The Zeckel’s Building Collapse

From Time to Thyme

By Paula Dunn

Have you ever wondered why a couple of buildings on the south side of the courthouse square aren’t as tall as others on that block?

The reason for that dates back to the year 1952.

Seventy-four years ago last week, January 8, 1952, a contractor and his two assistants were working on a remodeling project in the basement of Zeckel’s clothing store when they saw the building’s first floor drop about 18 inches. 

Around ten minutes later, a second cave-in occurred and the entire structure collapsed with a loud “Whoom!” and a huge cloud of dust.

Zeckel’s and the American Cleaners, in the building west of Zeckel’s, were completely destroyed, and Evans Jewelry, west of the cleaners, was badly damaged. Also caught in the collapse were the apartments over those businesses.

The store east of Zeckel’s, Myers Furniture, sustained enough damage to be considered dangerous and was temporarily closed. Lawson’s Cafeteria, on the other side of the Myers store, was closed as well, out of an abundance of caution.

There were serious concerns about the safety of the furniture store and the cafeteria because a half century earlier their buildings had been merged with the Zeckel building to create a single structure.

Originally, the Zeckel and Lawson buildings each had two stories. Between them stood the three-story building known as the Miesse Block or Miesse Building, which would later house Myers Furniture.

In 1901, the Odd Fellows lodge, which owned Miesse’s third floor, enlarged their hall, extending it over the two buildings on either side. This turned the three buildings into one large, three-story structure. (If you look up at the top of the remaining building, you can see “I.O.O.F. 125” between the second and third windows from the right.)

Miraculously, no one was killed by the building collapse. The only casualty was one of the workmen, who was struck by falling debris as he fled the basement. He received scalp wounds serious enough to land him in the hospital overnight.

Things could have been much worse. Although escaping gas permeated the air around the ruins, there was no fire. Fire Chief Delbert Mitchell later theorized that the tremendous rush of air released by the collapse must have extinguished any pilot lights that didn’t get turned off.

Several people had narrow escapes, though.

The contractor and his other assistant were briefly trapped in Zeckel’s basement by the initial cave-in. They made it out just before the final collapse.

The first cave-in also blocked the entrance to the American Cleaners. Firemen had to break the glass in the door to rescue the store’s manager. They pulled her out through the door minutes before her building gave way.

Five heroic firemen who’d sprinted up the stairway between the Zeckel and Myers stores to turn off gas appliances and evacuate apartment residents were in the hallway of the Myers building when Zeckel’s building fell. Although unable to see five feet in front of them, they managed to get out safely.

The following September, Ben and Belle Zeckel, the owners of Zeckel’s, reopened their store in a new one-story building at the same location. Zeckel’s remained a fixture on the square until 1984.

The American Cleaners also reopened at the previous location — In a brand new “100% fireproof building” — but not until two years after the collapse.

(If you’re confused by the 1952 store locations, maybe this will help — Lawson’s location today is Noble Made, Myers is now the Private Capital Management Group, Zeckel’s is now Sauce & Tardy, the American Cleaners is now Two Sarahs & a Sold Sign and Evans Jewelry is Nationwide Insurance.)

Notable Nineties Update: Ramona Trubey has added Charles Trubey of Arcadia to the list, Jeanne Flanders added Cora (Hunter) McCoy, from the Walnut Grove area, and I’m adding Julius Lees of the NHS Class of 1953.

Congratulations!

Paula Dunn’s From Time to Thyme column appears on Wednesdays in The Times. Contact her at younggardenerfriend@gmail.com