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| Courtesy Frank and Carolyn Sipkovsky |
Here is the first phone book ad for the motel (below).
That ad continued to appear in the phone book until the November 1968 edition, when it was replaced by a larger ad (below) with a photo of the building.
An article in the June 8, 1968 edition of the Chronicle-Telegram mentioned that the Beaver Park Company had bought the motel that year with the hopes of developing package deals for "transient yachtsmen who would like to stay for a few days." So perhaps the change in ownership resulted in an improved marketing effort for the motel.
Here is the backside of the vintage card found at the top of this post.
As the advertising copy said, the motel was indeed "hidden from highway view." The motel office was visible from Route 6 and the motel was behind and below it.
Here’s a vintage postcard showing the motel office in its heyday.
And here's the motel office as seen in a Bing Maps aerial (below). It's the blue-grey building with the small covered bay with the wavy roof under which a person could apparently park and register. Frank Sipkovsky told me in an email that Walt Rothgery lived in the building during the time he ran the motel.
Here's another view from the opposite direction. You can see the road that led down to the motel. I don't know exactly where the motel was relative to the office. Does anybody know for sure?
The motel office was still visible from Route 6 during the past few years but has since been demolished. Here are a few photos from the Lorain County Auditors website (below).
The Beaver Shore Motel listing continued to appear in the Lorain Phone Book with the same phone number until it finally disappeared in the November 1989-90 edition.
Third from the bottom looks like the Copper Kettle Marina. Its a newer building after a fire destroyed the old one, its a boat store/shop, always has been. We had our boat docked down there when I was in my pre-teens 55 years ago. Its never been a motel.
ReplyDeleteThe former motel office is on the north side of the highway on the lakefront. It's hard to see in that photo because of the trees. (The Copper Kettle building you mentioned is only in the photo for a reference point.)
ReplyDeleteI'm a little late to the party here Dan but here some insight on where the hotel was. The hotel was just east of the office of course on the beach. The marina has boat docks, and carriers and all kinds of stuff down there where it used to be. Parts of the foundation are still there buried underneath mother nature. I know this from growing up right around the corner on Beavercrest. We lived there from 1989 till sometime in 1997 I believe, I spent most of my years growing up roaming the neighborhood. One of my friends rented the first house as you crossed the tracks (since demolished) and their landlord lived in the motel office building. Never got his name, he lived there with his wife and daughter, who we had never seen before as she did not go to school with us but was our age. They were "different" people as you could say but good people. The father used to pay us to mow his lawn and do little chores around the area. Of course we were kids and wanted to explore everything we could. Hole in the wall was a good spot, the old lake road was always fun, Claus cemetery. There are so many hidden things in that small area. So many time we got the boot also from property owners. We were kids, but its good to know people are out there not forgetting about things. Thanks
ReplyDeleteThanks very much for explaining about the location of the Beaver Shore Motel, and thanks also for posting your nice memories of exploring that area as a kid. It is a very interesting part of Lorain with a lot of history! Thanks again!
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