Category: Willis Avenue

A Wool's Worth of Fire

2/1/2017

Hello readers and welcome back to the Hometown Heritage Blog!

                Today I have a story for you about one of many fires that have happened in Perry’s history. The 72nd anniversary of this fire is actually coming up on February 12, so I thought it would be an interesting time to revisit the event!

                This fire is called the “Woolworth Store Fire”, and it left a big mark on the Perry landscape. As you may have guessed from the name, the fire happened at the Woolworth Store. Although we have a decent number of pictures of this store, none of them mentioned what the store sold. My best guess, based on the pictures, was that it was some kind of general department store, similar to the old store Sears. In any case, a fire mysteriously broke out on February 12, 1945. The entire building, named the Carter Block, was burned. The Woolworth Store, along with all its contents, were destroyed and the loss is estimated at between $150,000 - $200,000! Our catalog has no mention of what caused this devastating fire. Perhaps someone in the store dropped a lit cigarette, and it sparked a blaze, or perhaps an angry costumer snuck in at the dead of night to get revenge? We may never know, unless one of you, readers, has more details for us.

                As I said, however, this fire left a big mark on the Perry landscape. Perhaps you can tell where the building used to be from the before and after pictures belong! Let me give you a hint, currently the El Rey market stands where this building once stood. Although it is unclear if the entire building was burnt to the ground in the fire, it is clear that the new (or rebuilt) building never had a second floor. Imagine this: if this fire had not happened, there would be a much bigger building on the corner of Second and Willis. The new Woolworth store, which it appears the El Rey now occupies, opened in 1948, just a few years after the fire. Clearly, despite the change in the landscape and loss of inventory, the citizens of Perry and owner of Woolworth continued forward and rebuilt.

Before

The Fire

After

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Café of the Arcade

12/7/2016

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Hello readers and welcome back to the Hometown Heritage blog!

Today we got a new donation of some old photos showing an interesting little café that used to exist here in Perry. The café was called the “Arcade Café”, and it appears to have been owned (or at least primarily operated by) George and Merle Watson. The photos, as you can see, show a nice little café that appears to have been very popular. The booths are full, the tables are full, even the counter in one photo is surrounded by people. In one photo you can see a sign that reads telephone, which must lead to a small area where the telephone booth was located (this place reminds me of the café scene in the movie Back to the Future). Overall, it looks like the café used to be quite the place to eat in Perry!

Now, some of you may be asking yourself “These are just ordinary photos of a café, why are they interesting at all?” Perhaps some of you may have already deduced the answer, which is that these photos may be of the same café, but they are not taken in the same building. One photo, which shows the telephone sign, is actually taken at the old location of the café. This location is 1109 2nd Avenue, in what people used to call the Wimmer Building. The other two photos were taken at the café’s new location on Willis Avenue, where Vivi Nails is now located. Today, many people call this the “Arcade Building.” Perhaps it is called this because it used to be the location of the Arcade Café? If you have any more information about the Arcade Café, or why the building is now called the Arcade, please let us know in the comments!

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A Wool's Worth of Fire

Café of the Arcade

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