Skyline East Ad – July 7, 1962

Here's an ad I never thought I'd see: one for the Skyline East housing development. The ad ran in the Journal on July 7, 1962 – 51 years ago last month.

The ad kind of fits in nicely with all of the early 60s Grand Opening ads for Lorain west side businesses I've featured last week on the blog.

The Skyline East area came into being because a horse farm (the Louis Hait Stables) kept it from connecting up with W. 35th Street. By the 1970s the farm was gone, and the two streets connected.

You might remember that back here I had done a whole series of blogs about growing up on East Skyline Drive. This ad seems to add some weight to the argument that there was a very big distinction made between the homes on the west side of Leavitt and those (like ours) on the east.

Strangely enough, the map doesn't even show Skyline East connecting up with Skyline Drive across Leavitt. (Maybe that was to make those uppity Skyline West people happy!) The map's not quite to scale either, and Marshall Avenue isn't even labeled. Palm Springs Drive isn't on there either.

It's also strange that the map shows Skyline East extending all the way to Leavitt Road. For a few years after we moved in, the road from our house to Leavitt was a dirt road, and I remember that we had to approach our house from the east.

The ad mentions that Skyline East offered Early American homes in a variety of styles. I guess that meant that there was an eagle plaque mounted on the outside of the house.

Anyway, here's a link to a short article examining why Early American was popular in the 1950s and 60s.