Sherwood Allotment Aerial View – May 1954

Ad from the May 7, 1955 Lorain Journal

One of the nice things about growing up on the west side of Lorain in the 1960s is that you knew where many of your fellow elementary school classmates lived. How did we know? I guess from playing or walking to school with them, or socializing with them in some other capacity (like Cub Scouts or church). It seems quaint today.

But there was one group of kids who didn't walk to Masson School. They lived over in the Sherwood Allotment, and had to be bused, since it was too far to walk to school. Thus those of us who walked didn't know where they lived over there, and we didn't play with them, since they were across Leavitt Road/Route 58). I can look at a Masson class photo from the 1960s, and still tell you which ones road the bus. They may have been slightly more affluent too.

Anyway, the Sherwood Allotment was sort of a mystery to those of us who lived in the numbered and perfectly perpendicular-to-each-other west side streets. That's why I found the photo below so interesting. It appeared in the Lorain Journal on May 21, 1954, and shows the early stages of construction of the Sherwood Allotment, which was just getting underway. The caption even mentions that the streets were going to be winding, rather than straight.

Here's a labeled view so you can get your bearing.

And here's the area today. (Disregard the yellow border inflicted by Bing Maps.)

I've written about the area before. This post is about the uniquely named streets with a golf theme that are linked (pun intended) to the property's Lorain Country Club heritage; this blog post concerns the portion of the allotment fronting on Meister Road.