The Urbas Cafe Part 2

The Urbas Cafe (circled) was next door to Heilman's Ranch House (at far right of photo).
Heilman's Ranch House closed on April 1, 1974.

Here is the conclusion of the article about the Urbas Cafe's closing that appeared in the Lorain Journal on June 9, 1974.

Lorain's Urban Renewal Dooms Popular Urbas Cafe (Part 2)

By STEVE SIDLO

Staff Writer

PATRONS of the Urbas Cafe all have their own anecdotes to tell about their experiences drinking low-priced beer (30 cents for a large mug of Duquesne) and eating hard boiled eggs and beef jerky.

Like the time one city councilman, not long ago, stood up in the middle of the barroom and dropped his trousers to show how extended soaking in a bathtub to ease the pain of his hemorrhoids had affected the skin of his legs.

"Look at that," he exclaimed as news reporters and city officials sat incredulous around the table. "It's giving me pimples."

Or another recent incident where one slightly inebriated official had to be physically restrained from pounding on another after a hot exchange of insults and opinions about each other's duties.

All in all, however, the Urbas Cafe is a nice, sedate, friendly bar. It's the kind of place you can go to have a quiet drink. Where you can talk if you want or just sit and watch TV if you don't.

AND THE CLIENTELLE is not made up of exclusively of politicians and government officials.

"All kinds of people come in here," Helen Urbas said. "It's every kind of a bar. I think people like to come here because they see the same faces behind the bar. They don't see strangers."

Joe, Bernie and Helen all take great pride in the fact that their family has been in the tavern business for many years. "We're the third generation," Joe explained.

Their grandfather, the father of Mrs. Anna Urbas, was Alois Virant, and he built the popular old Virant Bar at 1700 E. 28th Street, now known as the Greenwood Inn.

The family lost the Virant Bar after the depression years brought hard times. "Mother and dad took a chance and relocated here in 1940," Helen explained.

WHEN THEY moved from E. 28th Street, the Urbas family brought with them part of the old Virant Bar. The dark, wooden cabinets where bottles of liquor now sit are from the old tavern, as are some partition walls with leaded glass windows.

Before the Urbas family bought it, the W. Erie Avenue building was a pool hall and restaurant. It was originally built in 1913, according to Joe Urbas.

Bernie maintained that they would like to relocate downtown if possible. "We wanted to get the option to buy the property," he said.

The Community Development Department, however, wants to sell the entire 17-acre downtown renewal project to one developer who would build and then lease out space to people interested in opening small businesses.

Prudoff said he is pleased to hear that the Urbas family is interested in coming back into a redeveloped downtown, but added that it would probably not be "economically feasible" for them to restart a small operation like they now have.

"RATHER THAN it being a town bar, they might change into a cocktail lounge and restaurant with room to serve more people and a broader clientele," he said.

Bernie said that if they do relocate they would like to save as much of the interior of the old Urbas Cafe as possible to retain its atmosphere.

"Customers keep telling us they want sections of the bar when we go," Helen said. "We just have to tell them it's going with us."

Special thanks to the Morning Journal for allowing me to reproduce this article.

The Urbas Cafe Part 1

BERNIE URBAS serves up two beers at Urbas Cafe in downtown Lorain.
(Journal Photo by Chief Photographer Tom Whittington)

Here's another vintage article about the closing of a longtime Lorain business. This time the business is the Urbas Cafe, which was located at 205 West Erie Avenue. The article ran in the Sunday, June 9, 1974 Lorain Journal.

Lorain's Urban Renewal Dooms Popular Urbas Cafe (Part 1)
By STEVE SIDLO
Staff Writer

BERNIE URBAS filled another huge stein with draft beer and set it in front of a customer. He swabbed with a rag at the top of a battered table in the Urbas Cafe his family has owned and run since 1940 in downtown Lorain.

"Broadway on a Saturday night then was so busy you couldn't even find a parking place," he said recalling when the bar on W. Erie Avenue across the street from City Hall first opened its doors. "There wasn't even room for walking on the sidewalks."

Today, though, the downtown is dead. Most of the rundown buildings around Broadway north of Fourth Street are closed and boarded up. Soon they will be joined by the Urbas Cafe, as yet another Lorain landmark succumbs to the relentless process of urban renewal.

The Urbas Cafe will leave a particularly rich heritage, especially for the many government officials who through the years have made it their favorite watering hole.

"WE'VE GOT some second generation politicians who come in here now," said Miss Helen Urbas, who along with her brother Joe lives above the establishment. Bernie, another of her brothers, lives at 1432 S. Lakeview Boulevard.

"Mother always was active in politics," she explained, referring to the late Mrs. Anna Urbas. "She was a charter member of the Lorain Democratic Women's Club."

Joe Urbas, who is 63, is today still politically active, having just been reelected to another term as secretary of the Lorain City Central Democratic Committee.

"They all come in here," the 62-year old Bernie asserted about the bar's political customers. "Lausche, when he was a governor he was in here. I think they come because they know they can meet their friends in here."

(Frank J. Lausche of Cleveland, a former five-term Ohio governor and U.S. Senator, is of Slovenian origin, as is the Urbas family."

