Holiday Scenes Around Lorain – 1957

Here’s a nice look back at Lorain in the late 1950s during the Christmas season. It’s a full page of holiday photos that ran in the Lorain Journal on Dec. 5, 1957.

As you can see, with all those impressive decorations in the Downtown area, Lorain almost seemed like Bedford Falls in It’s a Wonderful Life. (I guess that makes Lorain sort of like Potterville now.)

But you can also see hints of the beginning of the eventual end for Lorain’s Downtown shopping district, as most of the photos seem to focus on the O’Neil-Sheffield Center.

Growing up in the 1960s as I did, I remember that our family made the holiday pilgrimage to O’Neil’s like everyone else to see the displays and yak a bit with the Talking Christmas Tree.

Unfortunately it wasn’t too long before Midway Mall became Ground Zero for Christmas shopping and visiting Santa Claus. Eventually Downtown Lorain and the Sheffield Center became obsolete and shadows of what they once were.

I feel sorry for today's kids that are dragged to Crocker Park or Legacy Village to see a “fake” Downtown decked out for Christmas.