The article provides a nice history about the area, including a mention of Almon Ruggles, who came from Connecticut to Ohio back in 1805 to survey the Firelands. (More on Mr. Ruggles tomorrow.) Ruggles purchased some of the land along the lakefront that he had surveyed, and today that area is known as Ruggles Beach.
The article makes reference to several local landmarks, including the Ruggles Dance Hall and the old Ruggles Boarding House. Who knew that both of them would be lost to fires within only a few years?
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| Ruggles Beach Dance Hall (Photo courtesy Rich Tarrant's Vermilion Views) |
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| July 6, 1959 Lorain Journal |
According to the 1956 article, the Ruggles Beach Boarding House was right next to the Old Farmhouse. The real photo postcard below, courtesy of Drew Penfield's "Lake Shore Rail Maps" website shows 'The Farm.' It's easy to recognize part of the structure as the apartments shown in the 1956 photo.
Today the former apartment property is the home of Vacationland Mobile Home Park.
And here is the Journal's account of the apartment fire from its March 26, 1957 edition.
A nice set of articles, Dan. Y'know... just yesterday my sweetheart and I were on Rt 162 in Seneca County which sort of zigs-and-zags as it crosses township lines, and I commented on how at least some of them were due to different teams of surveyors disagreeing about the location of township and range lines. In geology, when geologists working on different areas try to reconcile their differences, the results are jokingly called "Boundary Line Faults" and require "local indexing." This is skooching the maps back and forth, so things fit better.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I wonder if Postmaster and Judge Almon Ruggles was good friends with Brownhelm Postmaster and Judge Henry Brown who lived just along the lake? Or, perhaps, Amherst Postmaster and Judge Josiah Harris who also served in both houses of the Ohio legislature?
Good piece, Dan - I learned a lot about Ruggles Beach.
ReplyDeleteI always wondered about Ruggles Beach.As I always see a sign on Lake Road going west stating "Ruggles Beach" and then it looks like you go up a dead end road.
ReplyDeleteThe Ruggles family is part of my family's history. My great-great-great grandfather, John Sayre Roe, built a house in Ridgefield Township just west of Norwalk in 1832. When he returned with his family the next year he caught cholera on the steamship on Lake Erie and just made it to the house before dying. As each of the young children grew to be 18 the Ruggles family next door purchased their section of land so they had money to make a start on adult life. The Ruggles still live there today. Grandpa John was the first grave in the plot now called Ruggles Cemetery. I and other family members have visited it several times over the years and the Ruggles family is always excited to see us.
ReplyDeleteThe original Roe house stood until about 7 years ago when it was demolished. I have a photograph of it during the 1932 100th reunion of the Roe family in Ohio. My mother was 2 years old in the photo. I photographed the house in the 1990s when you could still go in it. There was a wooden airplane upstairs! It was built by the boyfriend of one of the Ruggles women. They still have the aircraft in the huge Ruggles barn across the road.