Lorain Journal Front Page – October 1, 1926

Rogers Hornsby, manager of the St. Louis Cardinals

One hundred years ago today, it was the first day of October 1926. The front page of the Lorain Journal that day was crammed with enough news to provide considerable background fodder and atmosphere for a Don Hilton crime novel. 

The big story was a raid on bootleggers by state liquor agents that didn’t go quite as well as planned, thanks to the fact that “a newspaper in a neighboring city printed a sensational story concerning state agents in Lorain.” The raids did result, however, in search warrants against “more than a score of Lorain bootleg establishments.”

The other big story was the World Series, which was set to open the following day in Yankee Stadium, between the New York Yankees and the St. Louis Cardinals.

Other news stories included: the Lorain County Commissioners promising support for the construction of a high level bridge over the Black River (it would take almost exactly another ten years before the dream was realized); the burning at sea of the freighter New Britain; the tragic death of the Erie Avenue bridge watchman; and the aftermath of the rescue of miners that were trapped for six days in the Pabst mine at Ironwood, Michigan.

On a lighter note, a small article reported that “prisoners of the Lorain city jail had a feast last night." 

"They were given the “leavings’ of the police department banquet, which included chicken, clams, corn on the cob, soup, near beer and potatoes. 

"The drinks did not last long among the prisoners. 

"“It was like pouring water down a sewer to watch the near beer disappear down the throats of the prisoners,” said Lieut. George Carson."

Model Home at 796 Milan Avenue in Amherst

Back in the 1920s and 30s, a beautiful model home built with all the modern touches was a big event, and worthy of coverage in the Lorain Journal. It was a nice opportunity for some publicity not only for the builder, but for all of the contractors involved, even if the articles were similar to what the paper ran in the business section decades later.

The article below, which ran in the paper on September 12, 1930, shines the spotlight on a new home in Amherst built by the Rahl and Mueller Lumber Company of Lorain. Contractors and suppliers include the Lorain Crystal Ice Company, the Amherst Hardware Co., Lehman Electric and Radio Service, the Mancrief Furnace Co., the Carl L. Kashman Co. and the Brunk Machine and Forging Co.

The address of the house is listed in the article as 854 Milan Ave., but in the intervening years the numerical address is now 796. It's located across from Sandstone Village.

It's still a beautiful and unique home – in a city with a lot of historic Sears Homes – that retains all of its original charm. 

Dunkin' Progress at Cooper Foster and S. Broadway

It's taking a little longer than I expected for the new Dunkin' to be built at the intersection of Cooper Foster Park Road and South Broadway. But I imagine it's in the home stretch now.

It really wasn't that long ago that the little house and tall trees were still there at the intersection. 

Here's roughly the same view from over the weekend.

I still think it's not the greatest location for a coffee and donut place. It's hard enough to get in and out of Flowerama across the street there, and it will probably be even more difficult when you add the additional traffic from Dunkin'. We'll see.

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Dunkin' Donuts seems to have first appeared in our area in the fall of 1977. It was still in the planning stage in the spring of that year, and 'help wanted' ads showed up in the Journal in early November.

Here are the earliest ads I could find that ran in the Journal. The address of the shop at that time was 929 N. Leavitt, which today is just to the north of the Mr. Hero in the small shopping strip on the east side of the highway.

Nov. 21, 1977

Nov. 28, 1977

Feb. 1, 1978

It's interesting seeing Munchkins mentioned in the ad. I had forgotten that originally, Dunkin' used a Wizard of Oz tie-in to market their donut holes. Over time, however, the Wizard of Oz angle was dropped and the pieces of dough themselves became anthropomorphic.

Those Munchkins characters sure remind me of Timbits (the Tim Hortons donut holes).

The Timbit character used to have eyes, although they were so big they looked like olives.

 

Although I don't get up to Canada very much these days, I satisfy my yearning for Tim Hortons donuts and Timbits by visiting the restaurants in Ashland, Fremont, Columbus, and the Toledo area.

I've done two posts on Tim Hortons (so far).

"The Coupling" Article – Sept. 19, 1976

For many years, I've driven past a small park on State Route 13 near Milan that has several train cars sitting on the property. I was always in a hurry to get wherever it was I was headed, so I never stopped to investigate why they were there. 

That's why I was happy to find the article below, which appeared in the Journal back on September 19, 1976. It tells the story of how "The Coupling" – a nature retreat located along the Huron River that today is known as The Coupling Metropark – was born of an idea conceived in a Sandusky church.

But first – why was it christened, "The Coupling?"

"First, it is taken from the fact that two old railroad cars, a caboose and a boxcar, have been moved and set up as the first structures on the site along SR 13, just north of the Ohio Turnpike," notes the article. "Second, it describes the purpose of the project, to bring people together.

"The Rev. Robert L. Berger, a Minister at St. Paul's Lutheran Church, at the corner of Perkins Avenue and Mills Street in Sandusky, says the group is convinced that well-planned retreats will aid families and other groups "to come together more meaningfully.

"The gift of the 22-acre site to St. Paul's Lutheran Church by Mrs. Lilian Horn of Sandusky in 1957 paved the way for the start of the project. The land has been used for occasional wilderness-type camping or hiking by Boy Scouts, but it wasn't until 1973 that Pastor Berger began an ernest effort to develop it."

Berger wrote letters asking for old railroad cars, and eventually received a caboose from the Chessie system. He was also able to salvage an old boxcar from the same railway.

