Athens Department Store

William Thomas Bone (1921-1997) opened the Athens Department Store in a building on Vermillion Street. According to an article written by Jay Banks for The Monroe Watchman and reprinted  in the Union High School Cornerstone, Tom Bone was in the Navy during WWII stationed aboard CVE 75, the USS Hoggatt Bay Escort Carrier.  He was discharged April 1, 1949. He went  back to college at Western Reserve University in Cleveland,  and earned a Degree in Business Administration. He heard that a store was for sale in Athens, West Virginia. On April 1, 1949, in partnership with George Guthrie, he bought the store and named it Athens Department Store. He later bought out Guthrie’s share of the business. He met and married Janis Julia Wall from Athens on August 1, 1950.

On January 12, 1950, he also bought a three story building in Union, West Virginia, and named it the Monroe Department Store. 

In 1961 Tom closed the Athens Department Store to concentrate on his larger store in Union.  That store at one time had five or six clerks, then one clerk and Tom and finally Tom was trying to operate the store by himself. He eventually had to close the Union store also.

The Athens Department Store building, along with many other historic storefronts and businesses along Vermillion Street, was demolished. Empty lots and parking lots now occupy the space where the building once stood.