilly
/
Hammer and Stain DIY Workshop co-owner Holley Odle operates a chop saw to create pieces of wood ready for crafts.
Odle’s business is called Hammer and Stain DIY Workshop. The business model is based on hosting events and providing a space with supplies for people to create crafty projects with a little guidance.
“We thrive on people coming in here and doing projects with us to create an experience,” Odle said. “The fact that you got to get out of your house and be with your friends and your family and come in and actually put your hands on and get away from your phone or get away from your TV and have an experience was really something.”
Co-Owner Lisa Christian said she was inspired and motivated by how successful the workshop had become.
“One evening we would have close to 100 people in and out of here doing projects, and it was just fun,” Christian said. “The Golden Girls Workshops, we had about 40 people in here singing, eating cheesecake and singing (the show’s theme song) ‘Thank You For Being a Friend.’”
Christian refused to just let go of that community togetherness during lockdown. Instead of hosting people on location for guided crafting workshops using the supplies on site, she and Odle created kits with instructions and supplies to take home.
“And I think it kept some sanity in the community,” Christian said. “You know, it gave us things to do. It gave our customers things to do to occupy their time.”
She says the kits kept the business going during lockdown and also helped maintain a sense of belonging.
Jessica Lilly
/
Lisa Christian, co-owner of Hammer and Stain DIY Workshop, adjusts her mask.
“It felt really good,” Christian said. “It felt like we were able to contribute to the community. You know, a community that we love so much and we love to give back. And you know, we’ve enjoyed watching Mercer Street come to life and see the different businesses flourish. So it was an experience.”
Jessica Lilly
/
Hammer and Stain DIY Workshop co-owner Lisa Christian (left) assists Bernadette Dragich (right) with her project.
These owners said they’re willing to try just about anything to keep their business open. They also hosted instructional Zoom meetings, switched up the timing of the workshop,s and of course, began an intense cleaning regimen while wearing masks.
New guidelines don’t allow as many people in the workshop but that creates opportunities for immune-compromised community members like Bernadette Dragich. On this day, the empty studio is a valuable way for Dragich to engage in a little art therapy. Less people means it’s safer for her.
“I’ve had cancer and treatment for cancer,” Dragich said. “I’m on the upside of that. So it just keeps me busy and gives me a chance to have creativity and these ladies are really nice.”
Dragich is sitting at a table in the studio. Finished projects speckle the walls, framing two rows of large tables holding pencils, pens and other crafting utensils. She dabs black paint over a stencilled wooden round.
“I think it helps individuals and some of them do some really beautiful work,” Dragich said. “Sometimes things are more meaningful when it’s something homemade.”
Jessica Lilly
/
Hammer and Stain DIY Workshop co-owner Lisa Christian (right) talks with Bernadette Dragich (left) about her project.
After finishing the paint, co-owner Lisa Christian walks across the workshop to help Dragich reveal an image of a dog on the wooden circle.
“Actually, this dog is from one of my co-workers who gave me this dog, when I just found out I had cancer,” Dragich said. “He used to show her and she’s been really meaningful and helpful to me.” Now, she has a handmade wall hanging that’s meaningful as well — a project marking a wellness milestone that allowed her creativity to flourish.
Just across the workshop and closer to the door sits a wooden cabinet. Inside is another silver lining to the COVID business model. Hammer and Stain co-owner Holley Odle says when it was nearly impossible to find cleaning supplies and they needed to meet more stringent standards, she turned to new technology that’s faster and better for the environment, ultraviolet sanitization.
“So after every workshop, we take everything that anybody’s touched, and we put them in the closet, and we cut the UV on and get it through a 10-minute cycle,” Odle said. “That way, so many harsh chemicals aren’t being used. It gets everything clean for the next person and we don’t miss anything.”
Jessica Lilly
/
Hammer and Stain DIY Workshop co-owner Holley Odle shares their solution to stringent cleaning guidelines when supplies were hard to find, ultraviolet sanitation.
