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| Aerial View of the Blahay Transportation Company Property Circa Mid-1950s (Courtesy Lorain Historical Society) |
It was home to a trucking company – Ed Blahay Transportation Company – and was a truck stop as well, providing lodging (cabins and later, a motel) and a restaurant.
Ed Blahay began his roadside business as operator of a service station on West Erie. He founded the transportation company bearing his name in the late 1920s (according to his obituary).
As you can see by the 1954 Lorain Telephone Directory ad at left, his trucks hauled freight all over Ohio. The company was also a freight carrier for U. S. Steel.
Ed Blahay's health suffered a downward turn in the early 1960s. His grandson Richard Olson successfully ran the company during his illness.
The company moved out to 2147 E. 28th Street in South Lorain in the early to mid-1960s. The business was sold in 1970, and Ed Blahay passed away in February 1972.
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Looking at the vintage photo at the top of this post, you might recognize the former Tiffany's Steakhouse restaurant building in the center of the photo. You can see the two huge doors that are covered up today.
Ed's Place motel is the long building at the western edge of the property in the photo. It was referred to as cabins in an early directory. (I'll have more to say about Ed's Place – and Benny's Restaurant, forerunner of Tiffany's Steakhouse – in a later post.)
In addition to the trucking company, motel and restaurant, the Blahay property on West Erie was also home to a handful of residents, according to the 1948 Lorain County Directory. You can see some long-gone houses close to the railroad tracks in the vintage photo.
Here's an aerial view of the property today, courtesy of Bing Maps. It's hard to believe that there were once many more buildings on the site than the sad, empty restaurant that sits there today.
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| That's Skate World to the left of the former Tiffany's, and the former Garwell's (with the blue buildings in the rear) on the right |