Growing Up in Kew Gardens

Aerial view of Kew Gardens circa 1952

Do you remember Kew Gardens, the temporary veterans’ housing project located on the east side of Lorain? It was located on the south side of Colorado Avenue, opposite and just to the east of the present day Discount Drug Mart at Missouri Avenue.

Many of the younger readers of this blog probably won’t remember it, since it was erected in 1946 and removed around 1956. But older readers are probably very familiar with it, having known someone who lived there or perhaps having resided there themselves.

Dana Kingsboro remembers it well. She emailed me a few months ago to share her reminisces, as well as some wonderful family photos that capture what it was like to live there.

1950 City Directory Listing

“We lived there when my younger brother was born in July 1947 through the 1951/1952 school year, when we moved back to the post - WWII military housing projects at North Central Drive on the west side of Lorain, so I could start school in kindergarten at Boone School,”  said Dana.

One thing that Dana noted about living there was that her family’s ‘house’ at 707 Kew Gardens was neither a classic rounded quonset hut nor a trailer.

"Those corrugated metal buildings were not like any I've seen on the internet; I've not seen any that look like the ones that were in Kew Gardens when we lived there,” Dana pointed out. "They were rectangular, with a front entrance (screened door) and a small porch. I don't remember much about the inside, except they had two bedrooms and rooms that were very small with no A/C or fans. They did not have telephones and we did not have a TV. Clothes were hung to dry on clotheslines using poles in the yard beside the house.

"When it would rain, the rain on those metal roofs was very loud. During hot summer months, we kept screened windows open and sleeping was difficult because of the heat.”

Here is the selection of photos of 707 Kew Gardens that Dana shared with me. The first photo shows her on her porch, circa 1947.

Here’s another photo circa 1947. It features Dana's paternal grandmother (Mary) Louella Fulton Work Wilson of Washington, PA holding her baby brother Bob Work, Jr. Dana is standing on the porch rail while her mother keeps an eye on things from behind the screen door.

And here’s another cute photo, showing Dana a year later in 1948.

Even though 707 Kew Gardens was a temporary home for Dana and her family, it was still home – and that meant there was yardwork to be done. These two photos show Dana’s father, Robert "Bob" Russell Work, Sr.  and brother, Bob Jr. (“Bobby") working in the yard beside their home in the late 1940s.

Lastly, here’s a photo of Dana and the snowman that her father helped her build, during the winter of 1950.

As Dana mentioned, her family moved out of Kew Gardens in the early 1950s. 

"The buildings disappeared long ago, and the vacant land was used by carnivals (rides & games), a circus, and others,” she said. 

But the camaraderie of living with other veterans and their families in such close proximity to each other, in less than ideal conditions, had one benefit.

"Some neighbors remained friends for years after moving from Kew Gardens,” she noted.