There are still some projects that just don’t fit into the “take home” model but Odle says they plan to adopt all of these changes, even after COVID.
“I believe that a lot of this is going to be our new normal for now,” Odle says. “As far as keeping workshop attendance low, making sure everything is extra clean, I don’t think we’ll ever go back to the way that it was.”
Odle says she’s thankful for what she’s learned through the pandemic, especially just how much the community appreciates the business and the DIY project opportunities. As things continue to evolve, she hopes the community won’t forget them.
“If there is a business that you love, and that you want to see it survive and be able to patronize that business after COVID, we really encourage you to go take time and visit that business now,” Odle said. “Whatever they’re doing, find their Facebook page, call and say ‘what are you guys doing?’ Give them a little bit of what you’ve got right now. So that they will be here when our new normal settles.”
Jessica Lilly
/
Hammer and Stain DIY Workshop co-owner Lisa Christian (left) assists Bernadette Dragich (right) with her project.
The latest efforts to revitalize Main Street in Princeton started back in 2006. Business owners and organizers there say it’s been slow, sometimes frustrating work to build the local economy alongside the community. A new, healthier status quo seemed to be taking root when the global pandemic shut everything down. But the community refused to let that be the end of the story.
Lori McKinney is the founder and CEO of the Riff Raff Arts Collective, one of those businesses on Mercer Street. She’s also a driving force in community development. Reporter Jessica Lilly checked in with McKinney to see how the businesses are faring through the pandemic.
Lori McKinney: Certainly it has been a challenging year for us. The main thing that I have seen of the businesses is innovation and creativity. And it’s been striking to see how people have pivoted and, you know, created new products and new services. And it’s also been striking to see the amount of support that has come from the community and just a true outpouring, I think some of the best memories I have are of people lining up on the sidewalk to get Growlers filled with a sophisticated hound. And people just loading up their cars with creative take-home kits from Hammer and Stain, and also from the pottery shop Artistic Adventures. And of course, the Blue Ridge Bee Company was an essential grocer. So even when the quarantine was just hitting, they were still able to have their doors, you know, open from the front. So they had curbside service right from the get go. They report just doing huge volume of business during the quarantine. And I think that that was actually a turning point for the acceleration of the Mercer Street development. Because people, once they were threatened with having the downtown businesses disappear, then all of a sudden, it was like, wow, our downtown was amazing. We’ve got to support these downtown businesses, so we don’t lose them. So I think when in the big picture, maybe 10 years from now, when we look back on this will recognize that as a moment of acceleration.
Jessica Lilly
/
Hammer & Stain DIY Workshop on Mercer Street in Princeton, WV.
Jessica Lilly: How does that make you feel? Having this vision all these years sometimes probably feeling like and wondering, is this in vain? Do the people here really want this? And then COVID hits and they come running? And saying yes, yes, we do want this.
Lori McKinney: It’s, you know, I have a mixed bag of emotions around all of that. We shut our doors pretty early, and the other businesses were still, you know, kind of going along, and hadn’t realized how serious it was. And there were people just like swarming on the street. And I remember thinking to myself, I spent a decade and a half trying to get people to come into this downtown and now here they are. I wanted to stick my head out the window and scream, go home, go home, it’s not safe, go home. And then I remember watching the barista from the coffee shop pull the chain on the open sign, and the Blue Ridge Bee Company bring in their sandwich board. I just got chill bumps saying that out loud because in my mind, I thought that that was the last time and I thought all of the building and all of the heart and soul that these people put into these businesses and this could be, you know, the last moment for them.
Jessica Lilly
/
The taproom of the Sophisticated Hound Brewery on Mercer Street in Princeton, WV. The brewery opened in June 2018. Customers lined up on the sidewalk with empty growlers in hand during the COVID pandemic to help the small business remain open.
Jessica Lilly: Then you saw people lining up with growlers and it all turned around.
