The Castle On-The-Lake (or The Castle if you prefer) first appeared in the City Directory in 1942. According to the Images of America Lorain book, it was built in 1925 as a private residence. I have tried to do some research on the original owner, but unfortunately since Leavitt Road was the western city limits for many years, the early city directories didn't include any address listings west of it.
Shown above is an ad from 1961.
The Castle is one of those Lorain icons that everyone remembers and has some special memory associated with it. For me, it was the choice for dining on the night of my senior prom, as well as my wedding rehearsal dinner.
Be sure to post a comment about your special Castle memory!
I remember sitting in McDonalds as a kid and my Dad (a bartender) telling my brother and I that when it was a private residence it used its location for night time illegal liquour deliveries off the lake during prohibition.
ReplyDeleteThe Castle was built by O. F. Hageman (Otto Frederick). I had researched him years ago as he was married to Mayme Porter. I'm currently looking for that information, There is also a small reference to this in a bio from the History of Lorain which states that "He now resides in a beautiful limestone residence out on West Erie beyond the city limits where he owns a rare tract of land with a 200 foot frontage on Lake Erie."
ReplyDeleteWhat happened to The Castle?
ReplyDeleteMy mother worked at the castle in 1977ish. Her name was Susie Adams Van Meter. We used to stop there while she was working on her shift as a bartender to get money for McDonald's to eat for dinner after school. I Remember that there was a mote there. it had water and a bunch of change in it. One time we were on the mote bridge and a guy walked out of the bar and asked my girlfriend and I what we were doing and we told him we were looking for money. He gave us $100 bill and we split it. We were only 7 years old and we split it and we spent part of it up in clarkon's and my mother found out and made us give the money back..what was left of it anyways. We later moved to vermilion Ohio and heard that the castle on the lake became a Mexican place that had some kind of burrito club where if you could eat the whole 5 lb burrito you got it for free.. I really don't know if it was a 5 lb burrito but it was something ridiculous like that. If she were alive today I would ask her to explain the history of the castle on the lake to you but she has since died in 2016 and will not be able to provide any information to you.. we lived in that neighborhood beside the beachcomber motel and an empty restaurant before it had become Chris's restaurant. Growing up in that neighborhood was fun and I still use the street name Pancho West Erie as my adult porn name. Haha. It is a game people play to find out what their porn name is and that is the name of your first pet and the street you grew up on. I am now 54 years old and that was back when I was 7 years old so it's been a long time since I heard about the castle on the lake but I decided to look it up to see if it was still there on Google Earth and came across your forum. so happy to have added to it a little bit of history about something I know nothing about..
ReplyDeleteThanks for that fun comment. I just ran across it. I was born in 1954. I remember the first McD’s next to it but I only remember it being kinda or getting kinda crummy. (I moved away after college.)
DeleteMy brother-in-law, Walter Blondyn owned the Castle-On-The-Lake in the early 50’s and it was a truly fine dining experience. I still have a copy of his menu.
ReplyDeleteThe ad pictured above was from the time he owned it.
ReplyDelete