Lakeview Park Easter Basket in the News

The Easter Basket in Lakeview Park as seen on Saturday

Here's wishing all of my readers a Happy Easter!

Unfortunately, it's not supposed to be very good weather today, if you were thinking of heading down to Lakeview Park for photos by the Easter Basket. However, I drove by there on Saturday, and there was a pretty good crowd taking advantage of the good weather to get their family photos.

Anyway, here's a nice selection of articles about the famous Easter Basket including its first mention in the Lorain Journal, as it was installed in Lakeview Park in time for Easter 1941. As you will see, it took many years before David Shukait of the Lorain Parks Department was acknowledged at the man responsible for its design and construction.

April 3, 1941

April 14, 1941

May 21, 1941

Sept. 16, 1941

It appears that 1942 was the first year for the huge concrete eggs.

April 4, 1942

April 6, 1942

April 6, 1942

April 10, 1944

March 22, 1956

April 20, 1957

April 3, 1961

David Shukait was finally profiled in a nice article in April 1966.

April 7, 1966

April 9, 1966

May 18, 1976

May 20, 1976

I written many posts about the Easter Basket over the years. They include vintage postcards of the Basket, family photos, other articles, and photos of the Basket as it looked at the time of the blog post.

Happy Easter!

Here's wishing all of you a Joyous Easter!

Although it's only supposed to be a high of 50º today, it should be sunny enough in the morning for those who wish to take their traditional photos down at the Lakeview Park Easter Basket.

Like everyone else, the Bradys made the trek to Lakeview Park for photos several times in the late 1950s and early 60s. I've posted most of them during the more than 15 years I've been doing this blog, but came up with a few new ones to share.

Above is the shot of my sister from Easter 1958. I wonder what those gents on the left are looking at in the moat around the basket?

The trouble with the color shots from the mid-1950s is that most of them have that reddish hue. Here's the photo of my sister before I did my amateurish color correction.

Here's a shot from that same day with Mom in it too. I guess the sun was pretty bright.

Ah, but the years of my sister being an only child had come to an end. The following Easter my older brother would get into the act down at Lakeview. Here they are in a very cute black and white photo from Easter 1959. 

I was wondering what Ken was holding. It was some kind of box.

When I saw it up close, however, I knew exactly what it was!

By request, here's another shot from the same Easter, probably before they all went down to the Easter Basket. Ken's got his Sugar Pops and a pinwheel too. What's interesting to me is that at the right of the photo is someone (one of my grandmothers?) who was obviously there to babysit me, since I was only a month old and not ready for the trip to Lakeview Park.

Finally, here's a shot from 1964 of the whole Brady Bunch, minus Dad, who took the picture. 

That's my younger brother at far left in a very stylish outfit. Ken and I have on our matching raincoats, and my sister is looking pretty grown up by now. Alas, we weren't going down to Lakeview Park any more; that's scenic W. 30th Street in the background. 

Happy memories. Consider capturing some of your own today.

Lorain Easter Basket on Front Page – April 9, 1955

Vintage postcard with a postal mark of 1958

The Lakeview Park Easter Basket has been the subject of fifteen posts on this blog over the years. It's been a beloved Lorain landmark since its unveiling in 1941 and one of the unmistakeable symbols of the city. And as we all know, it's been a photo backdrop for countless family photos.

I like to post an articles that show up about it, and here's a new one to me. It appeared on the front page of the Lorain Journal of April 9, 1955 (shown below).

The article notes, "Thousands of people from miles around will come to Lorain's Lakeview park tomorrow to see 675 pounds of eggs in one basket. The eggs weigh 75 pounds each.

"About 10,000 snapshots are expected to be taken  of the 3 1/2 ton green and yellow cement basket of nine colored eggs. Camera fans use it for backgrounds in snapping family and friends in their Easter finery."

The article notes how George Crehore, Lorain park department superintendent, 'dreamed up' the concept of a basket in the park. Unfortunately, the story only attributes its construction to Crehore and the park department workers – failing to identify the man who figured out a way to manufacture the basket: David Shukait.

Eventually, Shukait received recognition in newspaper coverage. A plaque acknowledging his ingenuity in the design and construction of the basket adorns it today.

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Elsewhere on that same front page are a variety of interesting news tidbits, including the report of singer Mel Torme being involved in an auto accident at Route 10 and Indian Hollow Road. According to the story, Torme was "en route from Los Angeles to Cleveland where he is making a personal appearance."

