Homewood Stores Co. was ahead of its time. What else can you conclude about a Lorain store that sold everything from major appliances to clothes to groceries – in 1954?
I've posted ads for the store before, but wasn't sure if it was a shopping center or a single store. It turns out it was both: Homewood Shopping Center consisted of just the building that was home to Homewood Stores Co., a department store.
Interestingly, Homewood Store's parent company – Union Supply Company – was a subsidiary of U.S. Steel. Perhaps the store's proximity to the steel mill had something to do with the decision to locate it there, on Grove Ave. (what was considered then as 'new' Route 57) at Homewood Drive.
The odd thing is that Homewood Stores wasn't around for very long. Here are the articles and mentions in the Lorain Journal that tell its story.
This November 27, 1952 article observes that the construction of the shopping center was coinciding with the beginning of the latest addition to the Homewood housing development.
This February 25, 1954 photo provided a progress report on the Homewood Shopping Center, as well as the O'Neil - Sheffield Shopping Center.
On April 22, 1954, the eve of the much-anticipated opening, several articles and advertisements appeared on the Lorain Journal.
On the day of the Grand Opening, April 23, 1954, this article appeared on the front page of the paper.
And then – only four years later – on July 5, 1958, it was announced that the Homewood Shopping Center would close. The Union Supply Co. division of U.S Steel decided "to eliminate the retail merchandising function of the Homewood Stores Division."
The former shopping center was used by U.S. Steel for some office functions but there was still the question of what would become of the building. This article from March 11, 1960 was one idea.
But in the end, it was the perfect building for the Hills Department Store chain to located an outlet there – with some remodeling, of course. This article from June 18, 1960 tells the story.
June 18, 1960
The Hills store would hold its Grand Opening only a few months later, on August 18, 1960.
Seventy years ago, the O'Neil - Sheffield Shopping Center was celebrating its second birthday, having opened back on May 1, 1954. So it was a good time to have a special birthday promotion, which you see in the full page ads below, which appeared in the Lorain Journal on May 3, 1956.
It's interesting seeing the incredible variety of stores that had an outlet there – even Kroger.
Hey, it's our pal Toppie
Of course, O'Neil - Sheffield Center hurt Downtown Lorain – slowly at first, since the Downtown merchants put up a good fight with promotions and sales. But I still think those 1950s era shopping centers made the most sense for family shopping, with their close, safe, ample parking and all-season flat canopies to protect shoppers from the elements.
Mom played both sides of the street right into the early 1970s, shopping in Downtown Lorain for some things, and at O'Neil - Sheffield Shopping Center for others, as well as at Westgate and Lorain Plaza. Of course, the bigger variety of stores and controlled climate at Midway Mall eventually made it the preferred shopping destination, and the ideal location for various shows and exhibits.
The funny thing is that young people today missed the heyday of the downtown shopping districts, the open-air shopping centers and the shopping malls. But you can't miss what you never experienced. They'll probably grow up with fond memories of the special events and promotions at Crocker Park and Legacy Village. And shopping on Amazon.
As always, each generation prefers its own way of life.
Easter is almost here – so let's take a look at an ample sample of Easter-themed ads from late March 1956 – 70 years ago.
Muir's Cut Rate offered its usual assortment of Easter candy and toys in this ad from March 22, 1956. Our friend the Thrifty Scott offered us a choice of a plastic egg-laying duck, or a "natural" duck – a "once alive duckling, taxidermy preserved. Downy, life-like."
A few of the toys shown in the ad are still available on eBay, including the egg-laying duck and the wind-up bunny.
Rigbee's Kiddieland had already offered its selection of "pre-Easter" toys back on March 15, 1956. Most of the toys don't seem very Easter-like (a telephone, a wheel barrow, a doll house, etc.) but the ad copy explains it away by noting that they are "Summer & Easter Toys."
The traditional Easter parade (which Mom used to tell me about) was still a real thing back then, so many ads were focused on helping people get prepared for it.
March 23, 1956
March 23, 1956
March 29, 1956
There was Easter dinner to think about, and the decision whether to serve ham or perhaps kolbassi, as noted in this ad for Food Center Super Markets.
March 29, 1956
Kids could enjoy an egg hunt at O'Neil-Sheffield Shopping Center on the Saturday before Easter, as shown in this ad that ran on Friday, March 30, 1956.
Lastly, if you didn't feel like preparing an elaborate Easter dinner, you could enjoy a fine meal at Johnson's Restaurant, "opposite Lorain Drive-In Theatre."
(I wrote about Johnson's back here on this 2013 post.)
The well-remembered rendering of Buster Brown and his dog, Tige
Remember shopping for shoes as a kid?
I don't have fond memories of it. Shopping for shoes wasn't interesting to me (it still isn't). But we had to do it. The worst part was that if Mom did take my siblings and me shoe shopping, then she probably was buying them for all of us – meaning a marathon session in the stores.
I've written before how Lorain used to have a lot of shoe stores – Downtown, in South Lorain (Pic-Way), out at O'Neil-Sheffield Center and later, at Midway Mall. Sometimes Mom had to drag us to several of them on the same night.
Back then you had your own personal shoe salesman, who fitted you with his measuring tool and then proceeded to bring out as many styles and sizes as you requested. I remember how the man used to crush your toe with his thumb when he was trying to see how much room you had. I also recall how it was somewhat embarrassing to have to march around the store to see if the shoe slipped.
Isn't it odd now that people buy shoes online without trying them on?
Anyway, one of the weird things I remember about children's shoes back then was that Buster Brown was a major brand, and he always appeared prominently on signs in the stores. I didn't quite understand who he was; it wasn't until much later that I learned that he was a comic strip character from early 1900s. He was somewhat otherworldly, with his hat not unlike that of Donald Duck. And his bulldog – with his shark-like teeth – was a little creepy.
