Our Love Affair with Heritage Station

#335 / Flood Time Capsule: 2016

Eight years ago today, The Flood rolled back into one of its all-time favorite downtown Huntington venues, cozy ol’ Heritage Station, the historic B&O freight station that these days houses the Cabell-Huntington Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB).

The occasion was an informal Saturday morning of fun and music, sharing the stage with our buddies Eve Marcum-Atkinson and the late Michael Lyzenga of The Shadowshaker Band.

We also turned the morning in a mini-birthday party for Da Chick Singer, our Michelle Hoge, who is featured here with one of her signature tunes, "Sunny Side of the Street.” Michael grabbed this video of the tune with his phone:

The Long Hello, from the Patio…

The Flood has had a long love affair with Heritage Station, starting nearly a half century ago, when, as reported earlier, a trio of Floodsters helped dedicate the new project back in the autumn of 1977.

That performance — by Joe Dobbs, Bill Hoke and Charlie Bowen — took place outside, in the beautiful gazebo on the patio behind the depot. Over the next five decades, The Flood has re-visited the spot many times for things like the St. Patrick’s Day parties we were reflected on just last month.

Meanwhile, from a couple of years ago, here is The Flood’s set at the 12th annual Diamond Teeth Mary Blues & Arts Festival, with guest artist Chris Sutton:

… and from the Lobby

Even more often, The Flood has performed inside that wonderful old building, for a wide variety of occasions.

For instance, as illustrated in Toril Lavender’s lovely photo above, the Huntington Regional Chamber of Commerce invited the band to play at an open house for its new Business After Hours program on a crisp October evening in 2009.

A few years later, the band returned to this beautiful community living room for the concluding day of the Joe Dobbs Book Tour.

Don’t those rich red bricks and lush carpets make a gorgeous backdrop for any band-in-action photos? Our manager Pamela Bowen took this one that day:

And here’s a fun moment from the afternoon, featuring Floodster Emeritus Jacob Scarr, who was home for summer break after his first year of college in Colorado:

Flood Lore

Finally, sometimes The Flood happens to be at Heritage Station when a fresh bit of Flood lore happens.

In recent years, the good CVB folks have invited the band occasionally to help out with their “Saturday Market” days. That’s where the Family Flood landed a week or so before Thanksgiving in 2021 when harmonicat Sam. St. Clair got his field promotion as the band's new official Dance Cop!

With her phone, Pamela recorded the episode for our scrapbook.