WYATT A. ABBITT

The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III,
pg. 452

WYATT A. ABBITT. Through a busy career Wyatt A. Ab-
bitt has been a carpenter, and now for many years, a gen-
eral contractor and builder, and for nearly twenty years
his home and center of his work and interests have been in
Charleston.

Mr. Abbitt was born in Appomattox County, Virginia, in
1871, son of Charles A. and Elvira (LeGrand) Abbitt,
also natives of Virginia and members of old families in that
state. Wyatt Abbitt acquired a common school education,
learned the carpenter's trade in his home county, and for
several years was a journeyman before he took up the
contracting business on his own account. In 1900 he re-
moved to West Virginia, and for three years was associated
with the building and operation of the large industrial
works at Kanawha Falls, now the plant of the Electro-
Metallurgical Company.

Mr. Abbitt in 1903 came to Charleston, which city has
since been his home. As a contractor and builder he has
taken a leading part in the creation of the modern Charles-
ton. His construction work is exemplified in a large number
of structures, residential, commercial and industrial, but
of late years his business has been chiefly confined to busi-
ness buildings. Among those erected by him during the
last two or three years may be mentioned the Buick Home.
a parochial school, the Soloff Hotel Building on Quarrier
Street, the addition to the Telephone Building, the remodel-
ing of the Plaza Theater, which he built originally in 1912,
the Professional Building, the Simon Cohen Apartment
House, and a number of garages and other structures. Mr.
Abbitt built the plant of the Virginia Rubber Company at
St. Albans.

His thorough and first hand knowledge of real estate and
buildings in Charleston led to his being selected as a mem-
ber of the Appraisal Committee, consisting of five, charged
with the duty of appraising the value of the various con-
templated sites for the location of West Virginia's state
capitol, to take the place of the old capitol destroyed early
in 1921. Mr. Abbitt is also president of the Equity Finance
and Loan Company of Charleston, and is a member of the
Board of Directors of the Virginia Rubber Company. He is
active in the Chamber of Commerce, and represents his line
of business in the Rotary Club.

Mr. Abbitt married for his first wife Anna Belle Coleman,
who is survived by five children, Mrs. Sallie Evans, Mrs.
Kathleen Jones, Mrs. Julia Barlow, Elliott and Andrew
Abbitt. For his present wife Mr. Abbitt married Mildred
(Simpson) Wildman.

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