However, the 1954 Lorain County Farm & Rural Directory did include a listing (below) for W. F. Brenner, the man associated with Green Lantern Camp fourteen years earlier. The camp was no longer listed.
The Lorain County Auditor website parcel result for 5004 West Erie includes both a duplex as well as a small cottage. (Both structures have a "year built" date of 1900 – meaning that they were built before 1900.)
Here's my shot from last weekend (below). The yellow cottage on the left (referred to on the Auditor website as a "rebuilt cottage") has its own address: 5014. The other buildings are all part of 5004.
Here's my shot from last weekend (below). The yellow cottage on the left (referred to on the Auditor website as a "rebuilt cottage") has its own address: 5014. The other buildings are all part of 5004.
I have no idea if any of the buildings in the "now" photo match up with those in the vintage photo of Green Lantern Camp. I think the location is correct due to the fact that the Brenners lived there. I also think that the location of the telephone poles and the railroad tracks support this theory. But it's impossible to know for sure.
Here's a few aerial views of the property (below).
I'm guessing that the very small shack behind the cottages – seen as a brown building with tan roof – may be one of the original cabins.
But I could be wrong.
UPDATE
And I was wrong! Click here for an update showing how wrong I was.
6 comments:
Thanks Dan! I've wondered about the buildings at that location since I first saw them in the 1950s. Using the info you posted, I spent a little time today looking through old newspapers. A few last findings to close the loop.
The Chronicle Telegram had several references to the property. Interestingly, the paper makes reference to the Green Lantern Restaurant, so apparently there was at least a small restaurant on the property.
In April 1940 the classifieds had several ads for: "couple for restaurant work, stay nights, Green Lantern, two miles west of Lorain, Lake Road".
A little later in April of the same year under Business Opportunities:
BARBECUE, living quarters, in operation over 10 years, rent $450 year, tenant must purchase equipment. Green Lantern, Lake Road, West.
In the summer of 1939, a theft of two bicycles was reported from the Green Lantern Restaurant on Lake Road.
The interesting fact in the business ad is the mention of operation for ten years. That would seem to date the Green Lantern back to about 1930.
In the 1950s William Brenner was slowing selling off the property. A real estate transfer from Feb. 1954, lists the sale of property on Lake Shore Road, Black River Tp. to Cora R. Wilker. Her name shows up in the directory you posted.
In May 1954, under Business Opportunities, was the following: FOR SALE, trailer park under construction, excellent opportunity, interested write Mr. Brenner, P.O. Box 374 Lorain, Ohio.
Thanks for answering a question I've wondered about for 60 years!
Wow--those are some terrific articles. Thanks for doing that research--mine was a little thin. I did see in the 1940 Census that our friend Mr. Brenner was the proprietor of a restaurant--so your research ties in very nicely.
What I would really like to know is if Brenner owned the whole property from the little group of houses all the way east to what is now Skate World.
An aerial photo of that area from the late 1950s shows that there were a few more buildings in the immediate area that are gone now. Maybe one of them is the restaurant.
Thanks again for taking the time to smoke out those news items!
Do you think that 'Brenner Drive' was named for William Brenner?
I think you're right. I'm pretty sure Brenner owned land on that side of the highway too, right around there where Meister used to come out on Route 6. Thanks for pointing that out!
I knew some folks who lived in the yellow cabin when they moved here from Memphis to work at Lorain Ford.
Rae
One of my old plat maps for that area lists a Myrtle Brenner as owner of the property where Brenner Drive is now. No doubt a relation.
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