From Dairy Queen to Dutch Treat

Yesterday I posted the newspaper ad for the Grand Opening of the Sheffield Lake Dairy Queen that was at the corner of Abbe and East Lake Road back in 1952. I imagine the scene back then looked a lot like the blissful illustration above (poached from this site).

Well, I did a little research and found out that the store wasn't a Dairy Queen for very long. By 1954 the store was Dutch Treat, with the same owner. The Dutch Treat lasted a lot longer, at least through the late 1960's, when they offered pizza!

So although it is unlikely that someone will remember the Dairy Queen, if someone knows anything about the Dutch Treat, please leave a comment!

1952 Sheffield Lake Dairy Queen Ad

Here's something that caught my eye on a newpaper microfilm roll: a 1952 ad for the Grand Opening of the Sheffield Lake Dairy Queen. The ad ran on Friday, May 2, 1952. (Click on it for a close look – sorry it's a little grubby.)

When I first saw the ad, I thought it was for Lorain's Dairy Queen on East Erie Avenue (now Terry's Dairy). But I was surprised (and a little impressed) to see that Sheffield Lake had a Dairy Queen franchise. This ad may be the only photo of what it looked like in existence!

I'm not sure how long the Dairy Queen branding lasted for this business. I know at some point it turned into Dutch Treat. But if you drive by the corner of Abbe Road and East Lake Road today, you won't see anything on the southeast corner but a parking lot for the long-gone The Spot nightclub.

Soft serve ice cream must be a tricky business. Some stores have the right ingredients for success, such as the newly remodeled K-Cream Corner (at the corner of Oberlin Avenue and West Erie) as well as the popular Avon Dairy Treat out on Route 611. Others struggle to stay alive.

The funny thing is, I can't even remember going to any Dairy Queen while growing up. My family would go to the Lorain Creamery for ice cream, but soft serve ice cream was a treat reserved for outings such as fishing. Much later, the Avon Lake Dairy Queen became a preferred high school destination because of their miniature golf course.

Does anybody out there remember the Sheffield Lake Dairy Queen? If so, be sure to post a comment!

Digital Lorain Postcard Collection

I used to spend a lot amount of time on Ebay looking for items to buy relating to local history (the more inexpensive, the better). I would usually try to find a vintage postcard of something that still exists, so that I could give it the "then and now" photo treatment.

I built up quite a collection of this sort of thing through the years, and since you can't take it with you, a few years ago I donated most of my collection to the Black River Historical Society.

Nowadays I still check out Ebay, which continues to be a great source for vintage items relating to Lorain and Lorain County. But rather than purchase more stuff that I will have to get rid of later, occasionally I am lucky enough to find nice big jpegs of the postcards that I can download for free.

This new digital "collection" is much easier to store and the price is right as well. Here are a few that I found recently (last week actually). (Click on each for a larger view.)

The Union School 
(predecessor to the original Lorain High School)

The Erie Avenue Viaduct (circa 1912)

(one of the swing bridge predecessors to the Bascule Bridge)

Black River and Tube Mills

Apparently this is the kind of view that Lorain hopes to recapture with the recently begun effort to clean up the banks of the Black River over by the steel mill.

Boat Launching

I still remember watching the launching of at least one freighter at the old American Shipbuilding yard in the 1960's. 

Boat House

I'm not sure which bridge that was behind the boat house, but that's got to be the east side in the background, since it is heavily forested.

One drawback to downloading the images is that many times, the seller doesn't post an image of the back of the card, so that you miss some of the identifying characteristics, such as the postmark or value of the stamp, which are sometimes critical to figuring out the age of the item.

Many of the above postcards are currently on Ebay – so if you see one you must have, you know where to find it!

1958 McGarvey's Ad

Here's another Lorain phone book ad for McGarvey's, this time from 1958. I really like the typography in the restaurant logo.

The illustration has a nice little reference to the restaurant owners in the form of the names on the boat: Charlie Solomon, who bought the restaurant from the McGarvey family (but didn't change the name), and Eddie Solomon, who ran the restaurant for more than forty years.

The unsung artist who created the illustration captured the restaurant pretty well.

