Harvest House Cafeteria – Part 1

It was just a month ago on this blog that we were discussing the stores and businesses that were part of Midway Mall when it opened in 1966. One of them was Harvest House Cafeteria.

You can part of its illuminated sign at the far left of the above photo.

The Harvest House Cafeterias were owned and operated by Woolworth’s. According to the book, Remembering Woolworth’s: A Nostalgic History of the World’s Most Famous Five-and-Dime by Karen Plunkett-Powell, “During the 1960s, Woolworth’s also introduced Harvest House restaurants in American shopping malls, and Red Grilles in their Woolco stores. By then, approximately eighty percent of F. W. Woolworth variety stores were equipped with some type of eatery. Some had small counters seating ten, while others could seat over 300. There were stand-up counters, sit-down counters, full-fledged cafeterias, bakeries, and simple soda fountains.”

Although cafeterias are still perfectly at home in schools, colleges and hospitals, it’s strange (and a little quaint) to think of cafeterias as a dinner option for mall shoppers back then. But it was a successful business model, and an economical choice for shoppers as well. I’m surprised the concept hasn’t made a comeback.

Here’s an ad for the Midway Mall Harvest House that ran in the Lorain Journal on January 6, 1967. (I suppose today the clown in the ad would be a no-no; too scary!)

As you can see, the ad template was adapted for each location. Here’s the same ad customized for Cherry Hill Mall and Moorestown Mall in Moorestown, New Jersey.

I only remember eating at the Midway Mall Harvest House once or twice. I don’t know what the occasions were, but I think I was dressed up.

Anyway, the Midway Mall Harvest House lasted right into the 1990s. Sadly, both the restaurant and the Woolworth’s store both disappeared beginning with the 1994 edition of the Elyria City Directory.

Tomorrow: A Look Inside a Harvest House

Harvest House Cafeteria – Part 2

Courtesy CardCow.com

Harvest House Cafeterias were promoted through a series of standard postcards that depicted what typical outlets in the chain looked like. Some of these generic postcards had a listing of all of the regional locations on the back; others were branded with a single location. But the same photos were used in either case.

These postcards provide a nice glimpse of what customers could expect at a Harvest House Cafeteria.

Strangely enough, while these Harvest House blog posts were in the planning stages last week, I received a nice email from David Howat about Midway Mall. He wrote, “I’ve been on the quest for pictures of Woolworths and the Harvest House Cafeteria that was in the mall. Do you know where I can possibly find any?”

David had the same generic postcards as me, but would love to find photos of the Midway Mall Woolworths and its Harvest House Cafeteria.

He has fond memories of them. “I remember having breakfast at the in-store restaurant the last day it was open,” he explained. “Because I frequently ate there, they gave me a menu on the last day as a souvenir. It’s still in my collection.”

David would also like to contact any former employees, but it’s not an easy task. “I can’t even find one former employee,” he admitted.

If you can help David with his Woolworths quest, be sure to send me an email and I’ll make sure he gets the information.

By the way, David also sent me this great photo (below) that should look familiar to anyone who shopped at Midway Mall in the old days. He noted, “This was the neat setup just outside of Higbees that we all remember. Seeing this picture brought back some great memories for me.”

Me, too, David! Thanks for sharing!

More Harvest House Clowning Around

Last week I posted this January 1967 newspaper ad (above) for the Midway Mall Harvest House cafeteria. It just happened to be the only ad that I had on file.

Since I work in advertising (at the low end: direct mail), I found the ad somewhat interesting because it seemed like Woolworth’s was aiming strictly at the kiddie crowd with the clown and balloons. I wasn’t a real big fan of the clown art either. He looked a little creepy.

That’s why I was surprised to find this July 7, 1967 ad (below) on microfilm a day or so ago. Whoevever was in charge of Harvest House advertising must have felt the same way about that clown, because apparently he was fired (maybe out of a cannon).

Note how the layout is exactly the same, but better. This clown looks like he could have Ringling Brothers on his resumé.

