Green Tree

John William Webber (1903-1983) and Ida Elizabeth McKenzie (1901-1967) were married in 1927.  John worked for the F. W. Woolworth & Co. at a store in Huntington until he was transferred and became an assistant manager at the Woolworth store in Bluefield. After a dispute with the manager he left Woolworths and in 1931 established a food business on the Bluefield-Princeton Road at Glenwood Park.

In 1932 he built the Green Tree (a curb-service restaurant) at Green Tree Crossroads where Routes 19-21  and 460 crossed.  About 1940 he and his wife Elizabeth added 4 cottages with 2 rooms each, (the first motel in the area) and called it the Green Tree Tourist Court and Restaurant. They owned the motel and restaurant until John’s health began to fail. They sold it and moved to Texas about 1953. John was also a contractor building houses in the area during this time. After Elizabeth died in 1967, John returned to West Virginia and married Elizabeth’s sister Aileen, a long time teacher in the Mercer County school system.

Charles B. Wells and his wife Betty Ruth bought and ran the Green Tree from about 1950 until John Spurgeon Ferrell sold his Sweet Shop in Athens to Earl Neville, Sr., in 1955. Spurgeon bought and ran the Green Tree Tourist Court and Restaurant until his death in 1962. 

The Green Tree Tourist Court and Restaurant was eventually demolished and an Enterprise Rent-A-Car now occupies that space.