Editing Welch, West Virginia (section)

===Firsts===
[[File:Municipal parking in Welch, West Virginia.jpg|thumb|Municipal parking building in Welch]]
The first public children's playground in West Virginia was built in Welch in 1913.  It was constructed using private donations and after 1918 was maintained by the Young Women's Missionary Society of the Methodist Church.  The playground sat across the street from the McDowell County Courthouse until 1930 when it became the site for the [[United States Postal Service|United States Post Office]].<ref>Progressive West Virginians, Wheeling Intelligencer, 1923, page 409.</ref>

Welch also built the first municipally owned [[Multi-storey car park|parking building]] in the United States, which was opened September 1, 1941.<ref>{{cite web|title=Welch Municipal Parking Building|publisher=McDowell County|url=http://www.mcdowellwv.com/articles/parking_building/|access-date=July 1, 2014}}</ref> It accommodated 232 cars and showed a profit its first year in operation.