Where was "Auntie" Ferguson's Cabin? - Part 1

After posting the story of "Auntie" Ferguson last week, I thought it 'd be fun to try and figure out where her cabin was located.

The two obituaries provided some clues as to the cabin's location. The first one referred to her cabin "on Dexter Street," and said that it was "beyond the gas works." The second one stated that when the Lorain Street Railway ran its first car over the line, Mrs. Ferguson had them stop at her place, where she gave them lunch. So her cabin must have been near the tracks of the Lorain Street Railway.

As it turns out, this time I wasn't going to have to spend much time in the library researching this matter. My two great local history connections – archivist and historian Dennis Lamont and Drew Penfield – must have been reading my mind because they both emailed me parts of the same 1909 map with their thoughts about where the cabin might have been located.

As they both explained, Dexter Street was 21st Street. On the map you can see the Lorain Gas Works, which was located at the end of Dexter Street where it met Fulton Road. Where Dexter Street becomes dotted lines trailing off into the woods, the street is a remnant of the old Globeville Road. As Dennis explained, "Globeville Road meandered along the river bank down to Day's Dam. Globeville (named after the schooner Globe) was a shipbuilding site." And Drew added, "The Globeville Road was mostly obliterated by the steel mill."

So "Auntie" Ferguson's cabin was somewhere along that dotted line path, In Drew's map (below), the yellow highlighting marks the route of the electric railway that Dennis observed would have run "right by her front door."

Tomorrow: "Auntie" in the City Directory and what the area looks like today