A&W Root Beer Opens in Lorain – June 1954

I'm still talking about beer – only this time it's root beer.

Seventy years ago this week, Lorain's A&W Root Beer stand opened on West Erie Ave. (the old 6 & 2) at Madison. Here's the Grand Opening ad that ran in the Lorain Journal on June 18, 1954.

As noted back on this post, there had been a root beer stand at that location since the 1930s. My mother remembered that it was a special treat to get a glass of root beer there in a frosted glass. She also recalled that it was run by the Buchanan family, who lived next door to the stand.

A late 1930s listing in the city directory indicated that at that time the stand was affiliated with Stewarts's Root Beer. Apparently with the change of ownership to Warren Gorman (as indicated in the ad above), the decision was made to switch to A&W and its distinctive orange buildings.

The A&W chain of roadside root beer stands dates back to 1919. According to its Wikipedia entry, there were 170 A&W franchisees by 1933 and 450 by 1950. And by 1960, there were more than 2,000 outlets.

A 1960s mug courtesy of eBay

Here's another ad for the Lorain A&W. This one's from the Journal of May 29, 1962.

Interestingly, another A&W Root Beer stand was only about 8 miles to the west in Vermilion on the same highway. That's the one I remember. I don't know if we ate there more than once or twice, but it was a landmark to watch for in Vermilion from the back seat of the family car.

Hey, A&W has their own bear mascot –the Great Root Bear – sort of a nonalcoholic version of the Hamm's bear.

A&W Root Beer has been a favorite topic on this blog, with several posts devoted to it.