It was the second restaurant with the Golden Arches to open in Lorain, following the June 29, 1960 Grand Opening of the one on West Erie Avenue.
Both of Lorain’s original McDonald’s locations are no more. The restaurant on West Erie no doubt suffered with the lack of traffic due to the opening of the new limited-access Route 2 in the 1960s. The Colorado Avenue McDonalds was possibly too far off the beaten track in a location between the city’s two bridges, unable to take advantage of the traffic crossing either one.
I’m not exactly sure when the McDonald’s on Colorado closed. However, a new McDonald’s appeared just around the corner on Henderson Drive at a former Kentucky Fried Chicken location.
The former McDonald’s restaurant on Colorado Avenue has housed a few businesses since then, most recently the home of the relocated Margie’s Magpie Inn.
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| The former McDonald’s this past weekend |
7 comments:
I remember that location well since I was working at Ace Car wash across the street in the late 60's early 70's.. Looking back it seemed like the McDonald's and most fast food in general tasted a lot better back then. Todd
Hi Todd,
I'm strange in that I think the fast food joints offer too many choices now; I can't even read or mentally process everything on the menu boards these days. Plus the specialty items take too long to make and are ludicrously expensive anyway. That's why at McDonald's I tend to order the same thing (a cheeseburger) and even that seems to take them forever to prepare. I will say that a few weeks ago, I had the absolute best cheeseburger I ever tasted at the Vermilion McDonald's. It was hot, fresh, the meat was great, etc. But since they did not give me the receipt, I couldn't go online and compliment them! I can't understand why at McDonald's you have to ASK to get a receipt. A tiny slip of paper to discard is the least of my problems when I have a bag, a carton and napkins (if you get them) to get rid of. Plus most receipts have some special incentive to provide feedback and you lose that opportunity if they don't give you a receipt.
Y'all need Whattaburger up there!
Ah, we have Midway Oh Boy and that's good enuff for me!
Dan I know you were a Sandy's/Hardee's fan at Lorain Plaza back in the day...remember the "Husky Jr." I loved that sauce. But I have to agree nothing beats on Oh-Boy. It's a must have when I'm back in Lorain! Todd
...This one brings back some memories - during the summer (IIRC, for some years the two McDonald's locations were only open during the summer and closed for the winter) we would pick my dad up at AmShip and if we had been particularly well behaved that week we would get burgers and fries on Friday nights.
I went to St. Mary High in the 60s and the West Erie McDonalds was the place to see and be seen on weekend evenings. I can remember the tradition of circling the parking lot at speed of about 1 mph due to the line of cars. When there were no new movies in town or you were just bored we just drove to McDonalds and circled or sat in the lot. Sometimes a friend would have a part-time job there and the occassional extra burger could be found in the bag when you checked out. The massive weekend teen traffic may also have contributed to it's demise.
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