Oakwood Shopping Center Opens – Nov. 1958

It was sixty-six years ago this month that Oakwood Shopping Center opened in South Lorain on November 12, 1958. At the time it was the largest shopping center ever erected in Lorain.

The project was the brainchild of Cleveland developer Joseph Porath. As noted in an article in the Journal on the eve of the shopping center's Grand Opening, "Joseph Porath, Cleveland realtor and developer, has a knack for dreaming dreams which have an almost consistent habit of becoming realities.

"Early in 1956, Porath announced plans for a $10 million project, which would include a $2 1/2 million shopping center and 700 three-bedroom homes on a 200-acre site known as Oakwood Park Development within the Lorain city limits.

"The site, which had been annexed to Lorain late in 1955 covered a four-block area south of E. 36th St. between Pearl Rd. on the west and Grove Ave. Extension (Rt. 57) on the east.

"There were the usual skeptics who said that plans for the shopping center and giant housing project wouldn't pan out.

"But Lorain area citizens were not acquainted, as were Cleveland's, with the Porath drive and determination to make dreams come true.

"Despite some obstacles, Porath's dream about a shopping center in South Lorain officially will come true Wednesday when his $3 million Oakwood Shopping Center will open to the public for the first time.

"And adjacent to the shopping center, some of the 700 three-bedroom homes dreamed about by Porath in 1956, are going up on land which Porath sold to the Ranier Corporation.

"The short, stocky and friendly Porath is the idea man for the largest shopping center ever erected within city limits.

"Porath is also credited with the idea of a unique "community showcase" as part of the Oakwood Shopping Center and a protected six-acre playground adjacent to the center, which he gave to the City of Lorain.

"Porath also initiated the construction of the Homewood Dr. Extension, which will serve as the north boundary of the shopping center. The concrete roadway runs from Pearl St. east to Grove Ave. Extension (Rt. 57)."

Lorain was very fortunate that Joseph Porath had the vision and grit for such an ambitious undertaking, and that the Lorain city administration worked with him to accomplish a goal that improved the lives of many residents. Those two critical components – a developer willing to take risks and a city willing to work with him to make it happen – are still necessary today if a city is experience any major commercial development. 

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Groundbreaking ceremonies for the shopping center took place on Feb. 21, 1958. Here's the article from the Journal the next day.

A major shopping center for that part of Lorain was an idea whose time had come. The ad below, which appeared in the Journal on May 3, 1958, noted that time was running out for stores to reserve their space. Note the acorn graphic with the family of squirrels, including Oakie (with the vest) and Pearl (with the bow in her hair). While Pearl would become the official mascot for the shopping center, it was Oakie who was spotlighted in the Grand Opening ad shown at the top of this post.

On the eve of the Grand Opening, a series of articles and congratulatory ads appeared in the Journal, including the page shown below.

The Grand Opening was a rousing success, with 1001 prizes given away to shoppers. The ad below accompanied a two-page Journal spread with the names of the prize winners that ran on November 20, 1958. As you can see, Pearl the Squirrel was already established as the Thrifty Squirrel mascot, appearing on signage for the shopping center, including a huge wall sign on State Route 254 near the railroad tracks at Pearl Avenue.

And Pearl would appear occasionally in Oakwood Shopping Center ads in the Journal, such as the one below, for the next few years.

Oakwood Shopping Center eventually went into decline as Lorain lost most of its industries, dramatically affecting the financial well-being of its residents, and retailers moved out. Like many other neighborhood shopping centers in Rust Belt cities, Oakwood simply could not survive. It's unfortunate but reflects the general attitude of national retailers towards brick and mortar stores, as well as consumer buying habits, with a preference towards online shopping and a desire for a more fantastic, destination shopping experience.

Oakwood Shopping Center Back-to-School Ad – August 26, 1959

I feel sorry for kids nowadays. Starting school before Labor Day still seems kind of cruel to me. 

In Lorain this year, the first day back is August 26th, which I suppose is better than the middle of the month. But it's a long way from the way it used to be.

Back then, those ubiquitous back-to-school sales used to take place in late August, and above you see an example. It's for the stores at Oakwood Shopping Center in South Lorain, and the ad ran in the Journal on August 26, 1959.

