By By JESSICA SIEFF / Niles Daily Star
As many Niles residents and visitors to the city enjoy the warm weather and the activities taking place during this year's Art in Motion event, this week holds a special significance in the city's history and Main Street's streetscape.
It was just one year ago when, as many citizens of all ages filled the streets of downtown Niles to watch the building of meticulous sand sculptures, employees of Sue's Hallmark stepped out onto Main Street hearing a series of explosions come from inside the store causing a loss of power and its neighboring building which housed one residence and the Niles office of the South Bend Tribune.
"Lights started flickering … and then everything went dark," owner Sue Majerek said that day. "Then we kept hearing explosions."
In what seemed like no time at all, one of downtown's most beloved buildings was engulfed in flames.
Niles City Police and the Buchanan Fire Department reported to the scene – as Niles firefighters were mourning the death of one of their own at Silverbrook Cemetery just up the street.
As the fire gained in strength, ravaging the building and threatening neighboring structures and as people watched from the street in awe and horror, firefighters from the Niles City and Township fire departments descended on downtown in one spectacular sight, clad in dress uniforms and attacking the fire from all sides.
It was a long, hot fight, as the sun remained unmerciful and the heat climbed in temperature. The fire raged on into the evening.
One year later, the structure is nothing but a memory, leaving a gaping hole of a reminder of its existence just up the street from where the business reopened as Majerek's Newsstand.
"That building started off in 1928," said local historian Donna Ochenryder.
It was originally owned by Paul Skalla, an undertaker. "He had a contract to build the store for J.C. Penney," Ochenryder said.
For those who will always remember the interior of what was Sue's Hallmark, an upper level looked down on the main floor, which in its final days housed row after row of greeting cards, unique gifts, books, magazines and candles.
The mezzanine was part of a formulated layout for all J.C. Penney stores. "It was built specifically for J.C. Penney," said Ochenryder.
In its day, the Niles historian said that the mezzanine was used as part of the sale process. When purchases were being made, the money would be placed by salespeople at the counter into cans along with a sales slip. The money and slip would be pulled up into the mezzanine by a cord and change would be made and sent back to the customer at the counter.
Ochenryder said it was 1957 when Ted and Marie Majerek came to Niles and showed interest in the Arthur Schwartz news agency which was located across the street from the structure they would later be known for.
The J.C. Penney store would later move down the street in 1958, house a variety of different stores and offices and eventually create an opportunity.
At the time, said Ochenryder, the building had been divided in order to allow for more than just one business. "Then Ted and Marie decided what they would do is go back and reinstate the building as one building."
The building would only solidify its place within the city and Main Street's landscape – and become a place that so many would remember and never forget.
"Absolutely," Ochenryder agreed.
"It was very important to me because that's where I bought my first formal (dress), for $12 or $15."
On that fateful afternoon, as flames shot out from the store's windows, destroying the mezzanine and everything in between, Niles Main Street's Lisa Croteau could be seen carrying cases of bottled water to heat stricken firefighters.
"I don't know what to say," Croteau said in an email, thinking back. "It was kinda surreal that day, I never in a million years would have thought that would happen here … but it did, and it happened so fast. It could have been so much worse. While it's sad that we lost the two buildings, (Majerek's and South Bend Tribune), no one was hurt … and here one year later, Majerek's business is back open on Main."
"At the time I thought that would be important – to rebound as fast as possible," said Tom Majerek, owner of Majerek's Newsstand. "And I hoped that something would happen soon.
"For me, it was a sad day," he said. "I had a lot of memories there." Majerek added he was born just a few years after the building had been bought by his parents, he said.
"We owe a huge thank you to all the firefighters," said Croteau. "Those from Niles as well as those from the surrounding communities for the work they did that day."
"The thing I remember (about the fire) is how surprised I was at how all of the people in the community reacted as if it was their store," Majerek said. "I was touched by that."
The property that once housed Sue's Hallmark, now vacant, has been sold according to information provided by Ted Majerek – but what awaits the space's future is yet to be known.
At least 20 fire departments throughout Michiana responded to the blaze that apparently started as an electrical fire in the store's basement and quickly engulfed the entire building.