Wellington Trailer Park – July 1954

A recent view of the trailer park

Whenever I pay a visit to Wellington (including when I'm heading to the Lorain County Fair), I'm still a little curious about that trailer park on Route 58 on the northern outskirts of town. While it looks nice and is in a cozy location, within walking distance of the village's amenities, it's still odd to see it there – and I wonder how it happened to be there.

That's why I was happy to see the article below about the place, which appeared in the Lorain Journal on July 7, 1954. It provides a favorable look at the park, as well as an explanation as to why it is there.

It notes, "A tiny village, population 41, has sprung up within three short months north of the town's limits along Route 58. It is the Wellington Trailer Park.

"Last fall when the village passed an emergency measure prohibiting establishing a trailer park within the corporation limits, Mr. and Mrs. Dellen Brouse abandoned their plans to open one within the village and started their project at the present site.

"The land, three acres in all, was leased from Clyde Ray. Gravel streets were laid, light poles erected, lots laid out for trailer parking and a utility building constructed. On April 15 they were ready for the business and the first trailer made its appearance.

"Capacity of the park is 24 trailers which is expected to be enlarged to 30 by next spring.

"Each lot is grass covered and the trailer-owner is permitted to plant flowers at this discretion. Awnings are allowed and nice cabanas.

"Those with children are parked at the rear of the property away from the busy road and where their play hours will not annoy the older residents who are parked nearer the front. A playground for the youngster's convenience is in the making and now boasts of a sand-box, teeters and slide.

"The utility building is equipped with shower and toilet facilities, a furnace room, telephone pay station, mail boxes and laundry room.

"At the present time most of the trailer-owners are employed out-of-town. Three of them are employed on the turnpike and one on Rt. 224."

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It's kind of interesting how Dellen Brouse made his dream come true to open his trailer park, even as the village was doing its best to scuttle his plans. I went back and retrieved this article from the November 12, 1953 Lorain Journal to get a little more information about how it all went down.

It notes, "Denied permission to construct a trailer camp within the village limits, Dellen Brouse Wednesday launched construction of such a camp just a few yards outside the corporate limits.

"Brouse appeared before council several weeks ago to obtain permission, but the request was referred to the zoning commission and later died.

"Bypassing the village on the unit, Brouse proceeded to lease approximately three acres of land from Clyde Ray just north of the corporate limits and south of the U. S. Plug and Fitting Company.

"According to Brouse, the camp will operate on a semi-permanent rental basis and will be patterned after the Trailer Mart in Cleveland.

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Trailer Mart consisted of several trailer parks located in the Cleveland area. Here's an ad that ran in the Plain Dealer in November 1963.

An article about the sale of the parks appeared in Crain's Cleveland Business on July 16, 2001. It notes, "A group of New York and Virginia investors has acquired the landmark Columbia Road Mobile Home Park in Olmsted Township and the Brook Park, a manufactured home community in Cleveland, for more than $26 million. Both mobile home parks were sold by Trailer Mart Inc. of Olmsted Township, a family-owned company led by Gary Brookins. Mr. Brookins is the son of the late Gerald Brookins, who developed the parks. 

"The Columbia Road park is particularly well-known because it's also home to Trolleyville USA, a nonprofit museum for trolleys with a demonstration trolley line through a portion of the park."