The View Down Fourth Street Then & Now

Here's a great photo from the archives of the Black River Historical Society that should bring back some pleasant memories of Lorain's heyday. It's a vintage shot looking west at Fourth Street from Broadway.

1960's newspaper ad

The Flame Cafeteria at the left side of the photo was at 400 Broadway, and it first appeared in the city directory in the 1969 edition. It succeeded another cafeteria at that location, the Muth Cafeteria Restaurant.

Along that side of the street in the photo are both some well-remembered businesses and some that I've never heard of. At 115 Fourth Street was the Price Insurance Agency, and at 129 was Lynn's Self Serve Department Store.

At 209 Fourth Street was the well-known Ted Jacobs women's clothing store. And the tall building in the distance, after the Ted Jacobs parking lot, was the Colonial Hotel.

And here's the 'now' view from this past weekend (below). Of course, the traffic light is long gone, along with most of the traffic. I had no trouble taking the shot on Saturday morning; no pedestrian walked into the shot, and only one lonely car interrupted my photo.

Currently occupying the former Flame space is the Deja Vu nightclub. The former Lynn's was most recently Club West Fitness for many years, but is now vacant. The Ted Jacobs building is currently home to an office of the Ohio Department of Jobs & Family Services. And after that is the Meridian shopping plaza.

I've mentioned taking trumpet lessons along with my brothers on Saturday mornings in the late 1960's and early 1970's, and the view from Alex Visci's original music studio on the other side of Fourth looked down at this strip of businesses. I don't remember the Lynn's store at all, but I do recall that a drug store was in there after that.

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UPDATE (July 1, 2016)
Fixed the title of this post (originally had it identified as Fifth Street. See, you can live in the Lorain area for more than 50 years and still not know your way around!