Nine years after a fire destroyed the Peter Postell building at Sixth and Virginia streets, a Kentucky Historical Society marker has been dedicated to Postell, a formerly enslaved man who became a wealthy Hopkinsville grocer and philanthropist after the Civil War.
City officials, community members and descendants of Postell gathered Saturday afternoon for the marker dedication at Sixth and Virginia streets. The marker is adjacent to Postell Plaza, a parking lot that was developed for the Sixth Street retail development after the Postell building burned on July 6, 2016.
Paula Carter, a great-great-granddaughter of Postell, said the marker dedication represented “a glorious day” for her family.
Before she became a genealogist, Carter heard family stories from her grandmother in Philadelphia, who told her about Peter Postell and his wife, Pauline.
“She was so proud to share the resilience of a man who was once enslaved, ran away to the Union Army, chose a wife, built a family and was a major business owner in downtown Hopkinsville, Kentucky — and was very, very wealthy,” Carter told community members who gathered for the dedicatoin.
At the time of his death in 1901, Postell was described in newspaper articles as one of the wealthiest Black men in the South.
Carter said her school textbooks did not teach her about African Americans like Postell who thrived through some of the worst times in the country’s history. The historical marker, sought by Downtown Renaissance Director Holly Boggess and others, will provide lasting evidence of Postell’s story.
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Alissa Keller, executive director of the Museums of Historic Hopkinsville-Christian County, said Postell was instrumental in helping Hopkinsville recover from a major fire in 1882 that consumed seven downtown blocks and destroyed 70 buildings.
Postell was among the business owners who lost buildings in that fire.
“Within the next year, Peter Postell had rebuilt one of the most handsome blocks in the city,” Keller said in remarks prepared for the dedication ceremony.
A newspaper article said the Postell block “would do credit to a larger city” and that he deserved “credit for the progressive spirit of enterprise and improvement he has shown by erecting a building that will identify his name with the substantial improvements of the city.”
The Postell building housed his grocery and a number of other businesses, including a white surgeon’s clinic, a Black attorney’s office and a newspaper.
The building was also a meeting hall for African American benevolent organizations that served many needs during times of severe division and segregation for Hopkinsville, said Keller.
Postell is buried at Cave Springs Cemetery. He and his wife had seven daughters and three sons.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
