Remember the Original "LORAIN" Hedge?

I saw this photo in a book at the library celebrating Lorain's 1984 Sesquicentennial and just had to post it here. It's the original LORAIN hedge in Lakeview Park on the south side of West Erie, adjacent to the tennis courts.

According to the online Lorain Public Library System's History of Lorain, it was clipped in time for Memorial Day, 1950.

If I remember correctly, it was in the early 2000's during his first term that Mayor Craig Foltin, tired of the by then shabby appearance of the half-century-old hedge, had it replaced by the one currently facing West Erie, a little bit to the east. (That one is looking a little weather-beaten as well these days!)

The original LORAIN hedge was another one of those things, along with the giant Easter basket and the Victory Park big "V", that made a drive along West Erie Avenue interesting to a kid growing up in Lorain in the 1960's.

Here's the same view today.

And here's the newer version just a few hundred feet to the east.