For many years, a sign with that message was on the west side of Leavitt Road at Jaeger Road, roughly across from the Emerald Valley Golf Club. You would see it if you were heading north on Leavitt Road.
Although the welcome sign differed in design from time to time, the message was always the same – that Lorain was Ohio's 10th largest city and that it was the home of the International Festival. (Of course Lorain is now the ninth largest city.)
Above you see the sign being painted in a photo that ran on the front page of the Lorain Journal of August 2, 1977. (By George, I was getting ready to head off to college at that time!)
I posted a color copy of that photo before, clipped from the Journal by Raleigh McBride, one of the painters in the photo. Here it is.
His great reminisces about working for Ritter Signs was featured back here on a 2012 post.
You put a smile on my face this morning Dan! The painter standing with his back to the camera - is my brother Mike Zatroch. I just forwarded him your blog post. He doesn’t know why they listed his name as Bud, but I suspect he gave them a wisecrack answer at the time.
ReplyDeleteWendy, are you related to the Zatrochs that had the bar at 15th and Broadway?
DeleteYep - three generations of our family owned, operated and for a time, each all lived at the Zatroch’s Cafe - from 1916 to 1977; my siblings and cousins would have been the 4th generation at the time it was sold.
Delete