History of Century Park

Here's another one of those series of articles about the history of Lorain parks that ran in the Lorain Daily News back in mid-August 1939. I've already posted the second and third articles in the series, so – finally – here's the first one (sorry they’re out of order).

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CENTURY PARK ORIGINALLY WAS DANCE PAVILION IN 1900
Note: The following is the first of a series of articles to appear in the Lorain news concerning the history and present needs of Lorain city parks.
CENTURY PARK

In 1900 – the birth year of the 20th Century – some enterprising folks purchased land from the A. C. Farragher farm and built a dance hall on Lake Erie a mile and a quarter east of Black River. They very "timely" called it the Century Park Dance Hall.

Lorain oldsters were youngsters then, and to the tune of a fiddle and a piano, they waltzed, quadrilled, "polkaed," two stepped, hesitated, and tangoed until April 2, 1919, when the city purchased the hall and 2 1/2 acres of land from Charles and Martha Refring for $14,700.

The dance hall was rented out as a concession by the city and the post-war young folks waltzed and tangoed some more, and foxtrotted until the floor was worn thin and unsafe. Lake Erie had, through the two decades, quietly dug solid ground from under 20 feet of the north end of the hall. So in August, 1923 a new floor was being laid, and new underpinning constructed. On the 11th day of that month a fire broke out, and despite the best efforts of the fire department, the hall burned to the ground.

Fire insurance brought the city $8000 which was used toward the development of the present Century Park. A bath house was built, parking space provided, a retaining wall and piers built, and proper landscaping done. Later swing for the children were put up, and still later tables and fireplaces for picnickers provided. For a good number of years, the beach has been well guarded. Many tourists as well as home folks daily use the park for swimming and picnicking.

The Park Commission has included several items in its improvement program for the next few years for Century Park. The lake bank is being undermined by recent high water, and must be repaired; the bank should be graded and seeded; more shade trees should be planted; and the piers should be encased in concrete for greater safety.

Recent photo of Century Park

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Century Park has been featured a few times on this blog. I did a “then and now” back in 2011, and featured vintage postcards here. I also posted an article about the dedication of the bathhouse that replaced the dance hall here.

Century Park Dedication - 1925

An article in early December (here) about Lorain City Council applying for a state grant to renovate Harbor House in Century Park got me to wondering just how long that building had really been there.

As usual, I accidentally found the answer while I was looking for something else on microfilm last month.

The small article above is from The Lorain Times-Herald of Friday, May 29, 1925. (Give it a click.) It explains that the new bathhouse replaced the old dance hall, which had burned down in the summer of 1923, and that it was going to reopen on Decoration Day (now known as Memorial Day).

The article also explains that the building was being leased by William Heimann, a former life guard at Lakeview Park for three years, and that refreshments would be available at the stand. (Heimann later had a well-known business, Heimann's Barbecue, at 402 E. Erie Avenue.)

And here's the article from The Lorain Times-Herald of Saturday, June 6, 1925 featuring the newly-opened bathhouse.

And here's my shot from September for comparison.

More Vintage Century Park Postcards

Here's a few more vintage pictures of Century Park, courtesy of the Black River Historical Society.

The beach shot (above) is scanned from the BRHS's Lorain Images of America book. The one with the view from the street-level vantage point of the (at left) is from the BRHS website.

It looks like that bath house was huge.

For a nice history of the park and dance hall, with special attention paid to the fact that the park was a stop on the Lake Shore Electric route, click here to visit the Lake Shore Rail Maps website.

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When I lived on the east side of Lorain during the 1990's, Century Park was a handy destination for a walk or jog. It's a nice little lakefront park, kind of a poor step-sibling to the better known Lakeview Park.

It's a little surprising that Lorain needs help maintaining such a small park.

Incidentally, the postcard publishers must have realized their error with the "Lake View Park" label on the Century Park postcard that I posted yesterday. A properly labeled postcard (below) turned up in a Google search.

Century Park Then & Now

I had seen this postcard before on several occasions, either online or in an antique shop. It's labeled "LAKE VIEW PARK BEACH, LORAIN, OHIO" and I had always thought that it depicted the pre-tornado Lakeview Park bathhouse.

However, the recent article in the Morning Journal about residents having to maintain Century Park on Lorain's east side (because the city wasn't) sent me looking for a vintage postcard of the park online. When this one came up, I disregarded it as being Lakeview Park – until I took a closer look and realized it was Century Park all the time.

Here's my shot from last night. (I couldn't duplicate the postcard view exactly because I was already at the far western end of the park.)

Here's a closer look at the Harbor House beach house to compare with the vintage postcard.

According to the above article, the beach house has been there since 1928.