Erie Apartments Christmas Decorations – Dec. 1940

Driving around town to see Christmas lights has always been one of the most special activities of the holiday season. 

We did it just every year when I was growing up in the 1960s, mainly sticking to the West Side neighborhoods. It seems like everyone put up some kind of lights. 

We had our favorite houses during our drive. There was a house near Masson School (at the intersection of Edgewood Dr. and W. 40th) that put a big Santa Claus figure in their picture window each year. We always watched for it. (It was not unlike watching for the big Pink Panther doll in the window of a vacation house that was on the tram tour of Put-in-Bay, described by the tour guide as a "big Hollywood star living in the island.")

Even as an adult, I still enjoy seeing the Christmas lights as part of my holiday fun, especially the display at Finwood Estate on Abbe Road.

Although checking out Christmas light displays might seem like something from the modern era, it's been going on for a long time. Case in point: the small blurb below from the "Log of Lorain" column of the Lorain Journal of December 28, 1940.

I wish I had a photo of it because it sounds nice, especially since it was created by the residents of the Erie Apartments. I still like to see homemade decorations (such as big, painted wooden cutouts) since they were made to make kids happy and have a lot of heart. 

Speaking of the Erie Apartments, I've driven by them thousands of times, since I lived along that stretch of Route 6 for almost thirty years. 

I always thought the building had a lot of charm, and was just the right size, with only four apartments there. I even considered trying to get an apartment there a couple years ago before I bought my condo. But I ended up in the Overlook Apartments instead (which I wrote about in a four part series starting here, and continuing with parts 2, 3 and 4).

Oddly enough, both the Erie Apartments and the Overlook Apartments were advertising in the March 10, 1928 Lorain Journal – in the same ad.