Friday, January 10, 2014

Maple Inn Grand Opening – Jan 1964

Courtesy Lorain County Auditors
website
Many of us are familiar with the Maple Inn, located at the intersection of Route 254 and West River Road, having passed it on the way to Midway Mall many times. Well, here's the Grand Opening ad for the newly remodeled Maple Inn. It ran in The Journal on January 29, 1964 – 50 years ago this month.

I've never been in the Maple Inn, but I've always admired the outside of the building. It looks like a nice, cozy place to hang out.

It's not an easy place to research, though. It's located in a kind of No-Man's Land between Lorain and Elyria, and its city directory listings shifted around between cities, depending on the year.

The earliest Lorain phone book listing that I could find for the Maple Inn was 1953.

Superior Chips are mentioned in one of the congratulatory ads. They were a regional brand out of Detroit, Michigan.

Hey, I just noticed some of my favorite beers were available at the Maple Inn back then: Old Dutch and Black Label!

Anyways, the Lorain County Auditor's website has 1900 as the year that the structure was built, and that usually means that the real date is unknown and predates that year. So there's been a business at that corner for a long, long time.

In recent years, a sign with the words "Frank and Ellie's" was added above the iconic sign with the large maple leaf. A colorful standalone sign was also installed, ushering in a new era in the inn's history.

The view last weekend

at

4 comments:

  1. AnonymousJanuary 10, 2014 at 9:02 AM

    Great story Dan. Speaking of iconic signs. East of Maple Inn the Topper Inn??? As a kid looked like a fancy night club.
    rae

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  2. Dan BradyJanuary 10, 2014 at 9:34 AM

    I always kept an eye out for the Topper bar too as a kid, mainly because we watched those Topper TV show reruns! (With Cosmo Topper and the ghost couple.) It changed its name to something else in the last year or so.

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  3. AnonymousJanuary 17, 2014 at 11:53 PM

    Pretty sure they still have the same tap system with the faux barrels 50 years later… I'll try to remember to snap a photo next time I am in there. - Bill

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  4. AnonymousAugust 15, 2020 at 6:56 PM

    There's an article in the Chronicle Telegram on September 16, 1947 headlined "Man who suffered body beating sues for $30,000". The article is about a man who sued several people who assaulted him as he was leaving the "Maple Inn Cafe at West River and North Ridge Roads". The assault occurred on April 27th of that year. He also sued the Lorain County Commissioners. So It's at least as old as 1947.

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