1970 Vermilion Liberty Avenue Streetscape – Part 1

Back in January, while researching the history of The Pit for my multi-part post, I spent some time looking through vintage city directories to examine the restaurant’s listings.

The Lorain Public Library had exactly one directory that was devoted entirely to Vermilion: the 1970 edition of the Baldwin ConSurvey. The thin volume had the listing below for The Pit.

Its also included The Pit in its Restaurant’s section.

Anyway, the Baldwin ConSurvey directory also had the listings by address, providing a virtual snapshot of the Liberty Avenue streetscape at that time if you were heading west from the city’s eastern border.

It’s interesting seeing the names of long-gone businesses located on that stretch of U. S. Route 6. 

Some of them, like the Holiday Inn Steak House, have been written about on this blog before. Right about that time, the Holiday Inn Motel was transitioning into the Holiday Apartments, and the restaurant was in the process of dropping the “Inn” portion of its name as well.

Ad from the July 9, 1970 Vemilion Photojournal

Holiday Steakhouse building today

Other listings bring back memories of businesses that I remember seeing from the back seat of my parents’ car, such as Willmay’s Gift House & Cheese Shop. I couldn’t find much about it on the internet, except that it was there as early as 1962. I seem to recall large German cutout characters in front. Today its location is occupied by the Vermilion Farm Market.

Courtesy Google Maps

Margie’s Restaurant was located at 3249 Liberty Avenue. Today that address is the home of Miss Kitti’s, which specializes in home baked goods, including poppyseed rolls.

Right next door to the west was the Shipwreck Motel, another place I remember seeing when I was a kid, especially the small, beat-up boat in front. Regular readers remember that I wrote about it back here, when in its earliest days was known as John’s Motel & Cabins.