Heilman's Ranch House Opens – Sept. 1961

July 1967 newspaper ad from the Journal

Remember Heilman's Ranch House on Broadway?

I still think it was a neat idea to have a Western-themed restaurant in Downtown Lorain that was open 24 hours a day. (The Western motif was popular back then, as the Saddle Inn in Avon Lake had the same idea.) I hope that they both served Wild West Sarsaparilla.

Well, Heilman's Ranch House opened up for business on September 21, 1961 – 53 years ago this month. Here's the small article that tells the story. It appeared in the Journal on September 16, 1961.

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West Style Restaurant Opens Here

A new western style restaurant, Heilman's Ranch House, will officially open Thursday at 211 W. Erie.

To say that the decor of the new 24-hour restaurant, built at the site of the former Park Restaurant, is inspired by the Wild West would be an understatement. The pine walls of the 60 seat dining room are covered with cattle hides, longhorn skulls and lariats.

A hamburger goes by the handle of a "ranchburger."

According to Hubert Heilman, the Ranch House was designed to replace the grill in Heilman's Marine Room, which will be turned into an enlarged bar.

Heilman describes the Ranch House as "informal, masculine, friendly, American." By using modern cooking methods, the Ranch House will be able to offer a wide variety of fine, moderately-priced meals at any hour.

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The photo and caption below appeared on the front page of the Journal on September 23, 1961. You can't say that the Journal wasn't supportive of new businesses back then .

NO HAMBURGERS – Hamburgers go by the name of ranchburgers 

at Heilman's Ranch House, newest addition to the city's restaurant 

industry. Opened Thursday, the Ranch House carries a "wild west" 

theme throughout its decor, complete with cattle hides, longhorn 

skulls and lariats. Located on the site of the old Park Restaurant, 

the Ranch House was built to replace the grill in Heilman's Marine 

Room. It is open 24 hours a day.

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Heilman's Ranch House lasted 13 years before becoming a victim of urban renewal. You can read a great article about its March 1974 closing below (which I originally posted back in April 2010). Give it a click.

Heilman's Flavor Crisp Chicken Ad – Nov. 7, 1963

Although it's almost Thanksgiving, and everyone's thinking about turkey, here's a chicken-themed ad.

The ad – for the late great Heilman's Ranch House on West Erie Ave. – ran in the Journal on November 7, 1963 – 50 years ago this month. (Lots of 1963 anniversaries on this blog lately!)

I wrote about the last days of Heilman's Ranch House back here.

"Flavor Crisp" currently is both a popular name for restaurants (such as this one), as well as a specific chicken coating product as well. The official Flavor-Crisp coating has only been around for 40 years according to its website, so I'm not sure if Heilman had its own in-house recipe back then or something else.

Anyway, enough with this chicken chit chat – it's time to think about turkey!

Heilman's 40th Anniversary Ad – May 24, 1960

Here's a nice ad for Heilman's, the well-remembered Lorain restaurant that used to be located down at the Loop. The ad celebrates the restaurant's 40th anniversary and has a nice capsule history of the business (which I blogged about back here).

The full-page ad ran in the Lorain Journal on May 24, 1960 – 53 years ago tomorrow.

Sadly, Heilman's restaurant closed in 1968. The other Heilman's venture – the nearby Heilman's Ranch House – lasted until 1974, when it became a victim of urban renewal (which I posted about here).

St. Paddy's Day at Heilman's 1960

Here's a wee bit of fun in honor of St. Patrick's Day – a 1960 ad for Lorain's iconic Heilman's restaurant that ran in the Lorain Journal.

The ad's a little curious in that there are no mentions or descriptions of any special Irish menu items. I suspect the whole ad was part of a 'clip book' of prepared artwork that leaves room for a company's name and phone number.

By the way, the long pipe that the leprechaun in the ad is smoking is an Irish clay pipe, which you can read about here.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Heilman's Location Then & Now

It was sunny today (for a little while at least) so I went out and grabbed the "now" shot of where Heilman's used to be. It's strange to think that the City Center has been there so long that a whole generation has grown up who never heard of Heilman's.

The "now" shot is a tough one because the West Erie side of the building seems to be in perpetual shade all day long. I know, because I drove by it three times today, hoping that the sun would cooperate. It didn't.

I've gotta confess, I've never liked this building although it always looks well maintained, and the latest improvements done in the last few years makes it look nice. It's... a brick box, and the fact that the License Bureau is in there doesn't endear it to me either. The building really needs a nice restaurant at ground level, facing Route 6.

Heilman's Restaurant

Just to follow up on my blog of a few days ago regarding Heilman's Ranch House, here are a few postcards of the original Heilman's restaurant, which was located at the corner of West Erie Avenue and Broadway.

According to the article by Jack LaVriha that I posted here, the Heilman family got their start in the restaurant business in 1920 when Ross Heilman and Alton, his brother, opened Heilman's Grill in a small building on Broadway near West Erie. The place had formerly been a popular lunchroom known as the Metropole.

