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| The view last week |
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| Vintage postcard view |
The plan was announced back in 2019 (here), and work was supposed to have begun last year. But various factors (undoubtedly including the pandemic) resulted in the work only starting in the last few weeks.
The Morning Journal featured a nice article about the Road to Hope project on July 31st by Richard Payerchin here.
As the article notes, only the outer walls of the buildings will be retained. Everything else – the electrical, plumbing, roofs, pavement, landscaping, etc. – will be brand new.
Anyway, at a time when old, vandalized structures are routinely and automatically demolished, it’s nice to see some actually being rehabilitated for the good of the community, in both function and appearance.
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(I did a multi-post history of the motel (which was not part of the national Holiday Inn chain) back here.)
3 comments:
I always wondered what kind of motel this was.Or wouldn't it more appropriately be called a "motor court"?As all the cottages are independent from each other.Anyways,about 20-25 years ago I bought an old car from a tenant who lived there in one of the cottages.It must've been converted over to apartments by then as it was all a run down slumy looking area.But I got a good deal on the car and drove it to work for the next 10 years.Glad it's being brought back to life.
You’re absolutely right that the Holiday Inn Motel was really a motor or tourist court, and only called a ‘motel’ because that was the trendy term. The concept of the modern motel (with separate rooms with their own outside door but all sharing the same roof) hadn’t become the norm yet.
In the case of the Holiday Inn, the cottages were large enough that they were worth saving and repurposing – first as an apartment complex and now recovery housing. It’s a rare occasion of one of those motor courts being saved. It’s a win for everyone: the families being served, the city of Vermilion (which rids itself of an eyesore) and even roadside archeologists who would like to see a perfectly preserved 1950s motor court.
I'm so happy to see that this old place is being put to good use. I left the original response several years ago about my step-fathers father buying this property so that his two sons Dick & Bob (a couple of reprobates) would have some way to make an honest living. So much of my early life revolved around the restaurant, which was operated by Dick Konik and my mother Mary. They employed kids from all over Vermilion, Lorain, Amherst, and the Firelands. Like so many businesses that revolved around the auto and steel industries, they couldn't survive the Nixon-era recession and subsequent down-sizing that affected so many people. Thanks for posting this!
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