Craft Fine Shoes

Around 1948, Alabama native Charles Kartus (1912-1969) founded shoe store Craft Fine Shoes at 151 East Main Street in Rock Hill, South Carolina. A fixture in the downtown commercial scene for more than twenty years, the store closed a few months after Kartus’s death in late 1969. Before he opened Craft Fine Shoes, Kartus served in the U.S. Army during World War II, where he was assigned as the personal driver for General Maxwell D. Taylor, commander of the 101st Airborne Division. In addition to his store in Rock Hill, Kartus co-owned stores in Hickory, Lenoir, and Morganton, North Carolina with his sister, Esther Pauline Kartus (1906-1991).