Next, Ross Heilman decided to lease the building shown in the postcard above. He opened Heilman's Marine Dining Room on Memorial Day, 1936. Here are two postcard views.

The Heilman family continued to expand their restaurant empire. Heilman's Beachcomber opened in 1948 in Clearwater, Florida and was run by Bob Heilman, one of Ross Heilman's two sons.  Another restaurant bearing the Heilman's name opened in 1958 in Fort Lauderdale and was managed by Ross Heilman's other son, Hubert.

Below is a 1959 Lorain City Directory ad for all three Heilman's restaurants.

Heilman's Ranch House opened in 1961, eventually outlasting the original Heilman's, which closed in 1968. Then the Ranch House fell victim to urban renewal and closed in 1974.

Nevertheless, decades later the mention of both Heilman's restaurants still brings a smile to the face of nostalgic Lorainites, hungry for Lorain's glory days as well as a good meal from one of the Heilman's kitchens.

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Bob Heilman passed away in 2007; here is a link to his obituary in which he is well-remembered for his still-popular Bob Heilman's Beachcomber (shown below in a vintage postcard found on Ebay).  And here is a link to the restaurant's website.

Last Days of Heilman's Ranch House

Here's a nice article about Heilman's Ranch House that ran in the Lorain Journal on Thursday, March 28, 1974 ( just a few days before the photo that I posted in my last blog entry was published). It's by well-known Journal Staff Writer Jack LaVriha. It gives a nice history of the Ranch House, as well as the original Heilman's that was located at the corner of West Erie Avenue and Broadway (where the City Center is now).

The article is a wistful look at the closing of Heilman's Ranch House due to urban renewal. (Click on it for a readable version.)

Long-gone West Erie Avenue Businesses

Since I've been blogging about the Washington Park area, I might as well post this photo. It's a little dark (it's from microfilm) but interesting nevertheless to old-time Lorainites, since it shows the long-gone line of buildings and businesses that were immediately east of the park. Click on it so you can get a closer look.

The park seems to have had several names... Washington, Memorial, and now Veteran's Memorial. I've even seen it referred to as Gilmore Park in an online edition of the 1910 History of the Western Reserve.

The photo appeared in the Lorain Journal on April 3, 1974, with the article below. (I added the labels to the photo in Photoshop.)

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One Last Look: These Old Buildings Soon to Fall.

A commanding view of the Crescent Center downtown Lorain urban renewal area is available from the roof of the new, seven-story City Hall, as this photograph shows. In the foreground is West Erie Avenue while Broadway is at the far left of the picture and Memorial Park at the right. The project is bounded on the south by Fourth Street. Most of the buildings on W. Erie Avenue visible here have already been purchased by the city. The Heilman's Ranch House restaurant in the center closed its doors Monday. Other buildings either have already done so or soon will as the city prepares to level the block for sale to developers for rebuilding. Demolition of structures downtown should begin within the next three months. The entire project will take up to four years to complete. (Journal Photo by Chief Photographer Tom Whittington.)

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I've gotta admit, this photo depresses me. I sure wish that Heilman's Ranch House was still there – a western-themed restaurant in downtown Lorain, right on Route 6 sounds like a great idea.

I guess the "Crescent Center" name didn't pan out. I'm not sure if anyone besides me even remembers the old "Golden Crescent" nickname that the Lorain Journal used to identify Lorain and the surrounding communities.

1970 Lorain Urban Renewal: a Post Office at the Loop?

After my post on Monday about the downtown shopping district, I was thinking about how so much of downtown Lorain was torn down in the 1970's as part of the urban renewal plan. So I thought I would scan the newspaper microfilm from that era to see if there were some interesting demolition photos.

I didn't find any photos on the September 1970 reel that I examined – but I did find this rather intriguing map of an early plan for the Loop area. (If you click on it, you can see a larger view.)

Apparently, the original idea for the former location of Heilman's (at right) was a post office, instead of the City Center building that is there now. (See blog entry below from Monday.)

In retrospect, it's just as well that a post office was never built. Since the US Post Office has been cutting costs and selling off grand old post office branches in the last few years, this proposed branch might have been closed anyway (just like Lorain's original downtown branch).

One final observation about the map artwork. If you look carefully at the artist's initials, you can see that the art was done by our old pal, Passing Scene artist Gene Patrick.

Happy New Year - 1960 Lorain Style!

Well, here's wishing all of you a Happy New Year and a great 2010!

If this was December 31, 1960 you might be getting ready to welcome in 1961 at Heilman's. As you can tell from the above newspaper ad, Tall Paul Dean had a big night of entertainment planned. I like the fact that they invited frustrated musicians to bring along their instruments!

I'm a frustrated musician – but I'll bet that if I try to bring my trombone into the restaurant tonight, I'll probably get the bum's rush! Oh well, Happy New Year!