"'The Caring Place' was built as a convent for St. Bridget Church and was rented to small businesses when the convent was moved. It was once the site of the Stocker, later the Jake Kramer, Jr. (130 Center St.), home."Images (links open in a new window):
♦ The Stocker home in the background as a parade moves down Center Street, circa 1905.
♦ The Stocker home from the air, circa 1954-1963.
♦ The St. Bridget convent under construction in August 1967, with the Stocker home on its north side.
♦ A photographer aiming at something else caught the Stocker home through the trees in February 1968.
♦ The demolition of the Stocker home, May 27, 1968.
"George Stocker built most of the buildings in the 300 block of Main Street. The building on this corner was erected in 1888. It housed the First State Bank when it was organized in 1899. Scheidt and Keilman's "Bee Hive" was in the south room. They also had a front on Third Street. The First State Bank was closed in 1929 and Gary National Bank opened a Hobart branch here. When they built on the old mill site, Lincoln Loan opened offices. Now Knight Coin & Stamp (301 Main St.) uses the rooms. Dr. Weisjahn had a dental office upstairs. Now the upstairs rooms are residences. Where Scheidt and Keilman had the Bee Hive, a restaurant later opened. Marshall Parry moved his "Royal Blue" store here from Third Street. Leonard Blair succeeded Parry in the grocery business and Hobart Fetterer followed Blair. Later a shoe store and a carpet store were here. And it is now the Craft Corner."