Huron Demolition Bids – October 1969

Huron’s Urban Renewal program forever altered the look of the lakefront city’s Downtown area, erasing just about all of the historic buildings north of U. S. Route 6. 

Today, the area is quite nice, modern and attractive, but almost completely without historic character. It’s an interesting contrast to what Vermilion did when it created its Harbour Town 1837 district.

Anyway, the article below, which appeared in the Lorain Journal on October 6, 1969, details Huron's demolition process and provides a list of the initial parcels to be torn down.

I’ve written about Huron’s Urban Renewal program before.

Back here, I posted an article about one woman’s unsuccessful effort in April 1969 to save Huron’s town hall; this post includes a December 1969 article about Huron’s vanishing history after the demolition process had begun; I did a two-part “Then and Now” series about Huron (here and here) showing what had been lost due to demolition; and this post highlighted Corky’s Restaurant & Motel, lost to Urban Renewal.

Huron’s Showboat Grand Opening – June 17, 1971

 

Fifty years ago, one of the more unusual restaurants on the shores of Lake Erie opened: “Showboat,” located at the foot of the Huron pier. The ad for it above appeared in the Lorain Journal on June 17, 1971.

As noted in an article in the Journal that ran the day before, “The building takes on the shape of an old river boat and to add to the effect, the inside is all of nautical design. There is a great view of Lake Erie and the Huron Harbor from the upstairs dining area. Boat decks are available for those who want to come by water.

“The owners, Jake Claus and Walter Messenburg, plan a grand opening for tomorrow evening with dinners being served from 5 until 11 p. m.”

Here are two nice color postcards of the restaurant (both currently on eBay).

Here is a Showboat “wooden nickel” also currently on eBay.

(I first wrote about Showboat back on this 2016 post.)

Although Showboat eventually closed, it’s still incredible that Mr. Claus and Mr. Messenburg were able to make their restaurant dream a reality, and a successful one at that.

Huron’s Mile-Long Pier

Last month while researching my post about Lorain's "mile-long pier," I discovered that the City of Huron has one as well. At least that’s how it was referred to when it was mentioned in the article above, which appeared in the Sandusky Register on September 3, 1965.

Here's the story. At that time, the State of Ohio had begun distributing a travel map with the theme, “See the Wonderful World of Ohio.” The map featured whimsical cartoons highlighting what Ohio cities had to offer to tourists in the form of recreation and interesting sites. (I wrote about this map here.)

The illustration for a particular city naturally appeared near its name on the map. Of course, with all the cartoon clutter, not every city was going to be represented, as there just wasn’t room.

Here’s a part of the map showing the Vacationland region, a small portion of which was shown in the dark photo in the Register article.

Note that Lorain made the cut. But Huron city officials were irked that their fair city had not been included on the map, when smaller towns such as Clyde and Bellevue were at least represented.

As the Register article noted, "Officials seemed in agreement that if landmarks such as the Clyde and Bellevue reservoirs appear on the map, Huron's mile-long pier should be in for some recognition."

I don't know if Huron's "mile-long pier" is any longer than Lorain’s. I've seen one tourism website mention that the Huron pier was a little more than a half-mile in length. On the other hand, the Columbus Dispatch website includes a June 2019 story about a man that was "last seen on a rock jetty that stretches beyond the end of the mile-long Huron pier."

Anyway, it’s mildly amusing that the Huron city officials were annoyed about being omitted from the map. Judging by its own Chamber of Commerce map, Huron is apparently the only city between Cleveland and Toledo.

Huron Kiddieland

For those of us that grew up in Northeast Ohio, the word ‘amusement park’ instantly brings to mind thoughts of Cedar Point, Geauga Lake and King’s Island. Our parents might even have talked about Crystal Beach in Vermilion, or Euclid Beach Park in Cleveland.

But did you know that for several years in the 1950s that was a tiny amusement park on the western outskirts of Huron? It was called Huron Kiddieland and the small ad for it shown above, which ran in the Lorain Journal on September 2, 1959 was the first I’d heard of it. It was located on what today would be considered the old 6&2 route out of town before the bypass was built.

