Lake Motel Checks Out for Good

It took a while, but it’s finally check-out time for the Lake Motel.

As reported in the Morning Journal (here), the demolition of the motel – expected since 2015 – began late last week.

The motel opened in the early 1950s as the Foster House Motel. Originally it catered to traveling salesmen.

Here’s a vintage postcard of the motel, as well as its 1963 Lorain Telephone Directory ad.

The opening of the Ohio Turnpike in the late 1950s, as well as the construction of the new limited access Ohio Route 2 in the 1960s siphoned off much of the through traffic that the Lake Motel and its neighboring U.S. Route 6 inns depended on for their customers. Having lost their main clientele, the motels eventually became run-down, serving in their final days as apartments for people who couldn’t afford to live anywhere else. This lead to inevitable criminal activity, and eventual nuisance status for the structures.

I grabbed a few pictures of the Lake Motel in 2016 when its doom was understood to be impending.

And here are the obligatory, depressing Brady Blog Steaming Rubble® shots from Saturday. These are from mid-afternoon.

By the time I went by it again during the storm a little later, the view was appropriately bleaker.

That leaves the former Parkview Motel as the Last Motel Standing – but not for long.

Foster House Motel Then & Now

To wrap up this look at vintage Lorain County motels, here's a then-and-now look at the Foster House Motel at 3917 W. Lake Road. The above undated postcard shows the motel in its early days.

The earliest Lorain phone book that I could find that had a listing for the motel was 1953 with its location at Stop 109 W. Lake Road. Early ads advertised 18 "new and modern brick units" and baseboard heat in every room. "We cater to salesmen" was their motto.

The motel is unique in its appearance in that the brick gives the solid feeling of a real home (or more appropriately, a foster home I guess.)

Here's how the motel looks today as the Lake Motel.

More than fifty years after its opening, the motel now backs up to some good-sized trees. With the exception of a new paint scheme, the motel looks pretty much the same.

Together with its next door neighbor the Shoreway Motel, the Lake Motel continues to welcome US 6 travelers with a taste of 1950's hospitality.

1963 Motel Listings in Lorain Phone Book

Lorain and the surrounding cities had a great selection of motels back in the 1960's. Check out all the various choices that were available to travelers in the 1963 motel listings shown above. (Give it a click!)

I love looking at old ads like these. Some of these places will get the full blog treatment here eventually – some very soon!

Sadly, most of these are no longer motels. Anchor Lodge is now a nursing home; the site of Aqua Marine is now a luxury condo development; Vian's is long gone, replaced by the Residence condo development; Beaver Shore Motel has closed. The Kayann Motel & Apartments is still there and looks exactly the same, but no longer advertises itself as a 'motorist motel'.

However, not all of the motels are gone. The Elyria Holiday Inn is still around, as is Motel Plaza in Vermilion. Foster House Motel is now the Lake Motel; the Beachcomber is now the Erieview Motel. And as I pointed out in my previous entry, the Grandview Motel is now Parkview Motel. And the Shoreway Motel is still there too.

I remember looking at these motel listings in the phone book as a kid, wondering what it would be like to vacation in Lorain rather than live here! The ads sure made it look like a vacation wonderland!