Tuesday, August 27, 2013

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.
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4 comments:

  1. -Alan D HopewellAugust 27, 2013 at 2:28 PM

    You must remember, Dan, that the two housing projects (Leavitt Homes and Sunset Homes)were o the east side of Leavitt, thus (probably) the division.

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  2. AnonymousSeptember 2, 2013 at 5:39 PM

    I grew up on Meister Rd. and remember when the Skyline Drive area was expanding. Back in the 60's Lorain was a prosperous, growing community. I remember when Bill Knight developed the “horse farm” property that split W. 35th and Skyline with new housing. We used to take scrap lumber and build tree houses in the woods on “Davidson’s” property.
    Chuck Short – Jackson, MI

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  3. Dan BradySeptember 2, 2013 at 7:35 PM

    Hi Chuck! What a great reminisce! I'm glad that someone else remembered the horse farm, it's hard to believe there was once a big barn there behind the Palm Springs homes. And it was funny to read your mention of "Davidson's" property, many kids that grew up in that area remember sneaking onto the property and being chased by the gardener.

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  4. AnonymousMarch 15, 2014 at 10:30 PM

    We moved into a home on East Skyline in 1962. We were the second home on the block, we had to go to 38th and Palm Springs to get our mail. Remember several mornings looking out the back door and seeing Dr. Hait's horses that had escaped from the barn.

    J. Ferguson

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