Grand Opening Ad for Shields Rest Clinic - Feb. 11, 1950

If you’re familiar with Lorain’s West Side, then you’re probably aware that for many decades, there has been a nursing home on Oberlin Avenue near the intersection with Tower Boulevard.

Although today it is part of Sprenger Health Care Systems, it originally opened as Shields Rest Clinic. The ad above, announcing its Formal Opening and Dedication ran in the Lorain Journal on February 11, 1950.

Judging from the photo in the ad, I suspect that the building started out as a farm house. Unfortunately, the nursing home was outside of Lorain city limits when it opened, so its address is not in earlier city directories and I’m unable to determine for sure if it was a private residence originally. But it sure looks like it was, with farmland behind it in a 1952 Historic Aerial photo.

I drove by the facility on Saturday to try and see if I could get a matching shot of the building shown in the ad. But that building's been swallowed up by the expansion of the campus through the years. But in my photo below, you can see how the flat-roof portion of the building in the vintage photo has been given a second floor and a roofline to match the house.

And, you can still see part of the original brick house and its chimney in this Bing Maps aerial (below) that looks at the facility from the back.

Today, the facility's formal name is Autumn Aegis Retirement Community. Here is the link to its page on the Sprenger Health Care Systems website.

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UPDATE (March 22, 2015)

Here's a nice article from the June 21, 1955 Lorain Journal that provides a history of Shield's Rest Clinic. It mentions that it was founded in 1945 by Earl and Blanche Shields.

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UPDATE (July 26, 2017)

Regular blog contributor Jeremy Reynolds contacted me yesterday about Autumn Aegis. His line of work involves regular travel around the county, giving him a lot of opportunities to take some great pictures.

He wrote, "I remember a while back when you blogged about Autumn Aegis nursing home and how one of the buildings was built around an old farmhouse. 

"Well, I had a delivery there today and got a picture of the back of the building and the old farmhouse part shows in back."

Here's Jeremy's photo, which is a beauty.

Thanks, Jeremy!