One of the interesting aspects of the Grand Opening of Willow Hardware in February 1953 was the fact that the store had the distinction of having Lorain's 28,000th telephone.
The ad above, which appeared in the Journal on Feb. 20, 1953, tells the story.
"It is a promise of success and profitable business for us that our telephone is connected with 27,999 other telephone users in Lorain," the ad notes. "That gives us the longest sales counter we could want, for it stretches the length and breadth of our market."
It was a pretty good little promotional gimmick.
But the famous phone number – 34-251 – ironically didn't last very long. The growth of the westside (and Lorain in general) resulted in those well-remembered exchanges, new prefixes and many new numbers. Consequently, by the time of the 1964 Lorain City Directory, Willow Hardware had AV-2 5927 (282-5927) as a phone number.
By the way, the 'Mr. Hageman' mentioned in the ad was likely either Herman E. Hageman, Chairman of the Board of Lorain Telephone, or James C. Hageman, President.
I find the "Completely Self-Serve" statement interesting.
ReplyDeleteAs opposed to the old days when you asked for an item, I suppose.
I recall hardware stores where you'd take in a broken whatever and the guy behind the counter would fix it for you!
That's when things could be dismantled and repaired instead of thrown away and replaced.
But I'm old and those days are gone!