Last week’s posts all dealt with the annexation of Black River Township land in the late 1950s and early 60s that resulted in the city of Lorain as we know it today, with a huge west side miles from the mouth of the Black River.
And that west side – the part of Lorain that I grew up in – is still experiencing a lot of change.
Since I’ve been living slightly outside of Lorain for some time (almost twenty years in Sheffield Lake and two in Vermilion, my present home), I’m not always up on what’s happening in my hometown. Thus it was a complete surprise earlier this year to see a brand new Shell gas station pop up on the southeast corner of Tower Boulevard and Leavitt Road, across from Lighthouse Village shopping center. It’s not quite done yet.
It wasn’t even that long ago that the old-style transmission tower there was replaced with the newfangled pole (which I wrote about
here) and the corner was empty. But I’m impressed that at least it’s a national brand, instead of one of those weird mom-and-pop gasoline brands that you see just off the New York Thruway in the Seneca Nation.
It’s especially sad to see the old Emerald Valley Golf Club building sitting forlornly on the hill, with the land behind it being prepped for something.
It was also strange to see that the old closed soccer academy next door is now a Sprenger health care facility called
Silver Maple. How did I miss that?
I can’t forget the new No. 7 fire station going up on the southwest corner of Kolbe Road and West Erie, that I mentioned in a post last week. When the station is finished, it will be quite nice.
But it’s quite a ways from Meister and Leavitt, where the No. 7 station was located when I was a kid in the 60s and 70s. (It always felt good knowing the station was only about 2 minutes away from our house on Skyline Drive.)
So the current No. 7 station on West Park Drive will soon be closed, just like the long shuttered Nickles Thrift Store next door. Gee, why am I suddenly in the mood for some
Hillbilly Bread?
I guess this long-faded sign on West Park will come down as well. Hey, that looks like Black River Township’s 1913 hose truck on the sign.