It's an odd ad. Instead of school supplies being touted, the items being promoted in the ad include traveler's cheques, bicycles, a Scotts lawn product to 'blast' crabgrass, feminine hygiene products, and Canada Dry pop. There's also a free back-to-school dance advertised, with beatnik phrases like "Real cool" and "The Most" utilized.

At least the ad features the Thrifty Squirrel shopping center mascot. For years I thought the name of the squirrel was Oakie, since early Oakwood ads made reference to a rodent by that name. I even named my first website Oakie's Treehouse (featuring local ad mascots) for that reason. But eventually I learned that the girl squirrel with the purse was named Pearl, in honor of Pearl Avenue, the street on which the shopping center was located.

Space Ship at Oakwood Shopping Center – Feb. 1960

Back in 1960, the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union was just getting underway, with each country having launched their first satellites only a few years earlier, and NASA itself being founded in 1958.

Thus it was the perfect time for the promotional ad shown above for Oakwood Shopping Center announcing that “The World’s First Space Ship” had landed there that morning. The ad ran in the Journal on February 19, 1960.

Whoever designed the ad had a great sense of humor. The copy notes that the space ship had been to Mars – and then in tiny print it points out that it was Mars, Pennsylvania.

And about that space ship. What was the story behind it?

I suspect that it was the same space ship shown in the Columbus Dispatch item below from May 21, 1967. That one was at Northland Shopping Center in Columbus and was also 70 feet long. The photo caption points out the spacecraft “is really the fuselage of a pre-World War II C-46.”

And here’s a photo of a C-46. It’s not hard to imagine it being modified to look like a rocket.

Anyway, it was a very creative promotion and probably a lot of fun for the kiddies, since the country was space-happy at that time.

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Did you see Oakie the Squirrel in the Oakwood Shopping Center ad? For a few years, he appeared quite regularly in ads for the shopping center. But he never had his likeness painted on a building like Pearl the Squirrel.

Oakwood Shopping Center Halloween Party Ad – October 26, 1959

Here's yet another glimpse of a Lorain Halloween of long ago, this time from 1959. The above ad –  announcing a South Lorain Community Halloween Party to be held at the Oakwood Shopping Center – appeared in the Lorain Journal on October 26, 1959. The shopping center had opened in November 1958.

It's funny how I had the misconception that Halloween events held at shopping centers – such as the trick or treat event held at Crocker Park last Saturday – were something new. But as you can see, it's an old idea used by savvy store owners for a long time. 

In this case, the Oakwood Shopping Center went to a lot of effort to make it nice, including a parade, a contest for best costumes and a talent show. Unfortunately, for a Lorain West Sider like me, Oakwood Shopping Center was one of those places we just didn't go to. (We did go to Hills in South Lorain, though.)

Hey, I just noticed that the Oakwood merchants forgot to include Pearl the Squirrel in the above ad!

Tomorrow: How the scare associated with the 1938 radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds played out in Lorain

Santa Claus & Pearl the Squirrel

It's almost Christmas, so here's an ad for Oakwood Shopping Center announcing Santa's arrival that appeared in The Lorain Journal on November 27, 1958 – the same month that the shopping center opened. But the ad is interesting to me for another reason.

The ad caught my attention because its copy reveals that the purse-carrying squirrel shown in the ad – the one that I thought was named Oakie – is actually named Pearl! As stated in the ad, Santa Claus "and his helper, Pearl, the Oakwood Shopping Center Squirrel, will meet, greet and thrill youngsters of all ages."

I've spent a lot of time on this nutty controversy – both on this blog (here) and on my other website (here) as well!

The confusion started right with the Nov. 1958 Grand Opening ad, which made reference to "Oakie" – but included no definitive picture of him.

Meanwhile the purse-carrying squirrel was used in almost every ad, and on signage as well – so I assumed that squirrel was Oakie!

A few years later, some Oakwood Shopping Center ads appeared in the Journal with this vest-wearing squirrel along with the words, "Oakie says...”

I just assumed that the owners of Oakwood had decided to make Oakie the first transgender squirrel.

