Thursday, March 25, 2010

The Coliseum Part 1


In a blog entry that I did a few weeks ago about the 1945 Lorain County Victory Day Celebration (back here), an ad for a luncheon event listed the Coliseum as the location. This prompted one of my regular readers (who coincidentally happens to be my brother) to ask where the Coliseum was located. I knew the Coliseum was out on West Erie Avenue (US Route 6) somewhere but I wasn't exactly sure at the time. Well, I did a little digging in the city directories and found out that it was just a little bit west of the Castle. But I'll get into the actual location and what is located at the site today a little bit later in this series.

The Coliseum is a place that my parents had mentioned over the years, but all I knew about it was that it was a popular skating rink and that it had burned down. (Also, it was the place where my aunt had first met my uncle.)

According to the Lorain Images of America book, the Coliseum was built by the Lorain Moose Lodge back in 1926 at a cost of $115,000.

Here's a photo of the inside, courtesy of the same Images of America book.

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7 comments:

  1. AnonymousDecember 2, 2011 at 12:27 PM

    Thanks for mentioning this. I thought "I" was the only one old enough to remember this skating venue......I thought, however that it stood where the McDonald's was on West Erie, which would have been where Stratos on the Lake is at this point in time..Peggy

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  2. Dan BradyDecember 2, 2011 at 1:35 PM

    Hi Peggy,

    There does seem to be some confusion as to the Coliseum's location. An article in the C-T recently thought that the Lorain Arena was built on the former site of the Coliseum!

    I did confirm the Coliseum's address & location using the City Directories; later, it was re-confirmed by the article (which I posted on June 9, 2010) about the Howard Johnson's being built on the same site:

    http://danielebrady.blogspot.com/2010/06/remember-howard-johnsons-on-route-6.html

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  3. David WhasMarch 26, 2012 at 2:07 AM

    Wasn't the Howard Johnson's at the corner of Levitte Road and West Erie !

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  4. Dan BradyMarch 28, 2012 at 10:39 AM

    Chris' Restaurant is the old Howard Johnson's... the interior looks like it might be the original decor too. Great food at a great price and retro fun as well--what a deal!

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  5. Sharon DianeSeptember 16, 2015 at 2:05 PM

    My father, Harold Kribbs, was the organist at the Coliseum until it burned down. He had to replace his Hammond organ, which was destroyed in the fire, and went on to play at the Lorain Arena when it was built.

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  6. UnknownMarch 21, 2019 at 9:34 AM

    My father just passed away, heard the story that my dad skipped school to go roller skating the day it burned down, a picture up Dad was taken outside of it still in this roller skates and made the paper. He was so busted! Would love to find this photo!

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  7. Dan BradyMarch 21, 2019 at 1:04 PM

    I'm sorry to hear about your father. Email me at danielebrady@hotmail.com and I'll send you the Journal photo that I think is what you are looking for. It's not the best quality (It was in the paper) but it shows the three students in front of the rubble.

    Dan

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