Here’s a great photo showing that Downtown Lorain was still hanging on fifty years ago, in the face of the continued competition from Midway Mall, as well as the Sheffield Shopping Center (anchored by May Company by then).
The photo by Jim Fiedler appeared in the Journal back on January 16th, 1972 and the caption says it all: “The lights lend a sparkling effect to the Main Street of downtown Lorain, carrying a promise of a “Great White Way” in this night photo of Broadway looking south from Erie Avenue. The stores on Broadway are doing their best to keep the area alive and attractive, and evening shopping hours on Mondays and Fridays are helping to bring the customers back downtown. With urban renewal not too far away, the future does look brighter.”
I'm old enough to remember Downtown Lorain before urban renewal. Part of our regular routine was going there for trumpet lessons on Saturday morning and hitting a few stores with Mom, including stopping in at Kline’s to say hello to some of Grandma Brady’s old co-workers.
Unfortunately, despite the high hopes of urban renewal, many of the main stores downtown were closing down by the time I got home from college in the early 1980s. It was a strange-looking Lorain that I came home to after four years.
2 comments:
Kind of a sad, nostalgic post this time.In those days, and for the next few years, Broadway, from the tracks north to West Erie, was my playground,my social center, my occasional workspace.It was alive, stores, restaurants,bars, theaters, and people of all stripes living amongst each other, mingling during the day, and especially in the night.
All gone.
All the pretty signs in the world won't change that.
...And how many 'urban renewal' plans did we get? Not a one ever came true.
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