Plan for Rebuilding Downtown Lorain – Feb. 1971

While Vermilion was ironing out the plans to make its shopping district look like a quaint shipbuilding, fishing and sailing community of the 1800s (as noted in yesterday’s blog post), its neighbor to the east was on a similar mission to revitalize its downtown. 

The difference was that Lorain’s plan looked forward, to a future that reflected anticipated population growth.

The article and photo below, which appeared in the Journal on Feb. 11, 1971, introduces a plan for a downtown area with several high-rise apartment buildings, including one to the west of the new City Hall and one to the south of Antlers Hotel.

Of particular interest is the concept of a two-story arcade with auditoriums at either end, located across from City Hall, that would “serve as the nucleus of Lorain’s rebuilt downtown area, with nearby high-rise apartment and office buildings dominating the skyline,” according to the article.

This Sept. 1973 Journal article follows the same idea and includes an illustration of what was envisioned. 

It was intriguing premise that, alas, did not become a reality. Instead, the scaled-down civic center was built, making many people nostalgic for the restaurants that were sacrificed for its construction.

Thus, instead of becoming the very heart of Downtown Lorain, the building became – for many Lorainites – just a place where you went to get your drivers license renewed.

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I’ve posted several articles about businesses lost to urban renewal, including Urbas Cafe (here and here) and Heilman’s Ranch House. This article shows an aerial view of some of the ones along West Erie Ave.