I Wonder What Happened to Wonder Burger?

To close out this week (the last few days anyway) of mystery, here's an ad that I found in the 1965 Elyria phone book while researching Dog 'n Suds. The ad is for the Wonder Burger Drive-in.

This ad gets lumped into my 'mystery' theme because I'd never heard of it and can't seem to find out anything about it online. I don't know if it was a regional or national chain, or maybe even a single restaurant.

I did find a website for Wonder Burger, but it's located in Saudi Arabia. (They do deliver, though.) And there are a lot of Wonder Burger photos on flickr if you click here.

But was Elyria's Wonder Burger Drive-in a Mom-and-Pop place? Or a regional chain like Hamburger Station?

I wonder.

A Dog 'n Suds Mystery

It seems to be 'mystery week' at my blog.

Here's an ad that ran in the Lorain Journal on July 1, 1966. It's for a Grand Opening promotion for the Dog 'n Suds on North Ridge Road.

The Grand Opening theme of the 1966 ad is kind of a mystery.  A few years ago, there were several newspaper and online articles that said this particular Dog 'n Suds restaurant opened in 1957 (such as in this Chronicle-Telegram article). Other articles just mentioned that the drive in had been under the current ownership since 1961 or 1962 (such as in this Plain Dealer article).

I did a little research in the Lorain Public Library, and was unable to find any telephone book listing of the Dog 'n Suds on North Ridge Road until 1967, when it appeared in the Elyria phone book for the first time. That seems to coincide with the 1966 Grand Opening ad.

The listing disappeared from the Elyria phone book in the 1971 edition, and then reappeared later. That seems to coincide with one of the two articles that mentioned that the drive-in had gone belly-up under the original owners a few years after it opened, and reopened when Ilene Hampton bought it.

The dates in the articles seem to be ten years off.

It really doesn't matter, I suppose. I'm just glad it's still there. And I plan to visit it as often as I can, (although chili dogs really don't fit in with my new fitness regimen)!

The Oak Point Mystery

Most Lorainites are probably familiar with Oak Point Road west of town. It begins at its intersection with Route 6 (West Erie Avenue) near Lake Erie and heads due south to Amherst where it becomes N. Lake Street. Although its corridor has experienced much growth and development in the last ten years, for a long time it was a lonely road in very poor shape. I still remember its dangerous intersection with Route 2, before the overpass was constructed.

Anyway, I keep running across references to an Oak Point mystery in Lorain history books. No, it is not a scary story like that of Gore Orphanage Road – it's another kind of mystery, a story of what might have been. You can read about it in this interesting article that appeared in the Lorain Journal on June 21, 1955.

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Oak Point 'Mystery' Unsolved


An interesting fact not generally known is that Oak Point, the vacation, boating and fishing resort four miles west of Lorain, once played a role in the rebuilding of Chicago following the Chicago fire.

The story was told by J. J. Meyer, one-time Lorain editor, builder and realtor, in his fine historical summary, "Lorain in Retrospect," prepared originally as an address before the Lorain Real Estate Board.

Clouds of Smoke
The great Chicago fire occurred in the fall of 1871. "Great clouds of smoke," Meyer reported, "hovered over this vicinity, completely obscuring the sun for several days following the fire, a fact fresh in the minds of some now living among us.

"The rehabilitation of the mid-west metropolis stimulated the stone industry at Amherst and created additional demand for Lorain's vessel tonnage.

"The success and volume of this enterprise rested on cheap transportation, which was provided by constructing a railway from the quarries to Oak Point and a stone landing pier, projecting into the lake, from which to transfer stone from tiny cars into vessels Chicago-bound."

Basic Document
In 1926, when Meyer told his story, which was printed in booklet form and remains one of Lorain's basic historical documents, there was still an "iron streak" in the woods north of Amherst as evidence of the railroad.

Meyer recalled that his maternal grandmother used to give vivid descriptions of the fire. She was widowed and resided in the fire-swept district with her youngest son. They were compelled to flee for their lives, losing whatever earthly goods they possessed.

The "Chicago Fire" episode was only one of several in which Oak Point and Beaver Park have figured.

Mystery Center
Shortly after the turn of the century, Oak Point first became the center of a mystery which was the source of prolific rumors and newspaper stories for decades.

In 1905 a party of strangers invaded the community and quietly obtained options on 3,200 acres for the Knox Syndicate, headed by Francis Stewart Knox. Behind the scenes was H. H. Rogers, a capitalist.

Rogers had a "dream" of some gigantic project which was never clearly defined. It was known that it involved a huge harbor at the mouth of Beaver Creek, and a direct railroad connecting the railroad with Norfolk, Va., thus providing shipping facilities between the lakes and the Atlantic ocean.

More than 20 engineers established headquarters in Lorain and surveys were conducted for more than two years, with expenditures of a million dollars. Then Rogers died and the project fell through.

Site Selected
Periodically there were reports that this or some similar project was being promoted again, but nothing materialized.

More recently, within the past few years, concentrated efforts were made to have the Oak Park location selected as the site for a new lake shore state park. It was proposed to call the spot "King Park" after Lorain's Admiral Ernest J. King. However, the state commission working on the park plan preferred other locations.

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Wow, Admiral King was being snubbed back in the 1950's too! Some things never change.

