Get your copy of the Black Swamp Trader & Firelands Gazette!

Don't forget to drop by the Vermilion Farm Market on US Route 6 outside Vermilion and pick up your free copy of the spring issue of the Black Swamp Trader & Firelands Gazette. I have an article in there on the history of the Cedar Point Chausee, and how the original 1914 entrance road (shown above) is part of the Sheldon Marsh State Nature Preserve, also on US Route 6 about 2 miles west of Huron.

And if you aren't able to pick up a free copy at the Farm Market or a local antique shop, you can always subscribe! Here's a link to the website.

Last Days of Heilman's Ranch House

Here's a nice article about Heilman's Ranch House that ran in the Lorain Journal on Thursday, March 28, 1974 ( just a few days before the photo that I posted in my last blog entry was published). It's by well-known Journal Staff Writer Jack LaVriha. It gives a nice history of the Ranch House, as well as the original Heilman's that was located at the corner of West Erie Avenue and Broadway (where the City Center is now).

The article is a wistful look at the closing of Heilman's Ranch House due to urban renewal. (Click on it for a readable version.)

Remember the Golden Crescent?

Here's that Golden Cresent logo artwork that I referenced earlier today. It ran every day on the Journal's "Page of Opinion" for years. I'm not sure when the whole concept of an Ohio "Golden Crescent" petered out. Maybe it was dropped in the recession of the early 1980's, when things weren't all that golden anymore in Lorain.

The artwork is kind of interesting, because Lorain is identified with a star, as well as being the only city whose name is in all caps. (If I was in one of the other cities, I'd have been annoyed!) What's nice is that the Journal was proud of its Lorain roots back then and was a cheerleader for the city. Now, it tries to be the morning newspaper for not only Lorain County, but parts of Cuyahoga, Erie and beyond. As a result, it's lost its 'Lorain' flavor, in my opinion.

The artwork is also interesting to me, because it dates back to the days of old-fashioned paste-up, when the various art elements for a newspaper page were literally assembled and glued down onto white art board, ready to be shot with a graphics art camera. Logos that were used a lot, such as the one shown above, might start to get a little bedraggled after a while, and a new copy might be made from second-generation artwork. As a result, the type would start to plug up on the copy of a copy. That's why "Sheffield Lake" looks like it says "Sheffield Lobe."

Incidentally... do you get the impression that the addition of North Ridgeville to the map was an afterthought?

Long-gone West Erie Avenue Businesses

Since I've been blogging about the Washington Park area, I might as well post this photo. It's a little dark (it's from microfilm) but interesting nevertheless to old-time Lorainites, since it shows the long-gone line of buildings and businesses that were immediately east of the park. Click on it so you can get a closer look.

The park seems to have had several names... Washington, Memorial, and now Veteran's Memorial. I've even seen it referred to as Gilmore Park in an online edition of the 1910 History of the Western Reserve.

The photo appeared in the Lorain Journal on April 3, 1974, with the article below. (I added the labels to the photo in Photoshop.)

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One Last Look: These Old Buildings Soon to Fall.

A commanding view of the Crescent Center downtown Lorain urban renewal area is available from the roof of the new, seven-story City Hall, as this photograph shows. In the foreground is West Erie Avenue while Broadway is at the far left of the picture and Memorial Park at the right. The project is bounded on the south by Fourth Street. Most of the buildings on W. Erie Avenue visible here have already been purchased by the city. The Heilman's Ranch House restaurant in the center closed its doors Monday. Other buildings either have already done so or soon will as the city prepares to level the block for sale to developers for rebuilding. Demolition of structures downtown should begin within the next three months. The entire project will take up to four years to complete. (Journal Photo by Chief Photographer Tom Whittington.)

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I've gotta admit, this photo depresses me. I sure wish that Heilman's Ranch House was still there – a western-themed restaurant in downtown Lorain, right on Route 6 sounds like a great idea.