Of course, Huron Kiddieland was just a small, neighborhood-type park compared to its gigantic competitors. But it probably brought just as much pleasure as the big parks to those families who spent a day enjoying the rides and ambiance.

The park was the brainchild of Harry Suhren. According to the article below, which appeared in the Sandusky Register on May 20, 1954, shortly before the park opened, Suhren “had long operated rides at fairs throughout the neighboring states, retired two years ago but found that doing nothing was not for him. Then and there, he decided on the Kiddieland.”

The park was unique in that there was no admission and parking was free. A miniature New York Central diesel train circled the park, which included a beautiful picnic grove.

Here is another publicity item and ad from when the park opened. They both ran in the Register on June 11, 1954.

Here are some more ads from the Register between 1955 and 1956.

May 6, 1955 ad

July 1, 1955 ad

August 10, 1956 ad

Harry Suhren passed away in July 1957.

However, the park continued on for several more years.

July 7, 1959 ad from the Register

July 11, 1959 ad from the Register

July 24, 1959 ad from the Register

August 10, 1960 ad

Sept. 3, 1960 ad

After the 1960 season, it appeared that Kiddieland was going to be sold to a church. 

From the Sandusky Register of Nov. 26, 1960

But the deal apparently fell through. The park was finally sold in 1962.  

From the Register of March 9, 1962

Here’s a list of the rides as described in an ad from when the property was listed for sale.

Today the former Kiddieland property is the location of an apartment and townhouse complex, on the south side of the street opposite the shopping center on Cleveland Road West.

Saving Huron Town Hall – April 1969

Huron Town Hall (Courtesy Pinterest)

Urban renewal changed the face of Huron forever, much like it did to Lorain – only much worse.

Most of Downtown Huron succumbed to the wrecking ball. As a result, today the city is unrecognizable from its former small town look seen on vintage postcards.

That’s why I found the article below, which appeared in the Lorain Journal on April 1, 1969, interesting. It tells the story of a Huron woman determined to save the city's 93-year old town hall (seen at right) from demolition.

Lorain could use someone like her today.

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Woman Fighting to Save
Lone Landmark in Huron
By MARK ALBRIGHT
Staff Writer

HURON – Town hall has a friend and she plans to find some more friends and possibly save the 93-year-old structure from demolition for urban renewal.

Mrs. Robert F. Taylor, 413 Center St., is circulating a petition among townspeople through which she hopes the former Opera House can be restored and transformed into a more historical landmark – possibly even a museum.

The petition reads in part:

“We are in favor of returning the town hall as part of the historical and cultural foundation of the nation that should be preserved as a living part of our community and development.”

She also notes that the secretary of Housing and Development is permitted to make grants for historic landmarks for up to $90,000 according to the basic laws and authorities of housing and development as set by the 90th congress in 1968.

“I plan on calling on many of the clergy of Huron as well as getting cooperation from local business,” Mrs. Taylor says.

She plans on taking copies of the petition, when signed, to city council, state legislators, congressmen and the Erie County Historical Society.

“Let me make it clear that I am not against urban renewal per se, but I am against the destruction of an historic landmark. If this building goes, what will Huron be known for in the way of a landmark – a Sunoco sign on Route 2?” she states.

Mrs. Taylor says the building presently is in excellent shape and cannot be duplicated. “I am not arguing facilities for municipal government. I just don’t want to see this charming old building destroyed.

“If the rest of Huron knew what will be lost and never rebuilt, that the remains of our historic past will be leveled for a parking lot, maybe they, too, would be as appalled as I,” she says.

Mrs. Taylor took a tour of town hall last week to see what the inside of the building was like.

“There are no leaks in the ceiling and all the messes are cleanable – the building is as strong as it was in 1876 (when it was built),” Mrs. Taylor asserts.

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Unfortunately, the efforts of Mrs. Taylor to save the town hall were unsuccessful.

According to the Huron Historical Society’s photo collection on the OhioMemory.org website, Huron's town hall and fire department (both built in 1876) were razed in 1974 as part of urban renewal.

