The above photo of the intersection of Broadway and West Erie Avenue in Lorain – looking east, with the Broadway Building on the right and the old swing bridge (that preceded the present Bascule Bridge) off in the distance – probably looks odd to anyone familiar with this location today.
We're not used to seeing anything on that northeast corner or on the viaduct leading to the bridge. Yet the photo shows a Gulf service station and, just east of it, a hotel that local historians fondly know as the Swamp Lily.
The Swamp Lily had been built (according to at least one source) in 1894. Here's an early, undated photo looking east towards the Swing Bridge that shows the Swamp Lily on the left side of the photo. As you can see, the Broadway Building hasn't been built yet.
The Swamp Lily made it onto this 1924 Lorain Tornado souvenir postcard, which looks west from the tornado-damaged viaduct. That's it on the right.
Here's a vintage photo, courtesy of the Lorain County Memory website, circa 1930s. There's some kind of carnival or exhibition at the north end of Broadway, but you can see the Swamp Lily off in the distance on the left side of the photo.
And here are two more vintage photos of it, circa mid-to-late 1930s, from different angles, probably taken at the same time. The first one shows how you would enter the front door from the viaduct. The second photo shows it at ground level.
While the name Swamp Lily is used regularly to refer to the hotel on the viaduct, it actually had several names during its existence, including the Eagle Hotel and the Checker Inn.
The Swamp Lily made it into the news frequently in the early 1930s. The first event that triggered several news accounts in the Lorain Journal was the city's desire to widen E. Erie Avenue at the western end of the viaduct. August Baldwin, one of the city's last living Civil War veterans and the owner of the Swamp Lily at the time, blocked the widening via an old injunction. Apparently the city retaliated by declaring the hotel a fire trap. The issue was finally resolved.
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| Sept. 4, 1930 |
The Swamp Lily made it into the news for the last time when it became necessary to remove it to make way for the new Bascule Bridge.
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| Nov. 10, 1939 |
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| Nov. 30, 1939 |
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| Dec. 5, 1939 |
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| Dec. 6, 1939 |
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| Dec. 27, 1939 |
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| Feb. 23, 1940 |
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| May 22, 1940 |
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| July 17, 1944 |
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| Dec. 5, 1949 |
I'd never heard of the Swamp Lily, although I love the name; the place probably deserves a book, or maybe an indie movie, like the Lighthouse.
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