Anyway, that's it in a nutshell – Oakwood Shopping Center used two named squirrels in its advertising: Oakie, the little guy with the checkered vest, and Pearl, the "thrifty" girl squirrel with the purse. They were there right in the very first ad for the shopping center (a portion of which is shown below).

So that wraps up yet another Lorain mystery on this blog.

Hey, wait a minute... I wonder if that third squirrel with the beret had a name?

Those Oakwood Shopping Center Squirrels

Yesterday I mentioned Lake Erie Oil, which was located at the intersection of Route 254 and Pearl near the tracks and was a familiar site if you drove that area in the 1960s.

Well, the other familiar site in that same area was the huge squirrel (at left) that was painted on the side of a building to promote the nearby Oakwood Shopping Center, which was just down Pearl. According to the city directory listings, Lake Erie Oil had a warehouse on the south side of Route 254 right at Pearl, east of the tracks, so it just may have been the building with the squirrel on it.

The original opening day ad for Oakwood Shopping Center made reference to free Oakie the Squirrel balloons – and since the squirrel at left was the only regular mascot in ads as well as signage, I've always assumed that it was Oakie. But it turns out that the girl squirrel was actually named Pearl.

Since my family never went to Oakwood Shopping Center, the huge cartoon squirrel painted on that building was an ongoing mystery to me when I noticed it from the back seat of the family car. But it was a familiar landmark to watch for.

This particular version of Pearl was featured in the early ads after the shopping center opened in November 1958.

At the same time, however, other squirrels would also appear in the newspaper ads from time to time (such as the one below).

May 1959 Squirrel

I guess whoever was coordinating the ads for the shopping center just told the Journal's art department to "put a squirrel in the ad."

Here's another of these "unnamed squirrels" featured in an Oakwood ad. He actually looks more beaver-like to me – and I suspect he's a piece of clip art because of that word balloon he's straddling.

September 1959 squirrel

Finally this custom-drawn squirrel (below) was used regularly and the ads specifically tagged him as Oakie, with an "Oakie says..." caption. I guess the advertising department thought a male mascot was more appealing, as the purse-carrying bow-wearing squirrel seemed to disappear from the ads in the early 1960s.

Anyway, my ongoing quest is to uncover a photo of that original squirrel on the building, or even the Oakwood Shopping Center sign. There's gotta be one out there somewhere!

Oakwood Shopping Center Update

While driving around this past Saturday, I decided to head north on Pearl Avenue from Route 254 to see if the Schwebel's Bakery Outlet Thrift Store was still there. (It was.) After that, I decided to keep on going and see what was happening with the old Oakwood Shopping Center (or Oakwood Plaza, if you prefer).

I was a little surprised to see how little of it was still there. There's the Family Dollar store and... nothing else!

Here's a link to an interesting blog entitled Lorain County Photographer's Blog. The blogger shot some great photos in the same area back in January 2009, including a nice panoramic view of the whole shopping center. There was a lot more of the shopping center then than there is now.  

Pearl the Squirrel (the longtime mascot of Oakwood Shopping Center since it opened in November 1958) would not be amused.

(Regular readers of this blog know that when they see Pearl the Squirrel paying a visit to this blog, that means that I'm plugging my other website! I haven't added any new content lately, but if you've never visited Oakie's Treehouse before, now is a good time!)

Christmas 1960: Oakwood Shopping Center Part 2

While looking through microfilm at the library of old Journals from December 1960, I found this small blurb promoting the big fiberglass Santa Claus that Oakwood Shopping Center had on display. (Click on it to enlarge it for reading.) I guess they had a good PR agent.

Christmas 1960: Oakwood Shopping Center

Here's an ad for Oakwood Shopping Center from December 1960. (Click on it for a larger image.) Unfortunately the ad doesn't feature Oakwood Shopping Center's mascot, Oakie the Squirrel! (Click here if you don't know who Oakie the Squirrel is!)

The ad is very interesting though because the Santa Claus fiberglass statue promoted in the ad looks an awful lot like the one that Hot Dog Heaven displays in front of their restaurant in Amherst (at right). In both poses, Santa is writing in his book. They may be painted a little different (the white fur trim above the boots, for example) but at the very least they look like the same mold might have been used for both.

For a few more looks at Hot Dog Heaven's Santa, click here and here.