In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb – 1962

Well, March is winding down.  That almost always seems to provoke at least one local TV meteorologist into mentioning the old adage about March weather, and how the month comes "in like a lion and out like a lamb.” 

The analogy doesn’t seem to be the case this year. It seems like we’ve been all over the place weather-wise this month, with lamb-like weather a few weeks ago. And as I look out the window while writing this, there are several inches of snow that fell overnight, after an unpleasant, windy and cold Saturday.

Anyway, here’s a great vintage ad with an unusual graphic treatment of the well-known weather folklore about lambs and lions. It’s for Sheffield Lake’s Shoreway Shopping Center and it ran in the Lorain Journal back on March 1, 1962 – sixty years ago this month.

I just love that old clip art. I’ll bet a lot of cartoonists made a good living supplying artwork to the Harry Volk company, who published themed books for paste-up artists (like I used to be) to create an ad.

There are several of those books on eBay right now, and they’re not cheap.

Shoreway Shopping Center (a reoccurring topic on this blog) is one of the few of its kind from the 1950s that is still doing fairly well. I bought many a Little Caesar pizza there while I was still living in Sheffield Lake.

Over in Lorain, Westgate is still in the process of being redeveloped. The overhang that used to protect shoppers from the weather was removed, and the whole parking lot received a new blacktop treatment last year. I wish the owner well in his efforts to revive it. Here’s a recent photo.

Shoreway Shopping Center Opens – October 1958

October 2, Lorain Journal ad

Fifty-six years ago, it was the eve of the opening of Shoreway Shopping Center in Sheffield Lake. 

It was an exciting time. Sheffield Lake was evolving from a tiny seasonal cottage community to a full-fledged city – and the addition of a shopping center was a big step.

Although the shopping center is now a little smaller and less busy than it was when it opened, it's still an important part of Sheffield Lake life.

Anyway, here's the story that appeared in the October 1, 1958 Lorain Journal announcing the opening of the center.

****

Houses 14 Stores In Sheffield Lake
$1,250,000 Shoreway Center To Open Tomorrow

SHEFFIELD LAKE – Opening ceremonies for the $1,250,000 Shoreway Shopping Center, Rt. 301 and East Lake Rd., will begin tomorrow when Mayor Frank Duguid cuts the ribbon at the entrance.

All village officials are scheduled to attend the opening and each will be issued a charter shopper badge commemorating the occasion.

Festivities have been planned for the public with an aerial display of fireworks under the direction of Fire Chief Peter Cifranic at 9:30 p.m. tomorrow.

On Friday at 9 p.m. an all-star variety show will feature George Latshaw, puppet star of the movie "Lili," and two acts from TV Super Circus starring Edward Bier and his trained dogs and the Fabulous Claytons.

On display during store hours from Oct. 6 to 12 will be "Ernie's Miniature Circus," an exhibit of 25,000 hand-carved circus figures. This display has been shown at the the Brussels World Fair and is to be forwarded to Disneyland following the showing.

Store hours have been set from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday and from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Thursday and Friday. However, as part of the grand opening celebration stores will remain open until 9.p.m. this Saturday.

Climaxing the two weeks of activities will be an Ox Roast sponsored by the Sheffield Lake Kiwanis Club on Oct. 9, 10 and 11. The dinner is to be served on the south parking lot of the center.

The shopping center building is approximately 700 feet by 150 feet and houses 14 stores. Parking facilities have been designed for 1,000 cars.

Zehman, Wolf and Sterman Construction Co. of University Heights is the builder, and Sidney H. Morris and Associates of Chicago are the architects. M. H. Hausman of Cleveland is the leasing agent. William DeCarpentier is general supervisor of the project.

Jacob Levin of Sheffield Lake, principal owner of the center, will be host to village officials, store managers, W. R. Hauserman of the Ohio State Department of Highways, former mayor Dr. James C. Markley, former council president Earl Barnhart, and Chris Howley Jr., president of the school board.

Village officials expected to be present at the ceremonies include Shefffield Lake Councilmen William Piersen, John Groleau, Dan Fragassi, Gerald Spradlin, Carl Dietrich, Santino Cambria and Maurice Sturtevant; members of the Board of Public Affairs Paul Riddell, William Freeh and D. E. Ratliffe; Village Solicitor Dale Barnhart, Police Chief Clarence Hambley, Fire Chief Peter Cifranic, Building Commissioner Patrick Towner, Planning Board members Alfred Askew, Charles Ward and Mrs. L.W. Clites, and Zoning Board members Horace Smith, David Jones and Thomas Raptis.

FOODTOWN TO OPEN – This Foodtown Store will open

tomorrow at the new Shoreway Shopping Center in Sheffield

Lake. It will be the first Foodtown market in the area. Ted 

Trakas of Westlake has been named manager.

****

Shoreway Shopping Center has been a favorite topic of mine on this blog. I did a three-part series on it back in 2009 (here, here and here) when part of the center was demolished, and later, a variety of posts featured various seasonal ads and promotions.