The clip art of the parents is a little less cartoony too. (I wonder if Marlo Thomas was the inspiration for the drawing of the woman?)

Another ad (below) from January 19, 1968 featured the same clown. No balloons or Mom & Pop this time.

I’m beginning to think it was always Thanksgiving at your local Harvest House.

And lest you think that Harvest House’s advertising department was a bunch of clowns, here’s another ad, from April 7, 1967. This one tried a different approach – actually showing food and a chef.

Harvest House Grand Opening Ad – 1966

One of the images that Michael Brown sent me during our correspondence in January about Midway Mall is the above ad for the Grand Opening of the Harvest House Cafeteria. The full-page ad ran in the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram as part of the special section about the opening of Midway Mall in late September 1966.

It’s a great ad, showing both the interior and exterior of the store, as well as apparently the first of the ongoing roast turkey dinner specials. (I’m surprised their cafeteria advertising slogan wasn’t “It’s Always Thanksgiving at Harvest House!”)

Since my original posts about Harvest House back in January, I’ve also scared up a bigger version of the postcard showing the interior and exterior of typical restaurants. You can click on for that “You are there” experience.

I also found this matchbook currently on Ebay.

It's Sunday afternoon while I'm preparing this post, and it’s almost time for me to get started on my chili. But for some reason, all I can think of is roast turkey with creamy mashed potatoes, giblet gravy and a warm roll and butter.

And a choice of vegetable.

Harvest House Cafeteria Ads – October 1970

It’s been a couple of years since I featured the Harvest House Cafeteria at Midway Mall on the blog. My observation in the assortment of posts was that it seemed to be perpetually Thanksgiving at the restaurant, with a roast turkey dinner more often not being the special.

There also seemed to be an endless parade of clown illustrations in the ads, designed to appeal to the kids (in those days before clowns were seen as sinister or hiding out from the law).

Anyway, here is an atypical pair of Harvest House ads – with neither turkey or clown – from the pages of the Journal back in October 1970 – 50 years ago this month.

The first ad (from Tuesday, October 6th) features ‘All the Fish You Can Eat.’ The special was only good on Wednesday. Why not Friday?

A few weeks later on October 23, 1970 (with perhaps the supply of cod or pollock exhausted), the ad promoted ‘All the Chicken You Can Eat.’ This special was good every Sunday, thus tying in nicely with the movie, play and book entitled Chicken Every Sunday.

Hey, I wrote about chicken dinners recently back here.

Anyway, ‘Chicken Every Sunday’ was apparently the menu that my father got used to while growing up. His grandfather raised chickens (and pigs too) right at his home on W. 28th Street in Lorain. Since they all lived together during the Depression (Dad’s parents lost their house), that’s what they had on the Sabbath. 

Maybe that’s why in later years, Dad couldn’t stand chicken in any form.

Meanwhile, my mother reminisces that she hardly ever had chicken while growing up in the 1930s. Her father liked unusual things, like liver – not exactly a kid’s favorite. 

David J. Howat, 1972 - 2024

I was saddened to learn recently that David J. Howat had passed away. (Here's the link to his obituary). Although I never met him in person, we exchanged many emails over the years about topics related to my blog, and I came to feel like I knew him. And he was a very nice guy.

David first reached out to me back in 2017, when he was looking for pictures of Woolworth’s and Harvest House cafeteria at Midway Mall. I provided a few leads for him, including the name of the last manager of Harvest House before it closed, as well as a woman who was a waitress at Woolworth’s. David was extremely grateful, and regularly updated me with news of his progress towards his goal. 

He next turned his attention to the old Westgate Mall in Lorain. This eventually led to his quest to acquire an old Fazio’s sign from the former store there. It took him several years and a lot of effort, but in the end he was successful. (I wrote about this in a two-part post here and here.)

As a collector and nostalgia buff, I came to admire David’s enthusiasm and persistence as he went about trying to obtain some item of interest to him. And it paid off. In one email, he noted, “I've acquired a huge collection of Pick-N-Pay memorabilia and I am going to have it put in a shadow box and displayed somewhere in my house. I also have a ton of Woolworth’s memorabilia, as well as some Fazio's memorabilia.”

