Castle-on-the-Lake Open House – June 1962

I've written many times about how Lorain could seem like a magical place to a kid growing up there in the 1960s. 

It seems like no matter where I looked from the vantage point of the back seat of the family car, something unusual and exciting was revealed: a giant Easter basket; a huge V in a park; a color-changing fountain; a massive drawbridge; animated neon signs; a steam locomotive in a park (as well as army artillery and a tank)... and a castle, right on the lake only a few miles from our house.

The Castle-on-the-Lake (as it was known for many years) really was a special place, and having a dinner there or an important event was a memorable occasion. I had my rehearsal dinner there. 

The place has had its ups and downs over the decades, and I hope that its current incarnation as Papasitos and Beer Mexican Grill is doing well.

Back in June 1962, the Castle-on-the-Lake had just undergone a remodeling, and was about to unveil its new look with an open house. It's all explained in the article by Jack LaVriha below, which appeared in the Journal on June 13, 1962.

So what was the biggest change? As noted in the article, "A new addition is on the east side of the building, which gives the Castle more of a "castle" look from an architectural standpoint. The addition provides about 3,200 square feet more of space.

"A large replica of a knight in gold armor adorns the front of the new addition. It is illuminated at night."

Lorain Journal Front Page – June 1, 1926

Have you ever heard of W. T. Van Orman?

I hadn't – until I read the front page of the Lorain Journal from one hundred years ago today – June 1, 1926.

Van Orman – who was born in Lorain in 1894 and graduated from Lorain High – had just won the 1926 Gordon Bennett international balloon race. In the headline article below, he is acknowledged as "America's premier balloonist."

You can read more about his life, his work at Goodyear, his achievements and his inventions here.

Elsewhere on the front page, several articles chronicled the accidents and tragedies that had occurred during the Memorial Day holiday, with stories about: multiple crashes of street cars, buses and autos; a young girl who plunged thirty feet to the ground from a roller coaster at Crystal Beach in Vermilion; a young man who was struck by lightning in a church and died; a Lorain six-year-old who had been missing for several days; and nineteen persons arrested for various charges, including intoxication.

Another story told of five surviving Civil War veterans (the war had ended more than sixty years earlier) and how they participated in Memorial Day ceremonies. The article noted, "a bronze tablet cast from the Battleship Maine, was presented to the city by the Spanish War Veterans." The tablet was installed in the City Hall lawn, but was moved to Washington Park in 1929. I wrote about that tablet here and here.

On the lighter side, the captain of the "Walter B." fish tug boat caught a forty-two inch long eel. Yuck! According to the story, "The eel will be cut up and sold, like any other fish."