204 W. Fifth Street

During the last few weeks, I've noticed men working on the exterior of the building at 204 W. Fifth Street, removing the signage and materials that obscured the original facade. It's nice to see the original brick revealed once again.

As you can see from the inscription, the building is going to be the new home of the Loyal Order of Moose Lake Erie Lodge No. 552. (This item appeared in the Morning Journal last February here).

A view of the building from
the years before the current renovation
(Courtesy Lorain County Auditor)

I know that for the last 15 years or so, the building had been home to various businesses, including a recording studio and record company. But what had been in there before that?

I did a quick look through the city directories and phone books over the years to find out. The 204 West Fifth Street address appears to have first showed up in the books around 1925 or 1926. Lorain Baby Shop appears to be one of the first tenants, followed by the Kiddie Shop in the early 1930s.

Longtime tenant A. B. Sauer Music Company was in there quite a while, from the late 1930s all the way into the early 1950s. The building was vacant for most of the last half of the 1950s.

In the early 1960s, the building was briefly home to S&H Green Stamp Center. By 1965, General Electric Appliance Center had moved in and would remain for a few years. The building went vacant again around 1970.

The Greater Lorain Chamber of Commerce moved into 204 W. Fifth in the early 1970s and would remain there until the mid-1990s or so. That's the tenant that I remember the best, probably from going downtown every Saturday morning for our trumpet lessons.