So why did he collect all this stuff? It think it reminded him of happy days. 

As David explained in an email, “I do not know if it's a good or bad thing, but I am very sentimental and I try to hold onto memories as long as I can. The memories I have – from shopping at Pick-N-Pay in the 70's with Mom as a little kid, to spending the whole day at Midway Mall – are things that I will always cherish. 

My sincere condolences to David’s family and friends.

St. Patrick’s Day Ads – 1964 & 1968

Well, St. Patrick’s Day is tomorrow so that means it’s time for the annual bit o’ blarney here on the O’ Brady Blog where I post vintage ads with that theme.

I’d been a-diggin around in the Journal microfilm from 1964 (looking for Chicken Delight ads), so the first two ads are from mid-March that year.

First up is a portion of a large ad for The Reidy-Scanlan Company. It features a nice illustration of a leprechaun pulling wads of “green” out of a shamrock-covered piggy bank.

The ad also includes details on a neat round-trip for two contest that was a tie-in with the 1964 World’s Fair.

Next up is this wee ad for Heilman’s, who was serving up the traditional Corned Beef and Cabbage, as well as Mulligan Stew. That’s a pretty stylized leprechaun.

By 1968, St. Patrick’s Day restaurant ads in the Journal featuring leprechauns seemed to be much rarer. Perhaps it was the tempo of the war-torn times.

But good old Harvest House Cafeteria out at Midway Mall (a favorite topic on this blog) included a small leprechaun brandishing a shillelagh in their ad that ran on March 16, 1968. 

The menu included a Corned Beef and Cabbage dinner and – in case you didn’t like Corned Beef – Roast Turkey with Hot Giblet Gravy, Baked Celery Dressing, Cranberry Sauce, Creamy Whipped Potatoes, Choice of Vegetable and Warm Roll and Butter. (Like I said before, it was always Thanksgiving at Harvest House!)

Other perennial blog favorite Vian’s skipped the clip art altogether.

So did United Polish Club, which will be featured on a blog post next week.

Have a Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Midway Mall 5th Anniversary – Sept. 1971

Fifty years ago this month, Midway Mall – “Ohio’s Showplace Enclosed Mall Shopping Center" – was celebrating its Fifth Anniversary. At that time, the Mall boasted fifty four ‘fine firms.’ 

Above is the full-page ad that appeared in the Journal on Sept. 19, 1971.

To celebrate the occasion, the Mall booked a grab bag of entertainment acts including Quantrell and Company Magic Show; Lipko’s Human Comedy Chimps (who I previously wrote about here); Arnold & Sir Richard Burton (an organ grinder and his monkey); and Blossom the Clown (an animal balloon artist). There was also Fritz, the Bavarian Glass Blower;  a caricature sketch artist; nightly drawings for gift certificates; and Mini Grand Prix Children’s Rides.

Stores at the Mall at that time included: Andre Duval Beauty Salon; Arnold Palmer Cleaners; Baker’s Shoes; Barricini Candy; Bentley Ties; Blvd. Juvenile Shoes; Clarence Faflik Shoes; Cleveland Fabric Shop; Clowntown; Diamond’s Men Shop; Fanny Farmer Candy; Fisher-Fazio; Foxmoor Casuals; Goodyear Tire & Rubber; Gray Drugs; Midway Opticians; Harvest House Cafeteria; The Higbee Co.; Hobby Center; Hough Bakery; Household Finance; Lane Bryant; Lorain County Savings & Trust; Louis Cohn Mens Wear; Melody Manor; Memory Lane Card Shop; McDonald & Co.; Michael-Angela Hair Fashions; Midway Barber Shop; Midway Cinema; Nobil Shoes; O’Henry’s Pub; Parklane Hosiery; Paul Harris; JCPenney; Petries; Puppy Palace; Record World; Regal Shoes; Richman Brothers; Rose Jewelers; Sam Kleins; Schwede Appliance & TV; Sears, Roebuck and Co.; Seven Seas Gift Shop; Sidewalk Cafe; Singer Sewing Center; Spencer Gifts; Ted Jacobs; Tweed Shop; Union Savings Associates; Walden Book Co.; Winkelman’s; and Woolworths.

