Thistle Building Update Part 1

The view this past weekend

Although the Thistle Building is gone, the question remains: How did the building gets its name?

Thanks to longtime blog contributor Rick Kurish, we now have some theories about the origin of the name, as well as a lot more information about the building.

First of all, Rick determined an interesting coincidence regarding the name, “Thistle.” As he wrote in a mid-August email, "I found it interesting that you found nary a Thistle surname in any Lorain City Directory. That led me to believe that perhaps the name Thistle on the building was derived from an organization that may have financed its construction. To that end, I spent some time looking for a fraternal organization in Lorain that had Thistle in its name — and I found one.

"In The American Year Book - Directory of Scottish Societies and British Associations, 1915 -1915 on page 85, under the heading “Ohio Societies” is listed Lorain Ohio Thistle Lodge No. 3. Perhaps this Scottish Society financed the building, then rented out the 1st and 2nd floor commercial/residential space, and used the 3rd floor auditorium for their Lodge Hall. 

"It’s an interesting thought, but the only problem is that I can not find a shred of evidence that that was in fact the case.”

I think it is a pretty good theory, and I was able to determine that the Lodge (whose membership was all female) celebrated its 40th anniversary in 1945 – meaning it was in existence about the time the building was constructed. But I couldn’t find any connection between the Lodge and the building either. It sure would have been nice to find out they held their meetings in the Thistle Building!

Anyway, Rick kept digging and was able to clarify something about the building’s address. He wrote, "I was puzzled by two seemingly conflicting addresses for the Thistle Building. The current address (at least before demolition) was 700 Broadway. In your blog posting a week or so ago, you mentioned an address of 676 Broadway for the Thistle building in 1907. 

Using a Sanborn Fire Map from 1918, Rick explained the discrepancy. 

"At that time, Seventh Street didn’t go all the way through to Broadway. As a consequence, there was a grocery at 666 Broadway, and the map indicates that the adjacent Thistle Building, first floor only, was divided by a wall into two commercial spaces. These commercial spaces on the first floor, while listed as 676 Broadway and 700 Broadway, were in fact in the same building. 

"Apparently at the time that 7th Street was continued to Broadway (perhaps after the 1924 tornado), the grocery was demolished, and the 676 Broadway address of the Thistle Building was discontinued. Not an important discovery perhaps, but it clarifies the address of the building.”

Rick also was able to hone in on the approximate construction date using the Sanborn Map. He noted, "One of the news stories I read on the fire indicated that the Auditor’s Office didn’t have a construction date for the Thistle Building. It dawned on me that the Sanborn Maps may hold the key to the buildings construction date. The building does not appear on the attached Sanborn Map dated June 1905, at which time 7th Street was named Chestnut Street. 

"Since you found a reference to the Thistle Building in 1907, that would pretty much lock in the construction date to the late 1905 - 1907 time frame. You also turned up information that the Daughters of Scotland Thistle Lodge No. 3 dates to 1905. Although it proves nothing, it is interesting that the Thistle Lodge and Thistle Building appear in Lorain at about the same time.”

During my correspondence with Rick, I mentioned that I thought it was strange that neither the Morning Journal nor the Chronicle-Telegram mentioned that Harry’s Mens Wear was the longest tenant in the building.

Rick noted, "I shopped at Harry’s regularly after I returned to the area in 1969. In fact, it is the only store that I remember being at that location. 

"The store had parking out back, and both front and rear entrances. They always had the best selection of clothes — especially Levi jeans!”

Next: The company behind the Thistle Building revealed