Lori McKinney: It was amazing. And I do remember moments on the street looking around with my mask on and everybody, you know, being socially distant and saying, of course, all this in this new era where we’re businesses going forward but it’s in this kind of weird in-between moment. And just thinking of myself, it is amazing to me that this is actually happening because I thought it was all over. I thought everything was just stopping.
Jessica Lilly: So you all do a lot of community engagement things. How did you pivot to stay relevant and still have those?
Lori McKinney: So we had been preparing to do live broadcasts from each of our events for years. That was always the plan and to do kind of television and radio shows from our live concert events. And so we have this technical infrastructure, and also just this vision. When the pandemic hit, we just had a unique opportunity to pivot into digital content. So we created broadcasts for each one of our events. And the early events had interactive Zoom calls as panel discussions as part of the live stream. But we ended up settling into a pre-recorded broadcast model that streams live. So the event happens live at the time that would happen, and it has a live feel to it but it’s actually all pre-recorded content.
Jessica Lilly: And did it cross your mind, (to think) all that work, all if that work we’ve done and now COVID is going to hit and swipe it all away?
Lori McKinney: I think definitely in the moment. I thought it felt to me like the whole world was crumbling down around us. I honestly, I did think that okay, this is where it stops, shall we? We built all this up this far. And this is just kind of the end of the road. And I just in my mind, knowing what I knew at the time, I just didn’t know how businesses could survive through, you know, an indefinite shutdown. Without the community, it would have all gone away. Oh, absolutely. If the community hadn’t poured out their support the way they did for these businesses, they wouldn’t have survived. And of course, there were, you know, resources that became available, the state CARES Act grant was helpful. Some people were able to seek access grants like through Liske. And, of course, the PPP was something that came into play for a lot of the businesses but that community support was vital. The thing that was fueling the momentum for the downtown to build was our ability to gather and to really get to know each other and experience and talk as a community about our visions for the future. And so I’m really looking forward to being able to gather people together again. And it definitely feels that there’s a hunger and an appreciation for that. I know myself, I didn’t realize we were all running around having the time of our lives, like being able to look at pictures, and it’s like, oh my gosh, we were looking at all of us together and how much fun we were having. And there’s just a new appreciation for all of it. I love to hang on to that. Thought that after the black plague came the Renaissance period, and it really does feel like there’s gonna be a new appreciation for community and for creativity. And it feels like a really innovative period is upon us.
Musician John Homer Walker died in Princeton on January 4, 1980, at age 81. The Mercer County native was raised in Summers County and lived much of his adult life in neighboring Glen Lyn, Virginia. He usually worked as a laborer and farmhand.
“Uncle Homer,” as he was affectionately known, learned to play clawhammer-style banjo from his mother and uncle. He picked up traditional songs, like the old spiritual, “Steal Away,” from his grandfather, who was born a slave.
“Uncle Homer” Walker was a popular performer during the folk revival of the 1960s and ’70s. He appeared regularly at the John Henry Folk Festival, the Vandalia Gathering, and the Appalachian South Folklife Center. He was featured at the Smithsonian Institution’s Festival of American Folklife and was the subject of the 1977 film Banjo Man.
Musician Rex Parker died at Princeton in Mercer County on June 2, 1999.
The Fayette County native was the patriarch of the Parker Family, a popular musical fixture on West Virginia radio and television stations for more than a half century.
Parker started his career in the late 1930s on WCHS radio in Charleston and WJLS in Beckley. He was in his late teens at the time. In 1941, he married Eleanora Niera, the daughter of Spanish immigrants. The next day, Rex and Eleanor began their career as a country music duo on WHIS in Bluefield. They also worked on WOAY in Oak Hill and other radio stations before moving into TV in the 1950s. Two of their original songs—“Build Your Treasures in Heaven” and “Moonlight on West Virginia”—received considerable airplay.
After becoming Born-Again Christians in 1959, the Parkers performed only sacred music. By this time, daughters Conizene and Rexana had joined them. The Parkers hosted a weekly live program on WOAY-TV during the ‘60s and ‘70s. In later years, they performed mostly in local churches and had a Sunday morning radio program in Princeton.