1963 Shoreway Shopping Center Christmas Ad

Here's an ad from the Lorain Journal of December 14, 1963 – exactly 47 years ago today. It highlights a special Christmas promotion by Sheffield Lake's Shoreway Shopping Center (which I've blogged about many times, including back here, here and here.)

By the looks of that rectangular chunk of meat, I'm not surprised that the word 'hams' is in quotation marks!

Note in the ad that Lake Road is still "6 & 2."

Anyway, it's nice to see a reminder that the Shoreway Shopping Center (which is a mile from my house) was once a thriving commercial development and, hopefully, will be once again when it is redeveloped.

Keeping Fit in the New Year 1959 Style

Since it's a new decade, I decided to finally act on the same resolution that I've been making for the last 10 or 15 years – that is, to get some exercise. So I joined the new coed Anytime Fitness on Oak Point Road in Amherst.

Now if it was 1959, I could have joined Dee's Shoreway Health Studio in the Shoreway Shopping Center a mile from my house in Sheffield Lake. (I first mentioned this business in my blog back here.)

The July 1959 ad (click on it for a larger view) is interesting because it indicates that there were different hours for men and women to use the facilities. Also, the women are being urged to get ready for the swimsuit season while the men are supposed to preparing for football season! ( I thought getting ready for football season meant you made sure you had plenty of potato chips on hand.)

As opposed to the 1959 phone book ad (at right) the newspaper ad features an actual model, probably from a stock photo collection. It kind of reminds me of the old black and white cheesecake postcards that used to be in the machines in the Arcade at Cedar Point.

Times sure have changed. My gym, Anytime Fitness, has a lot of great equipment, but unlike Dee's Shoreway Health Studio, no on site masseuse or masseur for us martini-swigging, grey-flannel-suited businessmen. (I'll have to bring that up with the owner!)

Christmas 1960: Shoreway Shopping Center

Here at the blog, I'm going to celebrate Christmas with a series of local ads with a Christmas theme – all from 1960. Why Christmas 1960? No special reason for choosing that season, except that it was a time when most of the shopping centers in Lorain County were new. That means they were still heavily promoting their stores, which made a lot of lively and memorable newspaper ads. I'll throw some other ads in there as well.

First up: an ad from the Shoreway Shopping Center in Sheffield Lake. (Click on it for a larger image.) The Shoreway Shopping Center may be going through a metamorphosis in 2009, but in December 1960 it was still pretty new. I love this great ad with Santa perched on a rocket. (Why do I think of the ending of Dr. Strangelove when I look at this ad?)

Note how Route 301 was Lake Breeze back then, not Abbe Road as it is now.

Keeping Fit in the 1950s at the Shoreway Shopping Center

While watching Sheffield Lake demolish and slowly transform the old Shoreway Shopping Center into something different, I thought of some of the companies that used to be tenants there. One of them was Dee's Shoreway Health Studio.

Here's one of their phone book ads from 1959. I love it, especially the pipe-smoking husband eyeballing the ship-shape girl advertising mascot.

It's interesting what services they offered back then: steam room, body building, massages. I wonder if the steam room was the type you always see in cartoons where the person's head sticks out of a big box while their body shrinks to toothpick size?

I guess we'll never know!

Shoreway Shopping Center Part 3

I stopped by last night to see how the demolition of Shoreway Shopping Center was coming along. The demolition workers have begun stripping off the architectural elements that were installed years ago in an attempt to improve the appearance.

  With the "false front" stripped away, it was interesting to see the "ghost" of the A&P sign from long ago (compare photos above.)

   

Shoreway Shopping Center Part 2

The City of Sheffield Lake has begun dismantling the southern portion of Shoreway Shopping Center (see fenced-in area of photo). The interior portions are being gutted first.

   Check out the photo above, comparing the shopping center in the mid-1960s to a photo I shot a few days ago. It's kind of sad.

   It's hard to believe that shortly after the shopping center opened in October 1958, it had a great selection of stores, including Marshall Drug, Kroger, FW Woolworth, Hough Bakeries, Foodtown Super Market and Sherwin-Williams.

   By 1960, A&P had taken over the Foodtown space. I guess the newfangled pie-baking oven didn't pan out for Foodtown. (See previous post for explanation.) 

Shoreway Shopping Center: stand by for the wrecking bal!

Soon, the City of Sheffield Lake will begin to demolish a portion of the Shoreway Shopping Center. It's a good time to look back at its history.

   According to an article in the Lorain Journal, the $1,250,000 Shoreway Shopping Center originally opened on Thursday, October 2, 1958. Mayor Frank Duguid cut the ribbon as part of opening ceremonies. A fireworks display that evening was under the direction of Fire Chief Peter Cifranic.

   At the time of its opening, the shopping center housed 14 stores including a Foodtown grocery store, the first in the area. The store included a pie-making oven that allowed shoppers to watch the pies being baked.

   The climax of the grand opening festivities was an Ox Roast at the shopping center, sponsored by the Sheffield Lake Kiwanis Club on Oct. 9, 10 and 11.

   Sheffield Lake acquired the shopping center in 2008.