Wednesday, June 9, 2021

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.

9 comments:

  1. I remember a while back I was looking at the east side of Lorain on Historic Aerials website when I noticed that large block of building but I didn't have a clue as to what they were. In the 1962 photo you could still make out the foundations.Thank you Dana for sending Dan this little known piece of history,well unknown to me anyway and thank you Dan.

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  2. Thanks, Bob. After reading your comment, I went back and added the 1952 aerial that you mentioned at the top of the post.

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  3. I grew up in that area in the 70's and spent many days playing in the woods behind that building to the right of Kew Gardens, which was the Sands Bar at that time. Once you got into those woods, it was like a giant playground with a massive green canopy. I vividly remember that you couldn't venture to far to the west because the forest turned into a terrible mess of much smaller trees and heavy brush and vegetation that made it difficult to pass through. After 40 years, the mystery is solved. That brush was caused by the remnants of Kew Gardens once it was finally abandoned for good. Thank you Dan and Dana. Jim

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  4. Those buildings reminded me of that classic WWII drama "The Best Years of Our Lives".In it Fred Derry played by the great Dana Andrews,was in a airplane scrap yard.He was reliving his war days venting out his frustrations with life up in a bomber cockpit.A bunch of scrap men were in the yard "recycling the airplanes for prefabricated housing.".Were the Kew Gardens houses made out of vintage WWII bomber material like it was explained in the movie?That would maybe explain the look of the houses a little.

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  5. I remember driving by when I was young but couldn't recall any details. It's so nice to see exactly what they looked like. I have never been able to find any photos of the houses. I did locate the son of the person who was the manager but never contacted him.

    I don't think the buildings were recycled aircraft parts. They were a standardized building erected by the Army. They replaced the first units which were trailers. The Army also built another development off Gulf Rd called Valley View. According to a newspaper article both trailer camps were unfit by 1950.

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  6. In the aerial photo it looks like what is the Kew Gardens Grocery Store in the upper left.Is that about where it would've been?Right around where the Dollar Tree is located now on Colorado Ave.

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  7. I believe the upper left side of Kew Gardens is at Missouri Ave. So, Dollar Tree would be further down left (west). The four vertical roads in the aerial are Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, and New Hampshire Avenues. The building to the right of Kew Gardens is what would become Sand's Bar and later Margie's. It was demolished in 2011. I believe Dan has written about it in the past.

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    1. I remember Kew gardens growing up on Day drive in the 50s and '60s.

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  8. We did not have CELL phones, internet, computers, etc--but we HAD a TELEPHONE--that's an incorrect statement in this post.

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