Looking South From Fourth Street 1985

Here's another one of those Lorain photos that was on Ebay for a while, listed by Andy from Lorain. It's the view from Fourth Street, looking south on Broadway on September 15, 1985.

Andy told me via email a few months ago that he acquired a lot of these photos that were taken by a local gentleman who was a historian of sorts, who documented much of Lorain with his camera. Andy has listed a lot of great postcards and other items over the years on Ebay under the moniker sonnylake. Take a look on Ebay sometime and buy something from a fellow Lorainite!

But let's get back to the photo. On the left, you can see Lorain Marine Sales in the Duane Building. The rest of that side of the street, according to the 1985 Lorain City Directory, was a vacant building at 409 Broadway, apartments at 425 Broadway, Lee Furniture & Waterbeds at 437 Broadway, Driscol Music Company at 445 Broadway,  the various Lorain National Bank buildings, Citizens Home Savings at 559 Broadway, Cane's Surplus Stores at 573 Broadway, Hart Jewelry at 575 Broadway, Ricci Tailors & Masters Tuxedo at 601, followed by the Lorain Palace Civic Center Theatre.

Here's my 'now' shot from last weekend. The Duane Building looks better than ever, but that's quite a chunk of buildings that are gone, replaced by a parking lot. The loss of other businesses in still-surviving buildings, such as Ricci Tailors (where I had two suits custom made) and Cane's Surplus sure hurts as well.