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More McGarvey Memories

Faithful blog reader Jeff, who often posts comments, remembered how the restaurant used to get flooded after the river thawed.

I remember how the place flooded after the really bad storms, such as the infamous July 4, 1969 storm. (I do remember my family driving over to Vermilion to survey the damage after that storm, passing by McGarvey's as well as Mill Hollow.) That musty odor in the lower level of the restaurant became part of the ambience of the place!

Another thing I remember about McGarvey's was the 'GANGWAY' sign outside, which was a source of amusement for my siblings and me. We never got tired of yelling "GANGWAY!" as we shoved each other out of the way on the way into the restaurant.

Once the original McGarvey's building was torn down and replaced by Red Clay on the River, it was never quite the same. Red Clay was a pretty good restaurant, and we ate there quite a few times, but it's pretty difficult to try and replace a landmark.

Now Red Clay is gone and replaced by a chain restaurant. I'm glad something is in there that people enjoy, but I wonder if 30 years from now if anyone will wax nostalgic about Quaker Steak? (I gotta admit, that name has bugged me since I first heard it – talk about appropriating someone else's brand equity!)

1957 McGarvey's Ad

Keeping with my restaurant ad theme, here's a 1957 phone book ad for McGarvey's, the late, great Vermilion restaurant.

Everyone went to McGarvey's at some time or another. For my family, a trip to McGarvey's was for special occasions only, and we had to dress up. I remember being annoyed (along with my brothers) that we had to sit there in a sport coat and tie, when many of the boating patrons were sitting there in comfortable T-shirts and shorts!

The well-remembered "toy chest" for the kiddies was always kind of a dud for me. I remember one time coming out of there with a plastic Ratfink-like molded monster. At the time I didn't even know what it was, but now (courtesy of the internet) I know that it was either a Weird-Oh or a Nutty Mad. I wish I had kept it, because it was probably pretty cool! (I should have been happy to get any kind of free toy back then; what restaurant does that now?)

Rather than just swipe the history of McGarvey's from other people's websites, I'll give you a link. You'll find a nice history of McGarvey's on this great Vermilion website, which is definitely worth visiting.

And if you're interested, here's a link to the recipe for McGarvey sauerkraut balls.

Yeager's Acres 1970 ad

Since I'm temporarily stuck on vintage restaurants again as the topic of this blog, it's a good time to post this clipping, which I found on microfilm at the library.

Last year in this post I mentioned a local restaurant that was a favorite of my grandparents, namely Yeager's Acres. It was located at the intersection of Kolbe Road and Cooper Foster Park Road, the current location of my family doctor's office.

Since then, I found this ad for Yeager's Acres in the business section of the Lorain Journal of September 21, 1970. (Click on it so you can read it.) It's one of those ads that masquerade as an actual article. I like those types of ads, though, because they provide a detailed window into the subject matter that you don't get from a simple boxed ad – and that's important when you're trying to research something that's been gone for almost forty years.

Anyway, the ad literally puts a friendly face on the day-to-day operations of Yeager's Acres and maybe a loyal patron of the restaurant will stumble upon this blog and get a kick out of it.

The Short Shelf Life of Wonder Burger

Wonder Burger, we hardly knew ye.

After all the wonderment expressed in my previous post, I decided to do a little research at the library over the weekend.  It appears that the Wonder Burger flamed out pretty quickly in Elyria – and maybe everywhere for that matter.

The Lorain Public Library has an incomplete set of Elyria city directories, but I was able to determine that before it was the Wonder Burger Drive-in, it was listed in 1962 as Larry's Drive-in and Sport Shop. Then for that brief period around 1965 it was the Wonder Burger Drive-in.

Although Wonder Burger didn't last long, at least the owner seemed to find the right formula for success for 506 Middle Street with the next venture. Around 1966 it became the Top Spot Dining Restaurant – which lasted all the way until the end of the 1970's, when Mr. Hero moved in.

I guess we'll never know whether Wonder Burger was just a short-lived idea, or whether it succeeded in other markets (if it was indeed a regional or national chain). I'm guessing it was an attempt to compete with the Big Boy, with its double-decker design. But most likely it didn't stand a chance against the beloved Midway Oh Boy on Lake Avenue.