Courtesy OhioMemory.org

And here’s a shot (also courtesy of the Huron Historical Society and OhioMemory.org) showing the demolition of the building. The photo caption notes, "After intense controversy, Huron Council voted to demolish the building May, 1974.”

The Gull Motel: No More Vacancies

The Gull Motel in happier days

The view on Sunday

It was a little sad to read in the Sandusky Register over the weekend that the Gull Motel in Huron is in the process of being sold to Valley Ford, which is located right next door. Apparently acquiring the motel property would give the cramped Ford dealership a little elbow room. The dealership is already parking some of its inventory in the shuttered motel’s parking lot.

It’s not a done deal yet, but it's very close.

I first wrote about the Gull Motel back in 2013 here, and even interviewed the owner.

The Gull Motel was a familiar and welcome sight to many U. S. Route 6 travelers during the 1960s and 70s. It first opened back in May 1962.

May 23, 1962

The motel’s classic sign was one of those things we watched for as we passed through Huron on the way to Cedar Point.

Although the Ohio Turnpike and State Route 2 had siphoned off much of the through traffic, in recent years the motel was still an economical alternative to the national chains.

It always makes me feel a little wistful when yet another bit of Roadside Americana in our area disappears. The loss of the Gull Motel is not surprising though; perhaps it's a little amazing that the little motel dating back to the early 1960s lasted this long.

Courtesy Huron Historical Society

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Huron has been a regular topic on this blog since its beginning.

I’ve written about the Twine House; the Showboat; Huron’s Main Street; Huron’s Saloon Days; Corky’s Restaurant and Motel; Huron’s street signs; the Huron Harbor Lighthouse; the Frostop Drive-in (with its large rotating root beer mug); and Wileswood Country Store.

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UPDATE (May 2019)
A view from Route 6 of the former Gull Motel property. The motel sign has been repurposed as a sign for the Ford dealership.

Signs of Change in Huron – 1968

Twenty-one years after the subject of Monday’s blog post about the 1947 Lorain street signs, the Journal was still patrolling the local highways in search of signs that weren’t doing their job.

On January 12, 1968, the paper turned its attention to Huron in this article that describes the city’s ambitious program to replace its old traffic signage. The photos above accompanied the article.

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Huron’s Road Signs Hit the Road to Junk Pile
By WAYNE C. PEEKS
Staff Writer

HURON – Old battered traffic signs in Huron are going – going to the junk pile.

A two-phase program to rid Huron’s streets of present traffic signs has been initiated by Robert C. Klepper, superintendent of city streets and parks.

THE FIRST PHASE will see new stop signs on all roadways approaching the main thoroughfares and raised speed limit signs on the major roads within the city.

Phase two of the project calls for revamping or replacement of speed limit, no parking and railroad crossing signs within the city’s numerous allotments.

Klepper said he hopes to start work on phase one this spring and work should be completed by summer.

FIRST TO BE REPLACED will be the stop signs leading to major highways, Klepper said.

He said the present stop signs are 24 inches in width and the state now requires the signs to be 30 inches and also be eight sided. About 75 stop signs will be replaced, he said.

Also to be changed are speed limit signs on the major roadways.

THE SUPERINTENDENT said about 200 speed limit signs will have to be raised more off the ground so the sign will be five feet from the pavement, a state requirement.

Most of the signs are now two or three feet above the roads. Klepper noted that with higher signs, they would not become as dirty with slush from the roads and would not bend as quickly by snow-plows in the winter months.

All “Speed Meter Ahead” signs will be removed from under the speed limit signs, he said. A new state law states the warning signs do not have to be used anymore to warn the traffic of radar.

KLEPPER SAID THE state may help the city to finance and place the new stop signs and raise the speed limit signs.

Phase two will begin in the spring of 1969 and, like phase one, is expected to be completed by summer.

Allotments and side roads will be affected by the 1969 project and will include everything from repainting signs to replacing them, Klepper said.

