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| Courtesy Lorain Historical Society |
The article is about an almost forgotten part of Lorain's maritime heritage: the Naval Reserve Center that used to be located at 1840 Cleveland Boulevard on Lorain's East Side near Longfellow School. (Click on it for a hopefully large enough version to read.)
According to the article, the Naval Reserve Center had twenty-two classrooms, a rifle range and a drill hall, as well as electrical, electronic and machine shops. Thirty or more men drove to the center weekly to participate in Naval Reserve training.
The Naval Reserve Center won the James Forrestal Award in 1953, the highest rating that a Naval Reserve Center. It beat out more than 500 other centers to win this honor.
I'm not sure when the Naval Reserve Center closed, or when it was torn down.
I read somewhere that the mast on the building was from the USS Arizona. Supposedly Admiral King had it sent to Lorain and it was put up on the building, but when the building came down the mast was lost, possibly hauled away as scrap. I can't vouch for the authenticity of this story, just what I recall reading somewhere, but maybe one of your readers can shed some light on it. Or maybe that's another project for you, Dan. I know you don't have enough to research hehehe
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ReplyDeleteThanks very much for posting that link – it tells the whole sad story. One of the links within Loraine's post mentions that the reserve center was razed in 1980.
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