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.
I remember the 125th anniversary celebration. The city was probably at its zenith in 1959 and put on quite a celebration. The official seal shown in your blog was even used on 50 cent tokens that were circulated by Lorain merchants during the week long celebration. I still have one somewhere. The token was about the size of a 50 cent piece (remember them), and one side was the official seal and the reverse stated that the token was redeemable by Lorain merchants during the celebration. Ahh, the good old days.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting that, Rick!
ReplyDeleteAs the date of the 125th Anniversary gets closer, I'll have to post some scans/photos of my very faded & crumbling copy of the keepsake Journal edition that my parents saved.
Yes....Lorain will never again achieve all that it has lost in the past.Ford Motor closed up.Shipyard's gone.Mascon Toy Company closed up.All the various machine shops on 28th Street..Sears.JC Penneys.All of downtown's gone...Now Lorain is a ghost town.....Nothing left but slum lords and substandard housing.Drugs are rampant.Gangs rule the central west side of Lorain......It didn't have to be that way,but it is.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone wish to offer anything for this coin? It is in beautiful condition for a 62 year old coin.
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