Workers doing demolition work at the former Clark Brothers Furniture building at Main and Market made a startling discovery. When stucco was removed from second-floor brick walls, there were four large murals of a hooded Ku Klux Klan member astride a black horse.
"We were shocked," said Alejandro Richter, whose construction firm is helping ready the building for a condominium project.
He said, "We said, 'Whoa!' We know what the figures mean.
"I never thought we would uncover something like that."
Mr. Richter said the owners were also shocked when they saw the figures.
There are two on the north wall and two on the south wall of the identical murals.
At the bottom of the murals is scrawled the name J.G. Schrock. An old city directory in 1950 gives an individual by that name who was living in Rossville and listed as a welder.
Mr. Richter said the walls will be cleaned later in the project, and the murals removed.
He noted, "It is part of history."