Anyway, it's certainly interesting to consider what might have been out there. Here's a current aerial map (click on it) showing what the area looks like today. You can see part of Old Lake Road making its way down into the marina area on the south side.

Of Dog 'n Suds & Skating

I hadn't made it over to Dog 'n Suds on North Ridge Road yet this year, so I made sure I stopped by there this past weekend. (Photo above.) According to my friendly carhop, the drive-in hadn't been sold (as was the plan last year).

She also told me that on certain nights, the Dog 'n Suds carhops wear skates while they're working, and that they can wear them all the time if they want. She actually preferred the skates, since she could get out to the cars quicker. I told her that roller skating was something I was never good at.

I tried it once in high school, when I was in marching band in the mid-1970's. A buddy and I had arranged to meet two of our comely band-mates out at Skate World on Route 6. Although I had never roller skated before, I was assured that it was easy and besides, those two girls were going to be there!

The 'skate date' played out like a bad episode of Happy Days. I soon discovered that wearing roller skates was like having two little cars strapped to my feet, each eager to take off in a different direction. Needless to say, I spent most of the afternoon on the floor. I haven't been back to Skate World since.

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Getting back to Dog 'n Suds – here's a link to a great website that is a collection of photographs of roadside architecture, taken by the website's owner. As you can see, she visited a lot of Dog 'n Suds, including the one on North Ridge road.

Heilman's Location Then & Now

It was sunny today (for a little while at least) so I went out and grabbed the "now" shot of where Heilman's used to be. It's strange to think that the City Center has been there so long that a whole generation has grown up who never heard of Heilman's.

The "now" shot is a tough one because the West Erie side of the building seems to be in perpetual shade all day long. I know, because I drove by it three times today, hoping that the sun would cooperate. It didn't.

I've gotta confess, I've never liked this building although it always looks well maintained, and the latest improvements done in the last few years makes it look nice. It's... a brick box, and the fact that the License Bureau is in there doesn't endear it to me either. The building really needs a nice restaurant at ground level, facing Route 6.

Heilman's Restaurant

Just to follow up on my blog of a few days ago regarding Heilman's Ranch House, here are a few postcards of the original Heilman's restaurant, which was located at the corner of West Erie Avenue and Broadway.

According to the article by Jack LaVriha that I posted here, the Heilman family got their start in the restaurant business in 1920 when Ross Heilman and Alton, his brother, opened Heilman's Grill in a small building on Broadway near West Erie. The place had formerly been a popular lunchroom known as the Metropole.

Next, Ross Heilman decided to lease the building shown in the postcard above. He opened Heilman's Marine Dining Room on Memorial Day, 1936. Here are two postcard views.

The Heilman family continued to expand their restaurant empire. Heilman's Beachcomber opened in 1948 in Clearwater, Florida and was run by Bob Heilman, one of Ross Heilman's two sons.  Another restaurant bearing the Heilman's name opened in 1958 in Fort Lauderdale and was managed by Ross Heilman's other son, Hubert.

Below is a 1959 Lorain City Directory ad for all three Heilman's restaurants.

Heilman's Ranch House opened in 1961, eventually outlasting the original Heilman's, which closed in 1968. Then the Ranch House fell victim to urban renewal and closed in 1974.

Nevertheless, decades later the mention of both Heilman's restaurants still brings a smile to the face of nostalgic Lorainites, hungry for Lorain's glory days as well as a good meal from one of the Heilman's kitchens.

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Bob Heilman passed away in 2007; here is a link to his obituary in which he is well-remembered for his still-popular Bob Heilman's Beachcomber (shown below in a vintage postcard found on Ebay).  And here is a link to the restaurant's website.

Admiral King Elementary School

I almost forgot to mention to my out-of-town blog readers that an article appeared in the Morning Journal last week announcing that the new elementary school that will replace Irving will be named for Admiral Ernest J. King. You can read the short article online here.

How do I feel about it? Actually, I think it's a good idea, but only if it is handled properly. Otherwise it is just lip service to pacify the people (like me) who were unhappy that the name was abandoned in the first place.

I'm sure the Admiral King historical marker currently at the high school will be relocated to the new school, and maybe even the anchor, but that is not enough. The school system needs to make it a point to properly educate the young students as to who Admiral Ernest J. King was, what he accomplished, and why their school is named after him. There needs to be a well thought out permanent display in the lobby, and maybe even an annual day where he is officially remembered.

The elementary school is to be built on the site of the former Lorain High School, the high school that King attended, and it is only a short walk to his birthplace on Hamilton. So there is ample opportunity to creatively make Ernest J. King a real person that the students can relate to and look up to.

By doing all of this, a sense of pride would be instilled in the young students, and they would learn that it is possible to set a goal and reach it through tenacity and hard work.

The Admiral Ernest J. King Elementary School principal, whoever it is, needs to buy into this line of thinking; no anti-war types need apply! You can't teach kids why Admiral King was important unless you accept the fact that we were at war, and fighting to save the world.

Now, the only problem that remains is: what about the unhappy Irving alumni? Here we go again! (Don't laugh; my mother is a self-proclaimed "Irving snot!")

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To read an interesting history of how the Lorain schools were named, written by Lorain School Board member James Smith, click here. (By the way, this article also contains the original 2004 plan for the upgrading of Lorain's schools, in which Admiral King High School and Masson Elementary were to be only renovated.)