A ceremony will be held Wednesday, Dec. 5, to honor the victims of an explosion in downtown Villa Rica in 1957.

Next week’s event will be held 50 years to the day of the explosion.

Twelve people died in the gas explosion that reportedly originated in the basement of Berry’s Pharmacy on Montgomery Street, but in many ways there was another victim - the city itself. When the explosion occurred, the entire corner of Montgomery Street and Candler Street was leveled and many other shops suffered damage. Friends and family members of those killed were left to their grief, as well as with the task of rebuilding their lives and their city.

Though it took years, the city’s residents rebuilt and moved on, but for those who were there, the event is one of those memories that will remain vivid for a lifetime, similar to the memories people have of where they were when news broke of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

The remembrance ceremony will be brief and simple, but for those who were touched by the explosion it could prove to be an emotional journey back to that day half a century ago. Survivors, rescuers, family members of the dead and others involved in the tragic event have been invited to attend the remembrance ceremony and many have said they plan to be in attendance. While some still live in the area, others who feel a special connection to the city and those events plan to travel great distances to the ceremony.

The ceremony will begin at 10:30 a.m. on Candler Street with a welcome by Mayor J. Collins, who will use a research paper his late mother, Brenda Busbin Collins, wrote about the explosion when she attended West Georgia College.

After a prayer and musical selection by Franklin Richardson, the names of the 12 dead will be read and a bell chimed by Randy Wallace, who was a member of the Villa Rica Elementary School Safety Patrol that helped route traffic away from downtown the day of the explosion.

The ceremony will also include the unveiling of a Georgia Historic Marker that will be placed in front of the newly rebuilt Berry’s Pharmacy building. Etched in the marker will be a narrative explaining the effects of the explosion on the city.

The new Berry’s Pharmacy building will also be dedicated on that day, followed by a reception and a musical selection by the Villa Rica High School Symphonic Band.

“We don’t want it to be about a bunch of people making speeches,” said Valerie Wilhelm, whose mother, Margaret Berry, was killed in the explosion. “It’s about a remembrance. I think it will be very nice without boring people. That’s what we’re looking for. We just want it to be memorable to people.”