I spent a little time at The Coupling Metropark on Saturday. Since the time of the 1976 article, a historic Wheeling & Lake Erie /B&O railroad depot has been relocated to the property from Monroeville. A caboose (identified by some experts as an old Western Maryland caboose) sits adjacent to the depot.

The two original train cars – the caboose and boxcar were still there, connected by a platform, as recently as 2016.

Photo courtesy The Coupling Metropark

However, the boxcar has since been replaced by a small cottage. 

The red caboose still looks pretty good. Here's hoping it gets the TLC it needs to keep this worthy idea alive for another fifty years.

Click here to visit The Coupling Metropark page on the Erie MetroParks website.

Journal TV Page Featuring "Maverick" – Sept. 20, 1958

Well, the weekend is finally here! I'll no doubt enjoy a few nights (when I don't have to prepare a blog post for the next day) watching some TV, most likely the GRIT or OUTLAW channels.

So appropriately enough, I'll close out the week here on the blog with a full TV page from the Saturday, September 20, 1958 Lorain Journal. 

Of course the item of interest for me is the photo of James Garner and accompanying promotional copy about Maverick, which was about to start its second (and most successful) season on ABC on Sunday.

Maverick has been the subject of several posts. It was, and still is, a Brady favorite.

I always enjoy looking at old TV grids; they remind me of how much simpler times were back then. I actually preferred not having as many choices as we do now. TV used to be a shared experience; we could all talk about it the next day. Nowadays, it's almost unlikely that everybody in a small group of people actually watched the same thing, with all the streaming possibilities.

Also on the page is a great ad for Charcoal Pit, the subject of a few posts as well. I like the clip art in the ad.

Pfeiffer's Beer Ads – Sept. 1956

Beer seems to be a recurring topic on this blog – and I hardly ever drink it. I've devoted many posts to Old Dutch, Hamm's, Carling's Black Label, Buckeye Beer and some regional favorites. 

I guess it's because beer ads (and hard liquor ads as well) appeared in the Lorain Journal just about every day in the 1950s. While they were usually in the vicinity of the sports pages, they could show up just about anywhere in the paper.

I thought I was familiar with most beer brands by now, but here's one that was new to me: Pfeiffer's. I had seen little statues of Johnny Fifer, the beer's mascot in antique shops over the last thirty years. But I never paid attention to the brand he was promoting. By the way he's dressed, I thought he represented some imported European beer; actually, he's supposed to be a Revolutionary War fifer.

Pfeiffer's was a Detroit, Michigan-based brewery dating back to the late 1800s, when it was founded by a German immigrant. By the 1950s it had become a top-selling brand in the Midwest. And for a while in the mid-1950s, Pfeiffer's placed a lot of ads in the Lorain Journal. 

Here's one that appeared on September 21, 1956.

It appears that the real marketing push had occurred the previous year, beginning in the spring, when a large ad ran about once a week. This ad seems like it was introducing Pfeiffer's to the Lorain area.

April 8, 1955

Several ads appeared in the weeks that followed.

May 6, 1955

May 13, 1955

A year later, the brand had apparently been around long enough for some of the ads to say that it was "Now.. better than ever!"

June 1, 1956

Aug. 24, 1956

Several times I've written about a long-gone regional beer that was ''revived" in name only, with none of the brand's equity (including its distinctive logo, label design, etc.). Examples of this include Buckeye Beer and Burger Beer.

Happily, that's not the case with Pfeiffer's.

Today, Pfeiffer's is still around. It's in extremely limited distribution but with its charming logo and packaging design virtually intact.

Click here to visit the Pfeiffer's website. It's extremely well done, and the love and affection for the brand is quite apparent. The website does an excellent job of telling the beer's story in an exciting, graphic way. 

Now if only someone could do that for Old Dutch.

Anyway, Johnny Fifer plays on, in 2026.

Colonel Sanders Article – Sept. 19, 1976

Colonel Sanders and his world renowned Kentucky Fried Chicken have been a recurring topic on this blog. 

I always found interesting that he was a latecomer when it came to chicken restaurants in Lorain, with several others (Chicken Delight, Minnie Pearl, etc.) making chicken tracks into town before him. The Lorain store on Oberlin Avenue didn't open until April 1971. 

We didn't have it very often in the early years. I remember Mom suggesting having it for dinner by saying, "How about Colonel Sanders tonight?" In later years, we brought it on picnics.

I've written before how I played 'Happy Birthday' on my trombone for the Colonel, when he visited the Ohio State Fair in 1976 and I was a member of the All-Ohio State Fair Band. He stood about ten or twelve away from me and the other trombones in our small group, and I remember thinking, "Wow, is he short!"

And I once visited his grave down in Louisville, Kentucky while visiting my sister, who lives in that fine city. (No, I didn't leave a grease-stained KFC bucket filled with flowers as a memorial.) We went to the Colonel Sanders Museum that same day as well.

Anyway, here's an interesting article about the Colonel, showing him at his crankiest. He was visiting some Kentucky Fried Chicken outlets and was less than pleased with how his famous recipe was being followed. The article (which is pretty hilarious) ran in the Journal back on Sept. 19, 1976.

The article mentions that he was handing out signed photos of himself. I wouldn't be surprised if it was something like this card (below). There's several of them on eBay right now.

I don't have Kentucky Fried Chicken very often these days. It's not the healthiest meal. But when I have a taste for it, I have to have it. Luckily that only happens about once a year.