Lorain Gets its Own "White House" – July 1930

A Leiter photograph of Lorain City Hall
(Courtesy Paula Shorf)

Lorain's former City Hall is a favorite topic of mine on this blog.

Why? Because it's a symbol of Lorain during its thriving days, in which the steel mill, the Ford Plant, the shipyard and all of the other companies and family businesses were booming. It represents the Lorain of my youth.

Ironically, it seems that once the old, decrepit City Hall was knocked down (along with the Police Station and much of Downtown) and replaced with a towering, garish monstrosity, the city's fortunes began to sink.

I've chronicled much of the history of the old City Hall, including a 6-part history (here), a 1934 article about the building's original "life" as the William Jones mansion (here), and the addition of more parking around the building in 1955 (here).

Well, here's another piece of the former City Hall's history – a Lorain Journal article (below) from July 12, 1930 about the impending whitewashing of the building, whose bricks had been painted red for years.

From the article, it sounds like part of the decision to paint the building white was just to keep men employed during the Depression.