Hanks Electric was already part of the community long before Clermont’s growth boom.

The business founded in 1955 by Seldon and Ruby Hanks began at their home in Groveland after they relocated from Chicago.

Seldon, an electrical engineer, built the company one service call at a time, sometimes waking his son Jim “Jimmy” Hanks in the middle of the night to help him restore power or repair a neighbor’s well pump.

“He would say, ‘Jimmy, we need to get up. Someone’s well pump is out,’” Jim’s daughter Julie Hanks-Prado says of her grandfather. “They’d go fix it right then.”

Hanks Electric became a longtime fixture in downtown Clermont, known for appliances, air conditioning and repairs, honesty, reliability and personal service. The business also helped train generations of local technicians and future business owners.

The future of the family business suddenly became uncertain when Julie’s father died in 2020 and her mother passed in 2021. Hanks Electric officially closed Sept. 30, 2021, but Julie and her husband, Ernie Prado — who had worked as an appliance technician for the company since 2012 — reopened the next day as Appliance Parts of Clermont.

Today, the business focuses on appliance parts, refurbished appliances and trusted repair referrals while continuing the same customer-first approach the Hanks family built over decades.

“If nobody else can find the part you need, Julie can find it for you,” Ernie says.

The couple serves longtime customers and welcomes new ones who find them through word of mouth, online reviews and old refrigerator magnets bearing the original Hanks Electric phone number, the same number still used today.

For Julie, hearing customers share memories about her grandparents and parents remains one of the most meaningful parts of continuing the business.

“It makes me feel good inside when people talk about them and sometimes, I get to hear stories I never heard before,” she says. “They’ll also say, ‘We’re very happy that you stuck around,’ and that’s the best compliment of all.” It joins The Village Barbershop as one of downtown Clermont’s enduring, multi-generation storefronts.

By the numbers in 1955
● Refrigerators cost $300
● A washing machine cost $200
● Gasoline averaged 23 cents per gallon
● Elvis Presley signed his first RCA recording contract