That House by Lakeview Park Part 1

I think everyone in Lorain at one time or another has noticed this stately home at 1405 West Erie Avenue, across from and slightly to the east of Lakeview Park. It was featured on several 1924 Lorain Tornado postcards due to the damages it suffered.

The house today

I gave this house the "then and now" treatment on the blog back here in November 2010.

This week, I was pleased to see that some brand new and fascinating comments had been posted about this house.

Rachel Shoemaker made the discovery that the house was in fact an Aladdin kit home known as the "Villa." How did she do that? I emailed her to find out.

It turns out that Rachel is an expert on Sears and other kit houses, and she has a knack for making these kinds of discoveries. "I was nosing around Lorain, Ohio looking for Sears houses or any kit houses," she explained. "It's a hobby of mine."

A rendering of the Aladdin Villa as shown in the 1918 catalog
(Courtesy of Rachel Shoemaker)

As she lives out of state, Rachel uses Google maps to "tour" a neighborhood. What a great idea!

"I did some reading on Lorain and saw tornado stuff in various places and stumbled on your blog and I was just scrolling through the photos and saw that tornado damaged house and I knew it was an Aladdin Villa."

After leaving a comment, Rachel (who is a retired firefighter) contacted her friend, Rose Thornton. Rose is also an authority on Sears and other kit homes, and has even authored several books, including The Houses That Sears Built (2002), Finding the Houses That Sears Built (2204), Montgomery Wards Mail-Order Homes (2010) and her newest, The Sears Homes of Illinois (December 2010).

Line drawing of the Aladdin Villa house
(Courtesy Rose Thornton)

In her comments left on my blog about the house being an Aladdin Villa kit home, Rose noted, "That was one of their biggest and best homes, and I had no idea there was one in Lorain.

"This house was shipped in 12,000 pieces by train, and came with a 75-page instruction book that told the homemaker how all those pieces and parts went together!"

Rose even left a link that will show you the identical house – sitting in a Kansas cornfield!

I'm thrilled that Rachel and Rose were able to provide some fascinating history about a Lorain house that all of us have driven by hundreds of times through the years. My special thanks go out to both of them.

To visit Rachel's webpage on Facebook in which she highlights more of her discoveries, click here.

To visit Rose's website all about Sears homes, click here. And to buy inscribed versions of all her books, click here!

The house was even featured on the inside page of the 1918 catalog!
(Image courtesy of Rachel Shoemaker)

Tomorrow: a little more history of the house, culled from the City Directory

More Tornado-damaged Homes Then & Now

Clarmont Doane's house was on the left; at far right is the bungalow

I recently found online a terrific eyewitness account of the 1924 Lorain Tornado, as it was handed down in the Doane family of Lorain. It's called The Lorain Tornado of June 28, 1924 by Emily Grace Doane, as told to her daughter Jane Meitzke MacDuff. It's extremely well-written and really captures the fear and shock of what happened that day.

Of particular interest in the story is the fact that Clarmont Doane's house (which was destroyed by the tornado) was right down there by Victory Park at 5th and West Erie – the area that seems to always pop up on this blog.

The story also includes several interesting photos of the tornado damage, such as the one above. It shows the destruction of two homes – the Williams house as well as the Doane house to the right of it. Emily Grace Doane's story refers to the surviving house at the far right of the photo as "the bungalow" and marvels at how little damage it suffered.

Back here in the blog, I had mentioned these particular houses before. Local historian and archivist Dennis Lamont pointed out at that time that although two houses were destroyed at that location, three houses were rebuilt there.

Here's a slightly tighter "now" shot (below) of the same view shown above, showing the rebuilt Williams house, which partially obscures the two houses which replaced the Doane house.

The view is the south side of Fifth Street across from Victory Park

Here are the two homes that are crowded onto the former Doane property (below). The Doanes had sold the lot and built a new house on Parkview Avenue.

And here is a view of just the bungalow today (below). It's still a great looking house – and apparently tornado-proof.

From the E-mail Bag #10: Missive from Israel

 Jewish Soldiers Monument at Salem Cemetery

After my recent series on and around Memorial Day about local veterans' monuments and memorials, I received an email about my blog that was out of this world.

Well, out of this country at least. Actually, the email came from the farthest location yet: Jerusalem, Israel!

Building at Salem Cemetery

The sender, Yisrael Bronstein, used to live in Lorain. "My father served as the rabbi in Lorain from 1977 until 1986," he stated. "I recall that there is a monument for the Jewish soldiers who died in action in the Jewish cemetery on Cooper Foster Road outside the Sheffield Shopping Center.

"As a child we used to help place U.S. flags on all the graves of the veterans who were buried there."

This past weekend I paid a visit to Salem Cemetery at 1459 - 1461 E. North Ridge Road to check out the monument, which is inscribed with the names of seven veterans. The monument is quite attractive, with a poignant inscription: "At the going down of the sun and in the morning we shall remember them."

