Today, it's great to see the Gould Block – the former home of Kline's Department Store – looking so elegant again like it did when it was first constructed in 1928.
It's quite different from this 1954 view (
below) in which the building was literally split in half between Kline's and Kresge's.
Today there is much activity within the renovated Gould building, with the
Charleston Coffee House at 630 Broadway and
Faithfully Fit Group Fitness Center at 610 Broadway. The fitness center (
below) shares Kline's old address.
The beautiful
Gardens of Charleston apartment project (
shown below) at 610-630 Broadway was purchased by a new
developer last year. The project is a key element in the hoped-for rejuvenation of Downtown Lorain.
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| Courtesy Gardens of Charleston Facebook page |
I wish the developer well, and am very glad indeed to see the former home of Kline's getting such tender lover care.
5 comments:
Why was it called the Gould block?
A man named Joseph Gould built and owned the building (which replaced his earlier building at the same site which burned down in 1928).
The 1954 picture is surprisingly good definition and I just spent a lot of time looking at it. I know I don't get to Lorain much anymore, but when I drive down Broadway things are very, very quiet (ve-wy). Just seeing the picture, with Kresge's, Kline's, Ted Jacobs around the corner (I suppose), so many different stores, and so much activity on the street! Cars parked and driving, the streetcar, a young woman walking down the street with her child-- its almost hard to believe so much used to go on. It was really the center of a community. Did the Mall ruin all that? Was it worth it?
It's good to see housing opening up downtown, after the demolition of so many of the second-floor apartments along Broadway in the late Seventies.
Actually--Ted Jacob's was around the corner on 4th and Broadway and Gould Building was at 6th and Broadway--VERY few remember Bobel & Hersh Market at the corner of 4the and Broadway on the NW corner since that changed when I was away in college in the 60's. I remember sitting next to Harriet Hersh in orchestra in which we had a violin section of over 25 players. Something ws lost when the school system was no longer able to afford the subsidized music program--now the parent have to shoulder the entire load.. I now live with my daughter in Utah and the system has an active music program--her rather small elementary has an active Chinese immersion program (while it was very popular in OH about 12 years ago--many systems have had to get rid of program as part of budget cost cutting) of which she is a part and an active music program--she is one of 4 violin students in her 4th grade. It is so sad that two billionaire brothers in Minnesota have been--in the past 6 years--to effect so many budget costs in OH to schools--but when one of them ran for government back in the 80's--part of his platform was to stop mandatory education in the 6th grade and after that it would all be private and pay as you go--much like it was in the Colonial times.
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