The smallest mobile home parks seem to be most prevalent in Lorain and along its outskirts. Vermilion has a few big ones that look pretty nice, including Harbourtown and Shore Acres. And a few are located on the outskirts of Huron, including Queen Of The Lakes, and Vacationland.
Anyway, once you are used to driving by a mobile home park for decades, it's a bit jarring when it suddenly disappears. Only recently, I noticed that the Lakeshore Mobile Home Park property at 2928 West Erie (located just a little west of Chris' Restaurant) has been entirely cleared of its homes. Earlier this year I saw that a gate had been erected.
The mobile home park had been at that location since at least 1950. I found it in that year's edition of Polk’s Lorain City Directory listed as "Lakeshore Trailer Court." Mrs. Fern J. Isaac was the manager.
Here’s a shot courtesy of Google Maps showing the property how it looked for many years from Route 6.
And here are a few aerials, also courtesy of Google Maps.
Just as Sheffield Lake is slowly losing its cottages to new development (which I wrote about here), Lorain may eventually see more of these small trailer parks disappear.
8 comments:
Knew a few who lived here over the years. My parents met at a trailer court called Smitty's in the 50's to the West of this one a ways. Dont believe any vestiges of it remain. Rae
Amazing. I Drive by there several times a week and hadn't noticed that the trailer park was gone. However, I did notice a large new home being build just west of there on the lake. Rae mentioned Smitty's. Do yon know where that was located? The only other trailer park I remember before Kolbe Road is the one just west of the old Garwell's store.
I'll have to look up Smitty's at the library on my next visit. It might have been one of those across from the old Lorain Drive-in Theater, west of Garwell's like you mentioned. Carl Johnson had one adjacent to his restaurant.
https://danielebrady.blogspot.com/2013/06/johnsons-restaurant-on-routes-6-and-2.html
In the 1954 Farm & Business Directory there was only the trailer park run by Carl Johnson on the north side just east of the drive in. Driving east from Kolbe Rd on the north side it was Wheeler's service station, Mac's Restaurant and the trailer court.
Oops, I see you already covered this in your link to the Johnson's Restaurant post.
Pretty sure Smitty's was somewhere between Chris' restaurant and Anchor Lodge. I was looking at an aerial map and perhaps was in-between Anchor Lodge and Elyria water(looks like employee parking) or been consumed by a large house. Rae
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.4541607,-82.213217,720m/data=!3m1!1e3
Update. I remembered I have a Polks City Directory from 1960. Its' Robby's 3732 W Erie. Sorry for the confusion when I had the answer all along. Rae
Curious, can one actually move an old "mobile" home? Or were they destroyed?
Chuck
Jx MI
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