A Peek into Summers County’s Past: Lowes

HINTON W.Va. (Hinton News) – In 2021, I connected with Lois Thompson Pettry on Facebook. Lois and I are distant cousins on the Thompson side of my family. We share a mutual love for local history, we have shared many stories and photos over the years.

Recently, she told me about a desk her grandfather, Albert Lee Eades, purchased from The Lowe’s Furniture Company in Hinton. It was housed in a building on Temple Street that still has the name in the eve made from metal and is dated 1905.

Mr. Eades purchased this desk and had it delivered to his home in Talcott, WV. Mrs Petty speculates the desk is at least 100 years old. Based on the information I have uncovered while writing this piece I would assume it is around 115 years old. Which would have made this piece having been purchased by Mr. Eades around 1910.

The Lowe’s building became part of GC Murphy’s sometime around the 1920s. But here is where some confusion comes into play. At some point the Lowe’s building was Woolworth, but there is no consensus on whether GC Murphys expanded into it from the building to its left when Woolworths closed or how it all transpired. If you know about these businesses, please send me an email at greenbrierantiques@gmail.com.

My friend and local Summers County historian Tom Huthison was telling me his 99 year old mother-in-law worked at GC Murphys, soon after she started work there they bought out Woolworths. So it can be assumed that at this point is when the GC Murphy’s sign expanded across the front both buildings. 

I think everyone in Summers County has at least one experience with GC Murphys. Just today my mother and I were talking about a set of Texas Ware mixing bowls she bought for her mother there in 1977 when dad and she were first married. We still have those bowls.

I digress and will get back to the Lowe’s desk. The part of it I find fascinating is that the original Lowe’s Furniture Co. tag/delivery label to Mr. Eades to Talcott is still attached. You see a front view of the desk and a close-up of the label. The other photo is of the building when it was still Lowe’s Furniture Company.

Lois has told me that the desk will go to her son. I love hearing things like that, a piece that has been in someone’s family for this long should stay with the family. Lois and I haven’t met yet, but hopefully one day soon we can.