The superintendent said most of the work in part two will be “bringing the signs up to standards.” He said Chaska and parts of Old Homestead would not be affected because of the new signs already up.

Klepper also said some of the traffic signs will be reflective; mainly stop, railroad and curve signs.

Some of the railroad signs within the community may also be replaced, he said.

Anderson Acres Summer Resort Near Huron

I recently saw this postcard for Anderson Acres on Ebay and thought it was pretty interesting, as I'd never heard of it before.

Anderson Acres was a summer resort located on U.S. 6, just two miles east of the Huron city limits and west of Old Woman Creek.

Here's another version of the same postcard.

This one was postmarked September 1947 and provides a nice capsule history of the resort. The back of it reads:

ANDERSON ACRES
Settled in 1839 by James Anderson
Along Lake Erie Shore, 2 miles East of Huron, Ohio.
State Route 2      U.S. Route 6
Phone 6012  Huron, Ohio
40 Cabins – Trailer Space – Campers
Cottages – Rooms – Showers

James Anderson's biography is included in A Standard History of Erie County, Ohio (1916) by Hewson L. Peeke. (Here is a link to it.) At the time the book was published, Anderson's property included 250 acres. His biography noted that it comprised "one of the most beautiful farms to be found anywhere along the shores of Lake Erie. For a distance of 1,800 feet the farm borders on the lake shore, and in that state is found one of the finest bathing beaches in Northern Ohio, bearing the name by which the farm is also known: Lake View."

Anderson Acres was a very popular summer resort, judging by the favorable and nostalgic sentiments about it on the internet. So what does the property look like today?

Beachwood Villas Condominiums (the three tall lakefront buildings in the aerial photo below) were built on part of the former Anderson Acres land in the 1980s. The rest of the Anderson lakefront land – still a trailer park in the 1980s – has since been developed, as well as the former Anderson farm.

Corky’s Restaurant & Motel

Note that the original diner building only had eight windows in front.

No address on this
December 22, 1951
ad from the
Sandusky Register

Vintage postcards of Corky’s Restaurant and Motel in Huron are pretty easy to find on Ebay. What isn’t so easy is figuring out where Corky's was located.

The postcards and matchbook all list the location as “Homan and Williams” with no real address – and it’s seemingly impossible to find Homan on a map. But research reveals that the business fronted on Cleveland Road West (U.S. Route 6) where it intersects with Williams.

So a traveler entering Huron from the west in the old days would have encountered Corky’s on the right (the south side of the street) shortly before they turned south onto Main Street into the Downtown district. 

Here are two more postcards, showing how the restaurant was enlarged from its days as a diner.

You can see the water tower (also formerly located on Williams Street)
off in the distance in the inset photo of the motel.

I believe that the motel sat just east of the restaurant. (Can any longtime Huron resident confirm this for me?) In fact, it appears that the same parked car, chimney, and tree are visible in both photos above.

Anyway, like many other longtime businesses, Corky’s eventually succumbed to Huron’s controversial urban renewal project. An attempt was made to sell the 5-unit motel and restaurant in the late 1950s, with a FOR SALE ad appearing in the April 20, 1957 Sandusky Register.

Here are two great photos taken shortly before Corky's demolition, courtesy of the Huron Historical Society and the ohiomemory.org website. One of the photo’s caption confirmed that it was on the corner of Williams and Cleveland Road.

The demolished houses shown above are on the east side of Williams Street.
Corky’s faced Cleveland Road West.

You can see these photos and others in the Huron Historical Society’s collection by clicking here.

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UPDATE (July 19, 2016)
Regular blog contributor and researcher Dennis Thompson managed to locate an 1896 map of Huron with that elusive Homan Street on it (below). Thanks, Dennis!

Huron Harbor Lighthouse

Although I’ve passed through Huron many times over the years, I 'd never seen the city’s lighthouse until a few weeks ago.

It’s a strange-looking structure as lighthouses go and is said to be in the “art-deco” style. It’s been there since 1936 when it replaced an earlier one.

Here’s another vintage postcard view courtesy of Ebay.

