LCCC Campus on Abbe Road Opens – October 3, 1966

Gene Patrick's "Passing Scene" cartoon of Saturday, October 1, 1966

Sixty years ago tomorrow, the Lorain County Community College campus on Abbe Road opened for the first time. Here's the front page article from the October 3, 1966 Journal with the story.

As the article noted, it was the first new community college campus in Ohio. Quite an honor.

The Journal featured a few photos from that first day of classes on campus in that same edition.

I checked to see if LCCC was having any sort of festivities scheduled in honor of the occasion. Since the college received its charter in 1963, it has already observed an extended 60th Anniversary celebration beginning in 2023 that included events on the Abbe Road location.

Here is the marker honoring LCCC as the first community college in Ohio with a permanent campus.

Courtesy RemarkableOhio.org

As noted on the Remarkable Ohio website, "Lorain County Community College has become a cornerstone of the community, contributing to the educational and social and cultural enrichment of all Lorain County residents." Well said.

After I graduated from Ohio State and came home to Lorain,  I decided to take some marketing classes at LCCC. I loved the campus, especially the library – which I had been visiting for years anyway. Every few years I drive around the campus and am constantly amazed at how beautiful it is, and how it's grown over the decades.

Lorain County is lucky to have it.

Lorain Journal Front Page – October 1, 1926

Rogers Hornsby, manager of the St. Louis Cardinals

One hundred years ago today, it was the first day of October 1926. The front page of the Lorain Journal that day was crammed with enough news to provide considerable background fodder and atmosphere for a Don Hilton crime novel. 

The big story was a raid on bootleggers by state liquor agents that didn’t go quite as well as planned, thanks to the fact that “a newspaper in a neighboring city printed a sensational story concerning state agents in Lorain.” The raids did result, however, in search warrants against “more than a score of Lorain bootleg establishments.”

The other big story was the World Series, which was set to open the following day in Yankee Stadium, between the New York Yankees and the St. Louis Cardinals.

Other news stories included: the Lorain County Commissioners promising support for the construction of a high level bridge over the Black River (it would take almost exactly another ten years before the dream was realized); the burning at sea of the freighter New Britain; the tragic death of the Erie Avenue bridge watchman; and the aftermath of the rescue of miners that were trapped for six days in the Pabst mine at Ironwood, Michigan.

On a lighter note, a small article reported that “prisoners of the Lorain city jail had a feast last night." 

"They were given the “leavings’ of the police department banquet, which included chicken, clams, corn on the cob, soup, near beer and potatoes. 

"The drinks did not last long among the prisoners. 

"“It was like pouring water down a sewer to watch the near beer disappear down the throats of the prisoners,” said Lieut. George Carson."