Flood Helps Launch Heritage Station

#250 / Flood Time Capsule: 1977

An early version of Flood Lite -- the trio of Bill Hoke along with Charlie Bowen and Joe Dobbs — performed a few tunes as part of the grand opening ceremonies of Heritage Village and Station in downtown Huntington 46 years ago this week.

The performance took place in a venue that The Flood would visit many times over the next four decades: the beautiful gazebo behind the historic B&O depot.

Incidentally, fellow Floodster Dave Peyton also was on hand, but not picking with his pals that afternoon. That’s because he was busy covering the event for a story that would be in The Herald-Dispatch that Labor Day weekend.

The St. Clair Connection

The Flood has another tight connection to Heritage Village.

The brains — as well as the heart and soul — of Huntington’s various historic preservation projects has always been a prominent local couple named Jim and Mickey St. Clair. In fact, if you visit the gazebo today, you'll find their names proudly recorded on a brass plate posted there.

Well, Jim and Mickey are, of course, the parents of long-time Flood harmonicat Sam St. Clair.

Now, Sam just might have been in the audience for The Flood Lite performance that day, but we didn't meet him. In the autumn of 1977, our man Sam was only 12 years old. It would take another 20 years for him to find his way to The Flood.

Joe and The Village

Meanwhile, Joe Dobbs was eager to cast his fate with the new site. In fact, the September 1977 Heritage Village launch came just months after Joe and his brother Dennis launched Fret ‘n Fiddle at 524 West 14th Street.

“We wanted to be in the village for a long time,” Joe told Herald-Dispatch reporter Rod White in September 1981, “but we just couldn’t make it work financially.”

However, after four years, James McClelland, director of the Huntington of Park Commissioners, which operated Heritage Village, worked out a deal to facilitate that transition.

The newspaper noted that Joe and his daughter Diana, Fret ‘n Fiddle business manager, would oversee the move to a two-floor space in the village that previously had been a country store. The Dobbses told White they planned to use the first floor for sales and workshops and the second floor for jam sessions and music lessons.

As it turned out, Fret 'n Fiddle would not stay long in Heritage Village; by 1983, Joe and new wife, Linda, moved the store to St. Albans, WV, where Fret ‘n Fiddle would find its permanent home at 809 Pennsylvania Ave.

Flooding The Village

Still, the village played a continuing part in Flood Lore as well as in Joe’s own story.

It was in the new village digs that Joe began thinking of having regular workshops. That October, for example, he brought in banjo legend Bill Keith from Woodstock, NY, for a five-string teach-in at the store.

It also was while at the village shop that Joe started imagining the radio show that was eventually to become West Virginia Public Radio's much-lauded “Music from the Mountain.”

In fact, in 1982 it was those upper rooms of the village location in which The Flood recorded Joe’s demo for pitching the idea of the show.

And even after the move to St. Albans, Joe returned to Heritage Village many times over the years for Flood events, including a memorable gig there during Joe’s 2012 book tour, which would be the fiddler’s last visit to that good ol’ venue.