Below is an ad featuring the sailor hat-wearing tyke and his namesake shoes for Ostrov's – a shoe store with outlets in Lorain and Elyria. The ad appeared in the Lorain Journal on March 15, 1956.
The ad mentions that kids could win big prizes in Buster Brown's "Paste-Up Pet Contest" and that a free comic book with all the details was available in the stores. What was that all about?
Fortunately, several copies of the Buster Brown comic book from March 1956 are on eBay right now.
That's Western star and comedy sidekick Andy Devine on the cover along with the characters from the Andy's Gang TV show (including Froggy the Gremlin – who a few decades later would tease the Ghoul on his late night horror show on Cleveland television).
And here's the spread from the book showing the contest entry.
The idea was that kids would cut out the various pieces (designated as eyes, noses, ears, etc.) and glue them down on the entry blank to create their own 'pet' (or nightmarish freak of nature as the case may be).
Much like Snap, Crackle and Pop being redesigned to appeal to kids, Buster Brown was also rendered in a more modern style in some ad appearances.
An ad detail from a 1957 Christmas magazine ad
And here he is as depicted on two birthday cards. That's Captain Kangaroo himself in the top one.
And here's a vintage commercial. I had forgotten about the Buster Brown logo printed inside the shoe where your heel goes.
Today, Buster Brown shoes supposedly exist as a brand, but are nowhere to be found on the website of the company that owns them. Hope Buster and Tige are still around!
By the mid-1950s, Downtown Lorain merchants were working hard to attract shoppers, especially since the stores were competing with O'Neil-Sheffield Center, which had opened to much fanfare in May 1954.
Thus a variety of creative promotions were launched over the years, including Crazy Days Sales, and the one being discussed in today's post: Lucky Buck Day.
Here's the full-page ad explaining the promotion, as well as the page listing participating stores and Lucky Buck Bargains, that ran in the Lorain Journal back on March 6, 1956.
Here's the premise as noted in the ad. "The serial numbers from 25 one dollar bills known to be in circulation in Lorain will be displayed in cooperating stores from 1 p.m. 'til 8:30 p.m. Wednesday.
"If the serial number on one of your dollar bills is listed as a "lucky buck" you'll get double your money's worth when you buy a "Lucky Buck Bargain."
"You can shop all over town with the same Lucky Buck – buy in as many stores as you like with the same dollar bill."
I'm not a statistician, but I imagine that the odds of having one of the 25 Lucky Bucks in your purse or wallet would be pretty poor. How did the merchants know the serial numbers of those particular dollar bills anyway? A bank had a record of them, I guess. Or perhaps some major employer in town paid their employees in cash and the numbers were recorded. But in a town with a population between fifty and sixty thousand, it just doesn't make cents sense.
Even if you had one of those dollars in your possession, how did the merchants know for sure that you didn't bury it in a Hills Bros. coffee can (or more appropriately, Chock full O' Nuts) in your backyard for safekeeping?
Unfortunately, the Lucky Buck Bargains as seen on the full page above don't seem very enticing: Swiss Steak; garden hose; printed plastic drapes.
It would be interesting to know if the promotion was a success.
Although Top Value Stamps haven't existed since the company went out of business in the early 1980s, there are plenty of Baby Boomers who remember them. Krogers seems to have been the store that many of us remember as giving them out with purchase.
Well, Gray Drug Stores did too. The nearly full page above from the Lorain Journal of Sept. 15, 1955 makes the announcement. At that time, there was just the Gray Drug store at the relatively new O'Neil - Sheffield Shopping Center.
Here's a copy of the 1955 catalog shown in the ad (poached from eBay).
What's interesting to me (since I'm a big fan of classic ad mascots) is the image of Toppie the Elephant in the ad. He seemed to debut in the local ads in 1955, so this is an early version of him. He's kind of bulky.
Within a year or so, Toppie would get re-designed to be a little cuter, with a more clearly defined head. Here's a detail from a 1956 ad.
And here's a magazine ad from 1960 with the Toppie design we all remember.
I'll never forget that elephant (so to speak). We had a Top Values Stamp lunch box and thermos with Toppie on it. A few years ago, a set just like ours was selling on an online auction website for $6,000.
Anyway, the page from the Lorain Journal includes an article about a neat arrangement in which students from the M. B Johnson School of Nursing (where a girl I dated in high school got her nursing degree) attended some classes at Oberlin College.
With its closing in 1987, M. B. Johnson School of Nursing joins Gray Drug Stores and Top Value Stamps as local institutions shown on this page of the Journal that aren't around any more.
Back when everybody subscribed to a newspaper, many stores ran special back-to-school promotions that often took up several pages of the Lorain Journal.
The well-remembered O'Neil - Sheffield Shopping Center did exactly that in August 1954. The shopping center had only been open since May 1, 1954, so it was a good time to drum up some fresh publicity.
Here are a few pages of a special section that ran in the Journal on August 25, 1954. In those pages we get a great stock of school kids circa 1954; a nice rendering of the building that was home to the O'Neil store; and a nice photo of the distinctive sign by Rt. 254 in front of the center. That sign was such a familiar sight for so long.
As I've mentioned many times, long after O'Neil's became a May Company store in 1967, I still think of that shopping center in my mind as O'Neil's.
It was such a great location for the Lorain International Festival, drawing visitors from all directions.
I sometimes wonder if this style of shopping center will ever make a comeback. The covered walkway made so much sense; I have a hard time seeing how places like Legacy Village (where you get wet going from store to store when it rains) is an improvement.
