Elyria House Move – February 1956

Here's yet another house moving news item. This one is from the Feb. 23, 1956 Chronicle-Telegram and shows a house being moved in Elyria along Cleveland Street to its new location on Eady Ct. It was moved to make room for – what else? – a gas station.

I've never seen a house being moved, but it'd be pretty interesting to see, especially if you were a little kid. I can understand why so many of these things made the papers.

In case you're wondering, that's the Hazel's Restaurant sign at the left hand sign of the house moving photo. (At left is a photo of the restaurant from an old Elyria city directory.)

Anyway, I had high hopes that I'd be able to find the house in its new location on Eady Court. Although I didn't drive to Elyria to try and get a positive I.D., I spent a lot of time looking at Bing maps aerials and Eady Court properties on the Lorain County Auditor website.

What did I come up with? Nuthin'!

Looking at overhead shots of the area on the Historic Aerials website, it looks like Eady Ct. had very few houses in 1952 and 1962. But by 1970, commercial businesses had begun to move in, and today, many of the houses shown in the '52 and '62 aerials are gone. I'm guessing that this house is one of them.

It would be a shame if it had been moved to Eady Ct. and then torn down anyway.

I could be wrong, and the house is still there. But if the house is indeed no longer on Eady Ct., here's hoping that it was packed up and trundled off to another location.

Amherst House Move – April 1960

The 1950s and 60s were a period of tremendous growth in Lorain County. That was the era in which shopping centers and new gas stations seemed to pop up everywhere.

Quite often it seems that one of these new businesses was interested in a prime property on which an old house was sitting. In many cases, the house was not demolished (unlike today in demo-happy Lorain) – it was merely moved to another location.

Although I haven't found my "holy grail" shot of the old Neuman farmhouse being moved yet, I seem to find plenty of others. The article above – which appeared in the Chronicle-Telegram on April 1, 1960 – tells the story of a 1920 house being moved in Amherst that got hung up a little bit on the way.

Of course, being a curious (nosy) soul, I had to know where the house eventually ended up on Tenney Avenue in Amherst. Fortunately, the person who had the house moved actually lived in it after the move, so I had an address from the city directory to work with.

The house sits back from the street quite a distance compared to its neighbors.

The shots on the Lorain County Auditor website show the house in transition during a renovation. The Bing Maps aerial reveals that it turned out pretty nice.

I did drive over there during the weekend to snap a quick picture, but there were neighbors outside during both of my drive-bys. Since I didn't want to be hauled in by one of Amherst's finest as a suspicious character, I left without my desired shot. Oh well.

Vanishing Beach Motel – Part 2

By 1975, the Vanishing Beach Motel had lots of company up on Shore Drive. It was surrounded by large apartment houses.

Amazingly, the motel continued to show up in the city directory until the 1988 book, when the 4144 Shore Drive address was listed as "vacant."

Today, the former motel property is still there on Shore Drive (below).

It's obvious that the Vanishing Beach Motel started out as a tourist court with small cabins (like its across-the-highway neighbor, Hialeah Tourist Court). There are several small cabins on the property in addition to the main house.

According to the Lorain County Auditor website, the main house and small cabins were built in 1930. The larger cabin dates from 1940.

Here's a look at the cabins from the back.

Here's an aerial view of the former Vanishing Beach Motel property.

Interestingly, the white house at the left hand side of the above photo predates everything along that stretch of the road, and dates from 1911 (according to the Lorain County Auditor website).

Vanishing Beach Motel – Part 1

1954 Lorain County Farm & Rural Directory listing

Right across U.S. Route 6 from the Lorain Diner on the lake side of the highway was the Vanishing Beach Motel. Unfortunately, most of the information about the motel has seemingly vanished along with its beach.

I first became aware of the motel when I saw it listed in the 1954 Lorain County Farm & Rural Directory (at left). 

Despite the spelling shown in the listing, the owners were Vincent and Josephine Karnik. Previously, they had owned and operated Karnik's Variety Store at 31st and Broadway from 1934 to 1949.

Perhaps the motel was a new endeavor for them after the store was sold.

Listings for the motel in the regular Lorain City Directories didn't occur until a few years later, when that area west of Lorain – still part of Black River Township – began to be included.

By the 1960 directory, the motel had a definite address: 4144 West Erie Avenue.

1960 Lorain City Directory listing

After U.S. 6 was widened to four lanes, and the cloverleaf was constructed near the undercut in the late 1950s, something had to be done about all the businesses previously fronting the highway. Thus, Shore Drive was created as a frontage road north of the highway, and Pueblo Drive was the parallel access road on the south side. 

Consequently, the Vanishing Beach motel was given a new address: 4144 Shore Drive. As you can see, the motel had Shore Drive almost all to itself in 1963 (below).

1963 Lorain City Directory listing

Curiously, I could not locate a single yellow page ad – or even a listing in the white pages – for the motel in the telephone book, through the years. How did it stay in business?

Apparently, its sole advertising – other than its annual listing in the city directory – consisted of a highway billboard. An August 1962 article in the Chronicle-Telegram about Lake Erie pollution makes reference to a Vanishing Beach Motel billboard along that stretch of the highway.

