Green Lantern Camp – Part 1

I received the above postcard – with the caption "GREEN LANTERN CAMP, ROUTES 2 & 6, LORAIN, OHIO" – in an email from Paula Shorf. "Have you ever heard of it before?" she wrote.

Indeed I had – just recently too. It had appeared in a listing of tourist camps in the 1939-40 National Directory Service Lorain Directory along with Hialeah Cabins.

1939 Lorain City Directory Listing

The directory listed its location as Stop 110 1/2. According to the interurban stop information on the Lake Shore Rail Maps website, that would roughly put its location a little west of the undercut, somewhere between Franke Drive and the old Garwells store.

Of course, these types of mysteries bug me to no end, and I had to find out where this camp had been located. But how?

There are a lot of mobile home parks in that area today, and I suspected that one of them most likely started out as Green Lantern Camp. Unfortunately, the name 'Green Lantern Camp' did not appear again in any of the regular Polk city directories – it was only in the National Directory Service book, and just that once.

Stumped, I went back to that 1939-40 directory and began to cross reference the camp's listing. Could there be a name associated with the camp?

There certainly was (below).

1939 Lorain City Directory Listing

W. F. Brenner was the name listed as being associated with the camp. His personal listing (in the Bs) also included the name of his wife: Ramona.

Interestingly, Green Lantern Service Station was located at the same stop at the camp. Apparently it was part of the camp property. Was it the building in the foreground of the vintage postcard?