The lantern room at the top of the lighthouse was removed in the early 1970s when a new automated beacon was installed. So it looks a little different now.

Here's what the lighthouse looked like last weekend (below). Note that like Lorain, Huron now has a huge Diked Disposal Facility constructed by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers adjacent to its pier.

You can learn much more about all of Huron lighthouses through the years at lighthouse friends.com.

Huron's Saloon Town Days

Ohio History Marker located near Huron’s Mile Long Fishing Pier

Here’s an interesting article that ran in the Journal shortly after Huron began demolishing its downtown. The article ran in the paper on December 1, 1969 and is a look back at Huron’s vanishing history. It also has some funny stories about Huron’s wild and woolly days as a saloon town for sailors.

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Recall Huron History as Demolition Continues
By MARK ALBRIGHT
Staff Writer

HURON – It’s already started. A bulldozer and a crane are ripping away at the core of Huron. Splintered scraps and memories will soon be all that remains of this city’s downtown as the first phase of the city’s $4 million urban renewal project begins.

But for many longtime residents, the history that was downtown Huron will not be forgotten.

Lewis Kuhl is 83 and was mayor before the village was municipalized in 1961. Before that he was a township trustee for 22 years, taking over that position from his father.

He remembers downtown Huron.

“It’s almost the same as long as I can remember with the exception of a few buildings here and there,” he says, pressing a finger askew of his glasses.

“There was a big frame building where the Huron recreation bowling alley is now that was the Masonic Lodge. And I remember that we held village meetings there sometimes.”

ACROSS THE STREET was a row of fishing businesses, twine houses where the gill nets were stored, docks and shanties.

“There was a cannery there to back before the twenties, the Mad River railroad then followed the river south. There was a bridge over the river near the present Fries Lumber building.

“I think it was about 1928 that the Lake Shore Railroad came down South Street and there was an interurban that ran from Sandusky to Ohio Street,” he says recalling a story.

“President McKinley was speaking in Sandusky so we all went up on the interurban. While we were gone, a naval training ship – I think it was the USS Hawk – came into port and at that time there were about 15 bars on Main Street. When we were coming back from Sandusky, the trolley conductor stopped outside of town and said he wasn’t going any further.”

“The sailors had taken over the town and thrown everybody else out including the bartenders. We lived on the other side of town so we went around downtown and when I looked up Main Street al I could see were sailor boys running around all over the street,” Kuhl recalls.

It was a wide open town then. Every other building was a bar.

“The fishermen would come here from Buffalo in the early spring because this part of the lake thawed first. There were about 360 working at the ore docks then. And everybody had their favorite saloon. And they were just saloons. A liquor license only cost about $50 and some brewery would usually grubstake a bar owner to get him started. It got pretty rough around here at times, but when prohibition came most of the bars closed down.”

John Rhinemiller, local historian, wrote of Huron in the 1890’s:

“It has been noted that there were 13 saloons in Huron. It was a rough town. For instance, if you heckled the bartender just a little too much, he simply shot you.”

Once, in 1928, the Coast Guard chased a rum runner up the Huron River but before they got to him the runner dumped his goods overboard in burlap bags. The next morning the story filtered down to the fishermen, who spent much of the next morning dragging the river for the booze.

THEN THERE is the story of Chief Thunderwater and his small tribe that lived out in the Grand Forest Beach area in the late 1860’s.

The chief and his tribe were forced to leave town after a little too much local whiskey started a small-scale Indian uprising.

Town Hall was always the center of the community, though, says Kuhl. “Everything that involved the entire community happened there.”

“There were shows and meetings and it was quite a place in its day.

“To me there is a certain sentiment about the old town and the hotels – (The Aldine which burned down, the Parkland Hotel which is now the Captain’s Inn, and the Shephard House which was in the Dorne Block torn down about two weeks ago.”)

"But you can’t stop progress. The only thing to do is go along. I take with a grain of salt all this talk of saving it – it’s impossible to do anything with.. this town has been dormant for so long and I think they’re just starting to do something about it and get it back on its feet."