In case you were wondering (like me), Clowntown was a photography studio that specialized in children. For some reason, I don’t think this place would succeed today.

Some of the businesses listed were not in the main portion of the Mall. For example, O’Henry’s Pub and Household Finance were in the strip of stores anchored by Goodyear Tire & Rubber (at the north end) and Fisher-Fazio (at the south end). In later years, AAA was a longtime tenant before it flew the coop to Avon.

Easter Dinner Restaurant Ads – 1971

Here’s wishing all of my readers a joyous Easter!

Are you planning a big Easter dinner? I’m eschewing the usual ham in favor of beef, which I’ll be chewing in the form of Western-style ribs. A real cowboy dinner.

But if you were hoping to avoid a culinary clean-up in the kitchen fifty-one years ago, you had a few restaurant options. But unlike my supper today, beef was not on the menu at Arby’s which was closed on Easter Sunday 1971.

Beef was on the menu at Chris Family Restaurant on West Erie, which was serving up a sirloin dinner, roast chicken, a Hungarian platter and its still-great today perch dinner.

Corinthian Family Restaurant at 1138 Broadway had a great varied menu for Easter, including Roast Tom Turkey, Shiskabob, Swiss Steak, Baked Hickory Smoked Ham and – what else? – Sirloin of Beef. (Maybe having beef today isn’t as offbeat as I thought.)

And lastly, Harvest House Cafeteria at Midway Mall surprisingly did not feature its endless year-round Thanksgiving turkey feast. Its ad described a great Baked Ham Dinner with Sweet Potatoes, Choice of Vegetable, Tossed Salad, Juice, Cheese Cake and Beverage, all for $2.50.

Now that I’ve gotten you hungry, hope you enjoy a nice Easter dinner, whatever is on the menu!

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As noted a few days ago, I’ll be taking this week off as I transition all of my files (hopefully) from my ancient, barely working iMac to a brand new one. See you soon!

Journal Entertainment Page – April 1, 1972

Here’s a nice cultural snapshot from fifty years ago: the entertainment page from the Journal of April 1, 1972.

As usual there was something for everyone, movie-wise. The Godfather was playing at Midway Mall. The Palace had two movies directed by John Schlesinger, Sunday Bloody Sunday and Midnight Cowboy.

Clint Eastwood was starring in a great quadruple feature at Lorain Drive-in, where the lineup was A Fistful of Dollars; A Few Dollars More; The Good, the Bad and the Ugly; and Hang’em High. Tower Drive-in was showing Who Slew Auntie Roo?, starring Shelley Winters and “Oliver” himself (Mark Lester), and The Return of Count Yorga. (It’s hard for me to accept Shelley Winters in a horror flick, after seeing her as the saloon girl in the classic Western Winchester ’73 with James Stewart.)

But what about family-friendly fare? Not everyone wanted to see gangsters and vampires.

Walt Disney Productions’ Lady and the Tramp and Bongo were showing at Liberty Theater in Vermilion; the Duke in Rio Lobo was the bottom of a triple feature at Carlisle Drive-in. Amherst Theatre had the rodeo Western J. W. Coop with Cliff Robertson.

Over at the Tivoli, Catch-22 was onscreen, along with Walter Mathau in Plaza Suite. Although I loved the book Catch-22 and reread it every few years, I disliked the movie, which I found unfunny and forced (which I blame on the script and the director). It has a great cast, however, especially Alan Arkin.

Strangely, the VL Cinema (later well-known for unsavory cinematic fare) was showing The Bible: In the Beginning.

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There’s a few restaurant ads of interest on the Journal page as well. Americana Inn (previously mentioned on this blog on a New Year’s Eve post) had two ads: one for its Saturday night specials, and another plugging its Easter Sunday menu. Most surprising of all was the ad for Harvest House at the Mall, which had a baked ham dinner as well as a Swiss steak special on the menu, instead of the usual year-round Thanksgiving turkey dinner.

