Friday, August 9, 2019

No Demo for Ex-Holiday Inn Motel

A Spring 2013 view
It was great news that the collection of abandoned buildings most recently known as Mackenzie Woods Apartments (located on the south side of U. S. Route 6 a little west of Baumhart Road) was going to see new life as housing for Road to Hope House Inc. substance abuse recovery program participants. The complex will also be the new home of Road to Hope's administrative offices, which will be relocated from Elyria.

Here is the link to the story on the Chronicle-Telegram's website.

The buildings have been an eyesore for some time after the apartments closed. It was only in the last few months or so that "No Trespassing" signs were finally posted at the entrance to the property, along with a rope barrier.

Today, only the former main office building is visible from the highway.

A view from this week
What was surprising to me is that none of the local newspapers delved into the history of the property, which I wrote about back here in a four-part series. It began as the Holiday Inn Motel, constructed in the late 1940s by Frank Konik, with a same-named restaurant right next door to the west.

Here’s a vintage postcard of the motel in its heyday.

The motel was ideally situated to take advantage of the lodging needs of the hundreds of out-of-town construction workers building the Ford plant, as well as the auto workers who relocated to come work at the plant. By that time in the 1950s, Richard (Dick) Konik was running the motel. He provided a great interview to the Chronicle in 1957.
My original blog series on the Holiday Inn was one of my all-time favorites, as many members of the Konik family participated by leaving wonderful reminisces in the “Comments” section and helping to flesh out the story.
And strangely enough, I received a nice email a month or two ago by a granddaughter of Frank Kelsey, who owned and operated the Holiday Inn Restaurant next door to the motel for a time. He also ran McGarvey's for a few years in the 1940s.
Anyway, it's always nice to see an old motel that served as a highway oasis repurposed, rather than demolished. The buildings are being restored to their original function, that of providing comfort, and that’s a refreshing concept for Lorain County.
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5 comments:

  1. GreenshirstAugust 9, 2019 at 7:14 AM

    I wonder if this will allow some maintenance on that forgotten cemetery that borders to the east of those buildings.

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  2. MarkAugust 9, 2019 at 8:30 AM

    That's great news! The series you reference is one of my favorites as well. My mom and dad moved here in the 50's to work at the Lorain plant... it was great to learn about something they drove by every day. Lorain County is changing so much... it's super cool that you blog is keeping those memories alive.

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  3. BryanAugust 9, 2019 at 10:51 AM

    A comment on the Chronicle article claimed the motel was built on a cemetery, which I assumed was confusing it with the little Brown's Lake Road Cemetery next to it. And I noticed in your Holiday Inn Motel series, you mentioned you'd talk about it in another article. Did you ever write about it? In my googlings, I came across this post that seems to say part of the cemetery was indeed covered by the motel, perhaps the parking lot. Now I'm curious!

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  4. Dan BradyAugust 9, 2019 at 3:44 PM

    HI Bryan! Ah, you busted me – when I went back and reread those posts the other day, I saw my comment about writing about the cemetery and realized I never did. I’ll have to check my files and see what information I have and if I ever did research it beyond seeing what was online.

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  5. Col. Matt NahornAugust 12, 2019 at 12:14 AM

    The Brown’s Lake Road Cemetery next door has been “rediscovered” and cleaned up by the Brownhelm Historical Association over the past few years. It is believed that the other half of the cemetery is actually under the gravel parking area. Unfortunately historians haven’t been able to further investigate the validity of this claim, as owners of that property have not let that occur

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