I guess Mel liked taking the back roads.

Easter Basket of Memories

 

Here's wishing all of you a Joyous Easter!

Above is the obligatory full-page ad for the holiday that ran in the Journal on March 28, 1964. Unlike other sponsored ads I've posted, several businesses listed on this page are still around (with slightly different names), including Anchor Lodge Nursing Home, Rebman's Recreation, Steve Polansky Markets and National Waste Paper.

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Assuming the weather cooperates, there should be a good crowd down at the Lakeview Park Easter Basket (subject of many posts on this blog over the years). As noted back on this 2010 post, when it was first introduced at Lakeview Park in 1941, it was referred to as a floral basket. 

I was poking around eBay the other day, and came up with a postcard for the basket that I hadn't seen (or posted) before. This one calls it a floral basket as well.

It's a good time to remember David Shukait, the man who received the patent for the design and construction of the basket.

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Photographs next to the basket on Easter is a cherished tradition for many families, including the Bradys. For several years from the mid-1950s up to about 1960, Mom and Dad brought us down to Lakeview Park for the annual Easter portrait. It was, and still is, a 'Lorain' thing to do.

Here are two pictures from my parents' first photo shoot at Easter 1956. My sister was a year and half old at the time. (The photo of Mom and her ended up on the front page of the Chronicle-Telegram as part of a photo montage back in 2009, when Rona Proudfoot wrote a comprehensive history of the Lakeview Park Easter Basket.)

The trips down to Lakeview Park at Easter concluded with this portrait below, taken at Easter 1960. Mom's holding your friendly blogger. The little girl at the left hand side of the photo doesn't look very happy.

Earlier in the day that same Easter, we had our fun at home. I've mentioned before how my parents would hide Easter baskets around the house for my siblings and me. We actually had a few baskets each, with candy and hard-boiled eggs in them. I don't remember retrieving the hard-boiled eggs from the baskets and putting them in the fridge. I do remember we ate one a day until they were gone.

And here's me, looking perplexed and puzzled. Note the grass from a basket in on the floor, with eggs strewn about.

Little did I know that I was dressed just like Bob's Big Boy!

The trips down to Lakeview may have ended, but we still managed to get a few more photos of us in our Easter duds in the following years. Here we are at Easter 1965, in front of the house on W. 30th Street. 

Happy memories.

Happy Easter!

Here’s wishing all of my readers and friends a Happy Easter!

Above is a Journal photo of one family's traditional pilgrimage to the Easter Basket in Lakeview Park, which ran in the paper on April 7, 1969.

Note that the photo caption refers to the theft of two of the eggs. Hope the thieves didn’t end up with hernias, seeing as the eggs weigh between 68 and 74 pounds.

By the way, the Morning Journal ran several photos of this year’s basket color scheme, which apparently hearkened back to a similar one from 1958.

Courtesy Morning Journal

Happily, Rona Proudfoot’s Flickr collection of new and recent Lorain Easter Basket photos is still up! (Click here to visit it). You can find a photo of that original 1958 version there! 

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The Lakeview Park Easter Basket has long been a favorite topic on this blog.

Back to the Baskets

It was a sunny, but chilly, Easter in Lorain; I don’t think the temperature ever got above 40º.

But that didn’t stop the families from making their annual pilgrimages down to the Easter Basket in Lakeview Park for photos. Although there was nobody down there when I drove by during mid-morning, the pace picked up a little bit as it neared noon. That’s when I took the shot above.

Here’s another view from later in the day.

But what about the other Easter Basket? Is it a tradition for South Lorainites to get their photo by the one in Oakwood Park?

Apparently not so much, despite the convenient parking spaces right in front of the basket. Here was the view at about quarter to one. It’s too bad, because it’s a nice basket, although a bit smaller than the more well-known one.

By the way, the Oakwood Park Easter Basket has the same plaque on it honoring its creator, David Shukait, as the basket in Lakeview Park.

Happy Easter!

Here’s hoping all my readers have a Happy and Blessed Easter!

For you out-of-towners, above is the 2018 color scheme for the iconic Lakeview Park Easter Basket. I photographed it last Sunday to take advantage of the nice weather.

I wasn’t the only one down there,  either. Several families decided to beat the rush and get their annual Easter photograph on a sunny – but frigid – Palm Sunday.

Happy Easter!

The scene down at Lakeview Park on Saturday afternoon

Here’s wishing all of my readers a Happy Easter!

