Rode’s Camera Shop, a 109-year-old camera store, burned down last week during rioting in Kenosha, Wisconsin, sparked by the shooting of 29-year-old African-American man Jacob Blake by a police officer.
The store first opened in 1911 and became a fixture in the community for over a century as a place to buy camera gear and get photos processed in the lab. The business was owned by the Rode family until eight years ago when it was purchased by business partners Paul Willette and Tom Gram. Gram had worked at the store for 41 years prior to taking over.
“This was just a building, but people’s memories were inside. That’s what is killing me,” Willette tells Kenosha News. “A woman had just come in Monday and brought in a photo of her grandparents in elementary school, wanting it to be restored. I left it on my desk. Now it’s all gone. Our customers lost family memories.”
As camera sales shrunk in recent years, the store was able to stay in business thanks to its photo lab and services.
“We didn’t make a ton of money doing this, but we loved it. We loved our customers,” Willette continues.
“We understand the protests, but why destroy these businesses?” Gram tells Kenosha News
Author: Michael Zhang
Source: Petapixel
