The entire upper floor of the Culver hardware store at 120 South Main Street was lost in a three-hour, $60,000, April, 1957 blaze, which The Culver Citizen describes as interrupting the “traditional” Easter Sunday noon parade.
Residing in the apartment at the time was the Chatman family, one of several making up Culver’s African-American community at the time. Recalling the fire in a Feb., 2012 article in the Culver Citizen, Geraldine (today Parhm) said, “It was an emotional time. As I remember, everything we had was lost. The owner of the hardware building (Paul Snyder), I remember mom saying how helpful he was.”
Photos here provided by Marj Overmyer.