I guess the "Crescent Center" name didn't pan out. I'm not sure if anyone besides me even remembers the old "Golden Crescent" nickname that the Lorain Journal used to identify Lorain and the surrounding communities.

Washington Park Then and Now – from Above!

Here's an interesting way to do a "then and now" – from the air!

The "then" photo is from the Images of America book. (Click on it so you can get a good look.) It shows Lorain circa 1937. Washington Park (now Veteran's Memorial Park) is pretty sparse; the trees are few and thin.

Walter A. Frey Funeral Home (which I blogged about last week) is pretty easy to find in the 1937 photo. It's opposite the park to the north and the Parkside Chapel is immediately to the right of the funeral home. The old Lorain City Hall is to the right of the chapel. If you really know your old-time Lorain, you probably recognize some long-gone buildings.

Is that a miniature golf course on the south side of Fourth Street, a half-block from Broadway? I'm going to have to find out!

I have two "now" photos. The upper photo is a recent screen grab from Google Earth, with my captions added so you can get your bearing. The second "now" photo is a screen grab from MapQuest. (You can tell the MapQuest map is more recent, because the demolished building on West Erie to the west of the City Center is still in the Google Earth photo.)

It's pretty fascinating to see how much the area has changed in more than 70 years. Lorain really changed the street configuration in that area by closing off Reid Avenue at Fifth Street (at that point Reid becomes part of the Meridian Plaza parking lot).

There sure used to be a lot of homes downtown!

Washington Park Then and Now

After blogging a few days ago about the old Civil War statue that used to grace the former Washington Park (now known as Veteran's Park), I decided to grab my camera and head over there this weekend to see what it looks like today.

I still remember riding my bike through here in the early 1970's. I don't remember the Civil War statue still being there (I'm sure it was long gone), but I remember that it was a nice, quaint park with Victorian-style light posts. Since the park was Lorain's original town square, it was a nice slice of history in a town robbed of much of it, thanks to urban renewal.

Flash forward to the early 1980's. 'Improvements' were made to the renamed park so as to accommodate various veterans' ceremonies. Unfortunately, the improvements resulted in paving over much of the park with the addition of a huge fountain and pavilion.

Today, the park has lost a lot of its ambiance. It appears that at least one of the trees in front of the Antlers Hotel are the same. 

I wish that the whole fountain area was torn up and replaced by green space again, with a brand new Civil War statue in the center. As we progress into the 2000's, I am afraid that much of this nation's history, specifically the Civil War, is going to be forgotten and probably rewritten. (My great-great-grandfather fought in the Civil War, so this is a subject about which I'm a little sensitive.)

But that's just my opinion. What do you think?

An Act of Pizza Treason

This weekend we did the unthinkable. We tried another pizza instead of Yala's.

I know it sounds insane. There's an awful lot of transplanted Lorainites in other parts of the country that still pine for a pizza pie from the ovens at 3352 Oberlin Avenue.

So why did we commit this act of pizza treason? No special reason. It's just that every once in a while, it's nice to try something different. 

In this case, the something different was a Selenti's Pizza. (That's their mascot at the left.) They're still at 808 Oberlin Avenue, like they've always been.

Back here, I had mentioned that back in the 1970's, my family would get a Selenti's Pizza instead of Yala's every once in a while. Maybe because my Dad drove right by Selenti's on the way home from work.

We enjoyed our Selenti's pizza this weekend. It's a totally different pizza than Yala's. It still had the same kind of puffy, bready (is that a word?) crust that I remembered from the 1970's. And their cheese was kind of tangy.

The store inside was impressive in that you could tell the owners truly cared about the appearance. And their 'pizza by the slice' gimmick seems like a great idea. Here's a link to the Selenti's Facebook page.

Lorain is truly fortunate to have so many family-owned pizza parlors. While Yala's may still be the pizza king in my book, there's plenty of room for everybody, even the pizza place down at the other end of Oberlin Avenue.

(Gee – now I feel like I've cheated on Rosie's Pizza!)