Yisrael also had another Lorain reminisce. He attended Masson School from 1977 until 1983. "I actually needed to get documents from the Lorain City Schools to get USA citizenship for my children born here in Israel," he explained, "and they even had a picture from when I started school."

Yessir, former Lorainites are all over the world!

Special thanks to Yisrael for sharing his stories.

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UPDATE – A few days after the above post, I received an additional email from Yisrael telling me about how his father used to meet with the Lorain Superintendent of Schools in order to keep the school system informed about Jewish holidays, and also about the Hebrew inscription on the bottom of the monument in the photo above. In case you were wondering what it says (like me), it reads, "They gave their souls for their country... Rest in peace."

H. O. Wurmser House Tragedy?

It's interesting that H. O. Wurmser's first house at 1348 West Erie – that was destroyed by the 1924 Lorain Tornado – made it onto so many postcards. I guess it was because of the extensive damage done to the house, as well as its proximity to Lakeview Park, the scene of so much death and devastation. I first posted the above image back here before I had even heard of the famed Lorain architect.

On Loraine Ritchey's blog, a few more postcards have appeared.

Wurmser's house at far left

This one (below) is even tagged with his name.

So imagine my surprise when, while flipping through the Lorain, Ohio 1903 Souvenir and 1924 Tornado book at the library, I saw the photograph below.

It appeared on a page next to a photo of another house that was completely demolished. The book's author was making the point that the house shown above (obviously Wurmser's but not identified as such) was less damaged but that a tragic death had occurred in its basement.

The book did not identify the name of the unfortunate person who lost their life in Wurmser's basement. In the book's listing of the names of the deceased, there was no name that corresponded with the 1348 West Erie address.

All this really does is add another layer to the mystery surrounding the replacement of Wurmser's demolished house with the house that is there now.

The H. O. Wurmser House: another (groan) mystery!

Take a good look at this house at 1348 West Erie (that's currently for sale down by where West Erie and 5th street meet by the Big "V"). It's ground zero for the latest mystery to occupy the minds (and blogs) of Lorain history buffs.

In a nutshell, here is the story, which originated over on Loraine Ritchey's weblog.

From 1903 Lorain Souvenir book

Famed Lorain architect H. O. Wurmser (that's him at left) lived in this house until he died in 1933. This house replaced Wurmser's other house at this location, which was destroyed by the 1924 Lorain Tornado.

The problem? The Ohio Historical Society says that the house shown above dates to possibly the 1840s.

So the question is: Is this house really that old and did it get moved here from somewhere else by Wurmser – or is the Ohio Historical Society simply wrong and the house merely dates from 1924?

Rest assured, the creme de la creme of Lorain's local history buffs are working on this (contacting the OHS, Wurmser relatives, etc.). But they can use some help!

So if any of you old-timers from that neighborhood remember anything about how the house got there, be sure to leave a comment here or contact Loraine Ritchey over on her blog.

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And while I'm at it, I'll add my own personal request for help again. If anyone knows when that Big V first got installed down there at the nearby park – or when it was first knocked down by a car – please contact me.

Goodbye, WildCat – and Space Spiral too?

It's been a rough time lately for fans of the old Cedar Point and the way it used to be in the 1960s and 70s.

First, in early May 2012 it was announced that the WildCat roller coaster was being permanently removed and dismantled. The roller coaster featured small cars that held four passengers; the Wiki entry reveals that it was actually the second roller coaster to bear that name, as the original WildCat was removed in 1978.

But the bigger bombshell was quietly dropped last week.

A new roller coaster is in the works for 2013 (according to this Morning Journal article.) As usual, when a new ride is added, something has to go to make room for it. According to this WKYC Channel 3 report, to make room for the new coaster, two rides are going to have to go: Disaster Transport and – the Space Spiral!

Here's the link to the Sandusky Register's version of the story; be sure to check out the comments section.

I find it hard to believe that Cedar Point would actually remove one of its iconic rides to make room for yet another roller coaster. The Space Spiral has been there since 1965 and is one of the classics; a family ride that offers spectacular views of the amusement park, as well as Lake Erie and the whole surrounding area.

A nighttime ride on the Space Spiral was usually one of the last stops for my family before leaving the park. It was always a memorable and magnificent finish to a day of fun. It'd be a shame if the park management got rid of yet another family-friendly ride, one of the final links to the Cedar Point of old.

Looks like I gotta get to the Point this year for one last ride on the Space Spiral. (I tried to get on the Space Spiral last year, but it didn't work out.)

Rec Field Dedication May 1928

Yesterday I mentioned that the two Kratt brothers played for George Daniel, the longtime athletic coach and Supervisor of Physical Education for Lorain Schools for whom the stadium on Oberlin Avenue is named.

Well, before the stadium was named in his honor in June 1958, it was just a nameless recreation field on the outskirts of Lorain. On May 26, 1928 – a little over a year after Board of Education bought the land for it – the city was preparing to open the new stadium with a patriotic pageant.

Above is The Lorain Times-Herald spotlighting that upcoming event. (Give it a click so you can read it.) There's some other interesting articles on there as well, including a little boy who ran away from home 137 times!