 |
| A Leiter photograph of Lorain City Hall (Courtesy Paula Shorf) |
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.
6 comments:
Do you have a recent picture of what it all looks like there now?
And what was that tower used for?
You can see a recent photo here:
http://danielebrady.blogspot.com/2010/02/old-lorain-city-hall-part-2.html
As for the cvil defense tower used by the Ground Observer Corps, this article explains the story behind it:
http://danielebrady.blogspot.com/2012/06/lorain-ground-observer-corps-pd-article.html
I actually had looked back in your archives and glanced at that recent photo, and the "now" looks so hideous I thought it was an older, dated view.
And I figured that was a tower from the duck and cover days!
Do you have any information on the hobby shop that was located behind the police station?
I remember it being back there but I don't have any information in my files about it. The next time I'm at the library I'll see what I can find out.
Dan,
Al asked Al Doane about the tower. Here's his reply.
The tower behind Lorain's City Hall was used during WW II as a air plane spotter for the Civilian Corp.
This tower originally was located on the east river pier north of the USCG Station Lorain, and when it was deemed not used any more was moved behind City Hall for plane spotting.
Does this explain what it was and then what it is for?
Looks like another search for you!
Post a Comment