Lorain’s nationality and social clubs are well-represented on the page, with ads for Polish American Citizen’s Club, Lorain Eagles and United Polish Club.

Heilman’s Thanksgiving Dinner Ad – Nov. 1960

Going out to eat on Thanksgiving has long been a tradition for many families that simply want to avoid cleaning up a big mess after the preparation of the meal. This provides more time to visit and enjoy the holiday. 

Over the years, I’ve featured a variety of vintage Thanksgiving restaurant ads, including the Deutschof (1937), the Castle (1954),  Howard Johnson’s (1957), and the Airport Tavern (1957).

Here’s another one. It’s for the well-remembered Heilman’s Restaurant at the corner of Broadway and West Erie Avenue and ran in the Journal on November 12, 1960.

It’s a strange-looking ad too. 

Despite the fancy-sounding meal on the menu (a “gourmet buffet complete with garnished hams, decorated turkeys, ice carvings), the ad depicts what looks like twin pilgrim clowns. Each has a bulbous schnozzola that would not look out of place on Red Nose Day.

Gee, the turkey dinner and clown motif is almost reminiscent of an ad for Harvest House.

Midway Mall Ladies’ Day Sale – Nov. 1971

Fifty years ago this month, Midway Mall featured a Ladies’ Day Sale on November 9th, 1971. 

The above ad, which ran in the Journal on the eve of the special promotion provides a snapshot of some of the stores at the Mall at that time, including Higbee’s, JCPenney’s, Winkelman’s, Andre Duval, Lane Bryant, Cleveland Fabric Shops, Woolworth and Sears.

There are some nice deals in the ad. Harvest House Cafeteria offered frankfurters and sauerkraut (with a choice of two vegetables, roll & butter and a beverage) for only a buck; Clown Town featured kiddie portraits starting at two dollars; and Goodyear was giving away a free window scraper “for any lady who stops in our store Ladies’ Day.”

Walden Book Store has an ad featuring Jack LaLanne’s Slim & Trim Diet and Exercise Guide, as well as The Family Knitting Book.

Do stores still have Ladies’ Day Sales in these gender neutral times?

Interestingly, Midway Cinema (it hadn’t been twinned yet) offered a free movie: Two Mules For Sister Sara (1970), starring good old Clint Eastwood and Shirley MacClaine. Happily, both of them are still with us.

I suppose it was a good choice for women to see, but that movie has always bugged me, with Shirley MacClaine’s phony nun character having fooled Clint throughout much of the movie.)

A Baker's Dozen of Hough Bakeries Clippings

Yesterday's post about Baby Bear Bread and various local bakeries made me realize that I'd never devoted a post to just Hough Bakeries. To rectify that half-baked oversight, here's a baker's dozen of various clippings in chronological order, consisting of articles and ads that tell the story of this beloved institution from his first appearance in Lorain in 1958 to its sad closing in 1992.

March 25, 1958

March 26, 1958

October 1, 1958

Feb. 1, 1961

May 23, 1967

Sept. 19, 1971

Dec. 21, 1976

May 1, 1978

Dec. 15, 1986

May 18, 1987

March 28, 1990

May 10, 1990

Aug. 9, 1992

For the Brady family, the one at Westgate Shopping Center at W. 21st was a regular Saturday afternoon stop for many years, usually to pick up a kuchen for Sunday morning. I myself later patronized the one at Midway Mall.

I can still taste one specific kuchen with a soft, crumbly white topping on it. Boy, was that good!

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UPDATE (May 3, 2026)

As for where the bakery was located, I'm pretty sure that the Hough Bakeries outlet at Midway Mall can be seen in the vintage postcard below (from the 1960s?). I believe it is the white storefront on the left. Starting from the left edge of the photos, you see Harvest House, Boulevard Shoes, Bentley Ties, Fanny Farmer, Spencer Gifts and then what I believe is Hough Bakeries.

This seems to be supported by this listing of Midway Mall stores circa 1967.