Hialeah Cabins on the Move – Feb. 9, 1961

One of my favorite topics on this blog has been the old tourist cabins that dotted the U. S. 6 landscape west of Lorain in the 1940s and 50s. These Mom and Pop lodging businesses predated the motel era, and consisted of individual structures collectively called a tourist court. 

If the owners stayed in business long enough, they often connected the small cottages or cabins under one roof to give them the appearance of a modern motel. (A good example of this would be the old Grandview Court, which evolved into the Grandview Motel.)

Sometimes, however, the tourist court business might not survive due to changes in road alignments. Green Lantern Camp apparently was put out of business thanks to the widening of Lake Road. And Hialeah Tourist Court ended up stranded on a bypassed piece of the highway.

I’ve been curious about Hialeah Tourist Court for some time, since there are still a few cabins there that somehow have survived to this day. I wondered: what happened to the other cabins?

Well, it took some time, but I have my answer: the other cabins were moved – to Mill Hollow!

As the small clipping from the Feb. 9, 1961 Lorain Journal notes, “Five tourist cottages have been donated to the Mill Hollow Reservation of the Lorain Metropolitan Park District by County Commissioner Ludwig M. Pincura, owner of Hialeah Tourist Court, 4015 W. Erie Ave.

“Two cottages will be used as information centers, two others will be used as shelters and the fifth will be used as a nature lodge.”

It would be interesting to know how long the cabins were used, and if any survive to this day, perhaps as a forgotten park tool shed.

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UPDATE 

The Arcadia Publishing book Lorain County Metro Parks: The First 50 Years (by Gary S. Gerrone) includes a photo of one of the repurposed cottages being used as a small picnic shelter.

The photo caption reads, “Five 12-by-16-foot summer cottage homes were donated to the Lorain County Metro Parks in 1960. Three of these were turned into small picnic shelters, like the one shown here. One was turned into the park’s first version of a nature center. The last one was turned into an information center, and although long closed, it greeted visitors to Mill Hollow’s “B” side well into the 1990s."