Oberlin Avenue Carpet Shop Proposed Storefront

To close out my look back at the building at 1705 Oberlin Avenue in Lorain, here's an architectural rendering that was featured in an ad for Oberlin Avenue Carpet and Drapery Shop.

The ad appeared in The Lorain Journal on June 21, 1955, and the rendering represented a proposed new building front by the Lorain architectural firm of Meyer & Fauver (who also did the Lorain Public Library – which this rendering resembles just a little bit).

Unfortunately, the proposed storefront renovation did not occur. It's too bad, because it was quite modern and attractive for the 1950s, and might have helped development along that stretch of Oberlin Avenue.

Marks Cleaning Works

Jeremy Reynolds' job requires him to travel around Lorain County, and he is always emailing me photos "from the road" that are great subjects for blog posts, as well as alerting me to things I might be interested in.

He recently made me aware that the "Unfinished Furniture" sign for The Board Room on the building at 1705 Oberlin Avenue (former longtime home of Oberlin Avenue Carpet and Drapery Shop) had been removed, and the building's original name – Marks Cleaning Works – was now exposed. He recommended skedaddling over there to grab a photo before the inscription was covered over again, and I did just that on Saturday. (The sign was actually lying in the snow, a possible casualty of last week's mini-blizzard.)

Marks Cleaning Works first showed up at this address in the 1924 city directory, but the business itself was much older as revealed in this 1933 city directory ad.

"Founded 1909" means that it was one of Lorain's oldest businesses.

Marks Cleaning Works finally disappeared from the city directories around 1947. That's when the ad below appeared in the telephone directory, heralding the new Oberlin Avenue Carpet Shop business that so many of us passed on the way to Lorain Creamery.

1947 Phone  book ad

It's interesting that virtually all of the companies that called that building home from the early 1920s until recently were in the same or a related business.

Special thanks once again to Jeremy for his excellent blog post suggestion.

Oberlin Avenue Carpet and Drapery Shop

Here's yet another photo from that 1968 Greater Lorain Chamber of Commerce booklet that I first mentioned here. It shows the Oberlin Avenue Carpet and Drapery Shop, a landmark Lorain business at 1705 Oberlin Avenue that many of us passed on our way to the Lorain Creamery nearby.

I always liked this building. It had a real stately appearance with the vines growing up the front and sides of the brick building, and its tidy appearance seemed to mesh well with its decorating-themed business.

And now for a little history. The first business to occupy this building with the big "1923" on the front was Marks' Cleaning Works. The company first turned up in the city directory at this location in 1924, after having been located previously on Seventh Street. The company's specialties included rug manufacturing and cleaning, mattress and feather renovating, and upholstering.

Marks' Cleaning Works was in business at the Oberlin Avenue location until around 1946, when it disappeared from the phone book. Within a few years, however, Oberlin Avenue Carpet and Drapery Shop appeared at that address and continued to occupy the building for more than four decades.

Oberlin Avenue Carpet and Drapery Shop may have been the only local company in the carpet and rug field that didn't use a flying carpet-riding genie or sultan in its telephone directory ads, an observation that I made here over on my other website that honors local advertising mascots. (The funny thing is, in the back of my mind, I vaguely remember a sign on the side of the 1705 Oberlin Avenue building with a guy on a flying carpet!)

Anyway, Oberlin Avenue Carpet and Drapery Shop vanished from the Lorain phone book around 1998. About a year later, the building became the home of The Board Room, a company that sells a complete line of both unfinished and finished furniture. Here's a link to their website.

While it's sad to see a longtime Lorain business go away, it's always good to see a new firm enjoy success at the same location. And speaking of the location, here is what it looks like today. It looks pretty much the same – even the sidewalk!