A 1959 Drive Along Lake Road to Edna’s Restaurant

Yesterday I mentioned how Bill Latrany had explained to me that Skate World had been built around the old Ed’s Place Motel.

Well, a few years ago Bill sent me a fantastic link to some unbelievable movie footage from showing the motel. The 1959 footage is part of the YouTube collection of Johnny Sharp (former organist at Skate World).

Here’s how Bill explained it to me in an email:

"Johnny Sharp was the original organist at the Lorain Skate World, and stayed on with the new ownership in 1976, as the venue expanded from live organ music to DJ entertainment during the disco era.  The lines to get in on Friday and Saturday nights would wrap around the building to the restaurant parking lot to the east back in the day.  

"Anyway, somewhere in this link I'm providing you, you will find actual 8mm movie footage from the mid 1950's coming down West Erie Avenue from Lakeview Park, passing the former Lorain Arena, and very ironically pulling into the parking lot of the Benny's Motel where Skate World now sits! I haven't seen the video in about 2 years, but Johnny Sharp has it here in his YouTube collection. “

Here is the link to the footage for you to copy and paste into your browser. (YouTube won’t let me embed it here on the blog post.) One of these should work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9k3AWm9W_o&list=PL87333E057E1A70E8

https://youtu.be/W9k3AWm9W_o?list=PL87333E057E1A70E8

The footage starts at Lakeview Park at the Easter Basket, and then the person operating the 8mm camera points it right through the windshield as the car makes it way along Lake Road west under the railroad undercut.

As the car makes its way up the hill past Franke Drive on the right, a lonely, long-gone house or cabin appears on the horizon.

A cluster of buildings (one of which must be Garwell’s) slowly looms into view.

The car then abruptly pulls into the parking lot of Edna’s Restaurant (what we know as the former Tiffany’s Restaurant), and past rows of gas pumps from the adjacent service station.

Suddenly, Ed’s Place Motel (the building with the long roof) is visible in the background as the car makes it way towards parking near the rear of the restaurant.

We then get a few good shots of Edna’s Restaurant as the driver looks for a parking space. (The building sure looks different without the windows all covered up like they are now).

Later, as the car prepares to head home again by pulling out onto Lake Road, the Edna’s Restaurant sign is clearly visible. The Lorain Drive-in is off in the distance on the left side of the frame.

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Just for comparison, here’s a similar sequence of shots retracing the route of that 1959 driving excursion.

That’s Franke Drive coming in from the right.

Where the Edna’s sign was roughly located