Lorain Public Library Scale Model – March 9, 1955

Sixty years ago this month, the Lorain Public Library was making plans for its new building on Sixth Street. As the article above – which ran in the Lorain Journal on March 9, 1955 – explains, the buildings currently on the future library site were to be demolished on August 1, and construction was to begin a month after that.

The photo shows the scale model that Meyer and Fauver Associates used in their presentation to the Library trustees. (Do architects still build scale models now, or do they merely present soulless computer generated renderings?)

You might remember my 2012 post showing what was on the library's site originally: a Sunoco gas station (shown at left).

Apparently in 1952 the fact that the Sun Oil Company's lease on the property was for four more years really gummed up the works, although it appears that the library managed to get them out a year early.

I'll bet the Cities Service station nearby on Reid didn't mind a bit that one of its competitors was sacrificed in the name of knowledge.

Courtesy Chronicle-Telegram