That's why I thought it was interesting that the Lorain Journal published the pair of photos of the two houses above, one at 623 West 30th Street and the other at 1442 West 34th Street. The photos of the two recently-sold homes appeared in the paper on March 6, 1954.
So why did these homes receive special attention? Well, a lucky realtor had just helped a Lorain couple sell the house on W. 30th Street and then purchase the brick house on W. 34th.
These days, it's probably not unusual for a realtor to do double duty. We did the same thing when selling our 1940s colonial on Nebraska Avenue; the same realtor was used to find another house, which ended up being in Sheffield Lake less than a mile away.
But what's interesting to me is that my parents made almost the same move that the couple in the ad did. My parents' first house (which was given to them by my father's grandfather) was on W. 30th Street near Broadway, not far from the one in the top photo. When they sold it (it was simply too small) they built a new house on West 30th St., west of Ashland Avenue and not far from the house on W. 34th in the photo.
I guess there must have been a strong urge by homeowners living in the older neighborhoods to be a part of the rapid growth on the West Side. Many iconic businesses (like Willow Hardware and Whalen Drug) and shopping centers were springing up to replace farmland, and it was probably hard to resist the new roads, schools, etc.
And what about the two homes in the 1954 article? They both still look great and are in neighborhoods that remain nice, seventy years later.
If memory serves, I lived at fifteen different addresses in Lorain over the years, even more if you count couch-crashing for a bit.
ReplyDeleteWe didn't move all that much when I was a child in the eastern suburbs of Cleveland. Just four different houses. In my adult life, I've lived in nine different places, currently Avon Lake.
ReplyDeleteMy parents were living near 21st and Hamilton when I was born in 1954. They then bought a lot in Sherwood Allotments in 1962, built a house and we moved-in in 1963. Stayed in that house until fam moved to Denver in 1968.
ReplyDeleteMy mother bought her own house in 1952 brand new on New Mexico Ave. Which was a rare thing at the time. Not only a woman, but a blind woman. My mother would never have gone for politically correct terms of today. She held a full-time job at St Jo's transcribing for Russell and Berkebile and working in the dark room. Met my dad in 55. I was born in 56 and she owned until I sold it in 2000.
ReplyDeleteIn Pennsyltucky, my parents bought what they considered a "perfect house" in 1949. It was way too small when they had kids, but they toughed it out by sending us outside as much as possible ("It was only for 18 years, Dad once said) and were perfectly happy in it once we all moved out. Dad passed in the 1980s. Mom stayed on there for a total of almost 60 years.
ReplyDeleteWife and I have lived in 5 different places. First 2 because my work took me different places. Next 2 because of a growing family. This last one (where I intend to drop dead) is all on one floor just waiting for us to buy HoverRounds! (tm)
Hello Rae. When I was a kid, I used to mow the lawn and do side jobs for a blind couple on New Mexico Ave. Your parents wouldn't happen to be the Mantin's would they? I believe it was 1612 New Mexico.
ReplyDeleteIt seems much less common today for parents to help their children with the purchase of their first house. My parents were gifted the down payment for their first house as a wedding gift. Meanwhile, me and my siblings were afforded no such luxury as Mom and Dad did not pay it forward. I apologize in advance if my comment starts the typical Baby Boomer hatred that seems to pop up here rather frequently.
I never got into the "starter" house business.To me you buy a house that's good enough the first time and you stay there.Unless the neighborhood goes to pot.Then you pretty much have to move if you want to be safe.That's why if you buy a house on a couple of acres the first time, you pretty much don't have to worry about the riff raff.
ReplyDeleteI'm a boomer - barely.
ReplyDeleteWe rented for several years. The first place we bought was a V.A. Repo that we picked up on the cheap. because there wasn't a wall without at least one hole punched or kicked through it and not a single interior door still on its hinges. Kitchen and bath had to be rebuilt from the subfloor up. We did that all ourselves, to save money.
We had some financial help from my in-laws, but not much, and it was all more than paid back, eventually, in the care we took of them as they aged.
My family didn't have the money to help, they probably wouldn't have, anyway. That wasn't the way it worked with us. I'd help my kids, but not at the risk of putting our finances in danger. Both of them are in big cities where a 200k house, here, costs millions. They won't own, as long as they live there.
...We lived in three houses in Lorain - 1356 Long, and then 1312 and 1317 West 37th - and I was there from spring of '65 through August of '78.
ReplyDeleteSince then, I've had seventeen - count 'em, SEVENTEEN distinct residences.