Nothing says Easter like an Easter Bunny scanned from a 1957 Harry Volk Clip Book of Line Art!

Loading up the Lakeview Park Easter Basket – 1957

If there’s one photo that you can count on seeing almost every year in the Morning Journal and Chronicle-Telegram at Easter, it has to be the ceremonial placement of the large, concrete eggs in the iconic Lakeview Park Easter Basket.

It’s a tradition going back decades. I posted the 1958 edition back in 2011.

Here’s the photo (below) from 1957 as it appeared in the Lorain Journal on April 20th, the day before Easter. The caption reveals that David Shukait, the man who designed Lorain’s giant concrete easter baskets, had recently received a patent for the process he used to create them.

Joe Trifiletti and Charles Camera were the egg-bearers in the 1958 photo as well.

On the day after Easter 1957, the Journal published a photo of the crowd down at Lakeview Park.

MAIN ATTRACTION – The huge basket in Lakeview Park, as in other years,

was the main objective of Lorain’s Easter paraders yesterday. Traffic in the

vicinity of the park was slowed to a crawl as thousands gathered at the basket,

including many out of town and out of state visitors.

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A lot of people took advantage of the beautiful weather last weekend to get their Easter photos early by the basket in Lakeview Park. I noticed a small crowd every time I drove by there on Saturday and Sunday.

I would guess that the Lakeview Park Easter Basket is probably Lorain’s most-loved landmark, at least by locals.

More beloved than the Lighthouse? I think so. Many residents old and new have an emotional connection to the basket due to the tradition of taking family photos in front of it. It’s a lovely ritual that seems to be growing in popularity again, year after year.

It just wouldn’t be Lorain without its giant Easter Basket. And that’s something the Shukait family can always be proud of.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

The color scheme of the giant Easter Basket at Lakeview Park is particularly nice this year – kudos to whoever came up with it. The pastel colors are bright and cheery and the effect really reminds me of the classic Easter baskets we had as kids.

It was sunny and nice today, so many families were getting a head start on their traditional photos with the basket.

To review some of my many, many posts about the history of Lorain's Easter Baskets, and to check out some color schemes of the past, click here.

Here’s hoping that you have a wonderful Easter!

Easter in Lorain – 1954

What was Easter like in Lorain in 1954?

This short article – which ran on the front page of the Lorain Journal on Saturday, April 17, 1954 describes it very nicely. It's actually quite quaint in its description of overflowing church attendance and the "usual Easter Parade" which my mother has mentioned to me many times, to my disbelief.

Also of interest in the article is the reference to the opening of the 1954 season at some of the resort dance halls east and west of Lorain.

That sure is a cute photo. I wonder if the Frederick family still has that four foot Easter bunny?

Anyway, here's hoping you enjoy a Happy Easter!

David Shukait Article – April 1957

Here's a vintage article (above) about David Shukait, the man who created Lorain's iconic Easter Baskets that grace Lakeview and Oakwood Parks. (Click on it for a readable version.)

I'd posted a similar 1966 article that ran in the Journal back here; the article above is a little bit older. It's from April 17, 1957 and ran in the Chronicle-Telegram. It's a slightly different take – written by Dan J. Warner – on the same subject matter, namely how Mr. Shukait came to create his baskets.

In the article, Mr. Shukait has just received the patent for his basket design, right on the verge of his impending retirement.

As usual, there are incorrect dates, the kind that have plagued the story of Lorain's Easter Basket for many years. The basket was not installed in Lakeview Park until 1941 (as noted back here). Interestingly, the article makes reference to Lorain having five baskets in Lakeview and Oakwood Parks.

It's supposed to be a beautiful Easter Sunday, so I'm sure Lakeview Park will be packed with families making their annual pilgrimage for a photo opportunity. On one of these Easters, I'll have to swing by Oakwood Park and see what it's like over there, crowd-wise.

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The best article about Lorain's Easter Basket is still the one written by Rona Proudfoot back in 2009 with extensive input from the Shukait family. Rona's byline has been unceremoniously scrubbed from the online version, but nevertheless you can still read it here on the Chronicle-Telegram website.

And in case you're wondering, Rona still has her flickr collection of Lorain Easter Basket photos (which you can visit here). Be sure to take a look – I'm sure you'll recognize a friend or neighbor.

Easter at Lakeview Park 2012

Here' a photo of the scene down at Lakeview Park today around 2:00. After a cloudy start, it turned out to be a beautiful day, and the Easter Bunny was doing a brisk business posing for photos.