Although the big event was scheduled for July 17 - 25, there was much preparation to be done, including the design of a special anniversary seal that would be featured on all signs, advertising and official documents.
The seal was unveiled in the Journal on April 2, 1959 in the front page article below. Lew Caywood, a Lorain commercial artist and owner of his own sign shop, was the designer.
As the article notes, the seal included the symbols of Lorain’s industrial might, including silhouettes of the steel mill, a freighter on Lake Erie, an automobile representing the Ford Motor Division Lorain Assembly Plant, and the Ohio Edison plant, all superimposed over the State of Ohio.
Who could have imagined that sixty years later, it would all be gone (with the exception of U. S. Steel’s seamless pipe operations and the hoped-for reopening of Republic Steel this year).
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I couldn’t remember what the 175th Anniversary celebration was like back in 2009 (the first year of this blog), so I had to refresh my memory. Here’s a link to the Morning Journal’s coverage.
