The more I read about Terre Haute the more surprised I am about my ignorance to the history around me. While I have shopped at ACE Hardware for many years, I never stopped to think about the history behind the store, let alone realize the little print on the outside sign saying "Paitson Brothers". Robert and Stanley Paitson were operating their first hardware store, gas station, and auto repair shop on Locust and 1st Avenue in Terre Haute in 1927. Even though their store closed in 1979, their family name continued on and still thrives today in Terre Haute. One store named after the Paitson brothers is at 25th and Rose Street. This is a hardware store. Many have probably shopped there not knowing the history behind the Paitsons, me included. The other is a contractors building for heating and cooling. Either way, I'm sure the brothers would be happy to know the town of Terre Haute has not forgotten them.
It's really sad that the town of Terre Haute remembers so little about the other 3 brothers Paitson, and the "Paitson Brothers General Store with a Bakery/Meat/Movie Theater located on Locust Street that operated from the 1910's through the 1960's, right through the great Depression extending credit to needy families and handing out soup, bread and apples to those who were hungry. My granddad Edward Paitson and Granny Winifred ran that store along with my uncles. During my childhood, and every summer I visited them, whiling away the hot Indiana summers on their porch down the street at their house or out at the Paitson Farm near Brazil, the original homestead established in the mid 1800's. The Hardware store was an offshoot of that, established after the second generation was born! ~Waverley Paitson, son of Stanley Edward Paitson
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