It must have worked, because the motel lasted a lot longer than I would have expected.

Next: The motel today

Tourist Rooms

Tourist Homes used signs like this to announce that they welcomed tourists
(Courtesy onekingslane.com)

Let's say you were passing through Lorain in the early 1930s and didn't want to stay at (or couldn't afford) a room at the Colonial Hotel or the Lorain Hotel. Or, perhaps you were working in town for a few weeks before moving on. Where you could catch 40 winks?

One option in those days was to stay in a tourist home and rent a room for the night. Tourist homes were sort of like a hotel, usually just a large, old house with rooms for tourists to rent for the night or longer. They were very similar to boarding houses in that they were mom-and-pop operations with residents coming and going.

Another vintage sign advertising tourist rooms
(Courtesy onekingslane.com)

In Lorain, there was only one address in the city directory in the early 1930s that was listed as a place that made tourist rooms available: 1219 West Erie. It had the "Tourist Rooms" category all to itself from 1931 until 1933.

1933 City Directory Listing

I'm sure there were many other tourist rooms available in town, but 1219 West Erie – operated by Smith H. Stone – was the only one in the book. (I had to cross-reference his name several times to make sure that 'Smith' was his first name!) It had a great location being near the intersection of West Erie and Oberlin Avenue.

Anyway, I was pretty interested in driving over and seeing this house that hosted weary travelers in the early 1930s. Unfortunately, it was located right next door to K-Kream Korner – and was demolished in the last year or so, as that popular ice cream establishment has needed more space on that corner.

Fortunately, the Lorain County Auditor website had a few photos of it (below) before it was torn down. It was indeed a big rambling house, and looks like it had a lot of character in its day. I can imagine guests relaxing on the front porch and enjoying the cooling breezes from Lake Erie.

Anyway, time marches on – and the tourist home at 1219 West Erie is just another faded memory of Lorain, from the days when U. S. 6 stretched from coast to coast.

1219 West Erie is gone, but the garage remains (photographed last weekend)

Grand Opening of the Charcoal Pit - April 3, 1954

Courtesy CardCow.com

Here's the Grand Opening ad for the well-remembered Charcoal Pit, which was located at 31st and Pearl in South Lorain. The ad ran in The Lorain Journal on April 3, 1954 – exactly 60 years ago today.

The ad reveals some of the restaurant's pleasant decor, as well as showing some of the staff. Terry Tomasic is listed as the Manager.

I mentioned this restaurant before on the blog (back here and here) and posted a few ads, along with the postcard at left. (The page of the CashCow website containing the postcard includes several posted comments from Lorainites.)

The restaurant's address was 3059 Pearl Ave. What was there before the Charcoal Pit?

The building had a variety of tenants. In the early 1930s it was vacant. The Lorain Public Library operated a branch operation there from the mid-1930s or so until around 1945. After that, Quality Appliance Company was listed in the directories at that address from 1947 to 1950.

The last tenant before the Charcoal Pit was Lorain Spudnut Drive-in in 1952.

****

Down Grove: A Novel (2005) by Richard Allen Kulics is a murder mystery that takes place in South Lorain on Grove Avenue. The book makes lots of references to Lorain businesses and history, and at one point one of the characters decides to go to the Charcoal Pit for a burger and fries. I've only read a few online excerpts of the book but it looks like a lot of fun.

Pine Towers Motel in Sheffield Lake

1960 Lorain City Directory Listing

While researching the old motels on the western outskirts of Lorain on U.S. 6, I saw in the 1960 City Directory that there had been one in my current town of Sheffield Lake. It was called Pine Towers Motel and was located at 4855 E. Lake Road.

Since that area was outside of Lorain, it was not listed in the older books, which tended to stop at the city limits.

The earliest entry for the 4855 E. Lake Road address that I could find was in the 1940 book. Joseph and Florence Padley were the owners.

By the 1942 book, the address was listed as vacant, and it would remain that way for several years.

It wasn't until the 1952 Directory that the motel showed up in the listings. The manager was Harry Storr, who was also employed as a pharmacist at Shoemaker Drugs in Lorain.

Pre-renovation photo of 4855 E. Lake Road 
Courtesy Lorain County Auditor website

By the early 1960s, Margaret Pelton was the name associated with the Pine Towers Motel. By 1962 the address was no longer listed as a motel, and about that time it became a private residence again with a new owner.

Around 1968, the building became the well-remembered St. Thomas Convent. It continued to appear in the directory as the convent into the 1990s.

The building was sold in the mid-1990s. If I remember correctly, the decision to sell the lakefront property was made in order to generate some much needed revenue for the church. (Here is a link to the St. Thomas website, which includes a nice history of the parish that mentions the convent.)

Today, after an extensive renovation, the building that served as both a motel and a convent is now a beautiful private residence (below).

The view this past snowy weekend

Perhaps someone with a knowledge of Sheffield Lake history will kindly come forward with some information about the home's original owners, and leave a comment.