LEGEND HAS IT that there has been much wheeling and dealing in the bar by local politicians after their meetings across the street. Miss Urbas gestured to one scarred table where some of these secret deals are rumored to have taken place.

"They want that for the new Council Chambers," she said, laughing. "Elio (Jacobozzi, city service director) talked to Joe. He said, "We've got to have this table."

"We kid Elio when he comes in here and tell him they have to build around us here (for the urban renewal). They can't tear this building down."

The building will be demolished, probably within the next six months or so, according to Sanford Prudoff, community development director. Lorain councilmen, who are frequent customers there recently passed legislation clearing the way for the city to appropriate it for urban renewal.

"We know eventually we're going to have to move," said Bernie Urbas. "But we don't want to. We want to stay right here."

Tomorrow: Part 2

Black River Postcard View Early 1900s

Recently I saw this photo (above) in a 1906 book at the Lorain Public Library entitled Lorain County Ohio Picturesque and Industrial Features and recognized it from a vintage postcard. The photo is copyrighted by K.G. Goddard, and the caption in the book was "Scene on Black River."

Vintage postcard postmarked March 1909

Actually the matching postcard was on Ebay back in May, resulting in a very brief email discussion between historian and archivist Dennis Lamont, Drew Penfield and myself as to whether or not the road in the background is the old Globeville Road that ran alongside the Black River.

The postcard is a cropped version of the above photo. What's interesting is what's written on the back of it.

Addressed to Miss Francis Anthony of Akron, Ohio, the postcard includes a brief comment about the photo. "Don't you think this is a pretty view? That's me in the boat "alone," the postcard's sender writes. (The name is illegible.)

The sender adds: "This is up around the island."

The Globeville Road in 1894

That observation at least introduces the possibility that the road seen in the background is the Globeville Road.

Compare the postcard to this 1894 photo of the Globeville Road (right), which I featured back here in March in a post about the birth of the steel mill. The view shown is also near the island, and later was the location of a reservoir used by the steel mill.

There's a definite similarity.

Anyway, it's fun (and frustrating) to try and figure out things like this.

Here's part of an 1874 map (courtesy of Drew Penfield) showing the Globeville Road dipping as it does in the photo, directly south of the island in the Black River. Also notice how Root Road comes down from the north towards the island.

And here's the modern day view courtesy of Bing maps.

Pfaff's Grocery Store

JOHN AND HAZEL PFAFF are sorry they must close their 56-year-old store
next week. They recall many young faces which have greeted them as children
stopped to buy candy while going to and coming from nearby schools.

From Lawson's stores to Mom and Pop grocery stores...

I found this article in the August 18, 1967 edition of the Lorain Journal. It's a nice story written by Valerie Cocks about a grocery store run by John and Hazel Pfaff for 56 years at 312 W. 20th Street in Lorain. At the time of the article the Pfaffs were preparing to close it down for good.

****

Longtime Family Grocery Store Closing Next Week
By VALERIE COCKS
Staff Writer

Remember when Log Cabin Syrup came in metal containers shaped like cabins and when candy could be bought by the penny?

You can still buy these items until Sept. 1. That is the day that Pfaff's Grocery Store at 312 W. 20th St. will be closed for the last time.

John Pfaff, 79, began his business 56 years ago. He first delivered groceries by bicycle, later by horse and buggy, and finally by automobile. Pfaff and his wife, Hazel, who will be 75 years old next month, both are in excellent health.

SO WHY has he decided to close their store? His eyesight has worsened during recent years, and his wife's hearing has been impaired. They really don't want to retire; they are forced to.

They have no definite plans for their retirement. There will be no party the last night, as there was six years ago when they celebrated their 50th year of business.

Next week their sons, Alvin and Marvin, will join them in the store for a final storewide sale.

PFAFF WORKED for five years at National Tube Co. after high school graduation before he decided in 1911 to go into the grocery store business with his first wife, Neva. She died when Alvin was born in 1923. Pfaff married his present wife in 1924.

Mr. and Mrs. Pfaff recall the days when they bought crackers, cookies, vinegar, sugar, dates and other foods in bulk. Their sons remember separating the dates and wrapping them in small packages. They also used to help prepare piles of cabbage for the homemade sauerkraut their parents made and sold for years.

Reminiscing, Pfaff said he wore out a half dozen panel trucks during the 1930s and 1940s delivering groceries to all parts of Lorain and to some areas outside the city limits. He continued to deliver until about two years ago when he was forced to stop driving. His sons often make Saturday deliveries for him now.

PFAFF SAID from the beginning he has tried to have only the best brands of foods available for his customers. His dedication seems to have paid off because today some of his customers are third generation members of families he served years ago.

For more than 40 years, Mr. and Mrs. Pfaff supplied Hawthorne Junior High School cooking classes with the foods they needed.

At one time, the store had 12 employees, Those days are past. Next week, Pfaff, who believes he is the oldest active grocer in Lorain, and his wife will make their last sales in a neighborhood that has known the family for 56 years.

Sheffield Lake Community Days 1972

Just in time for Sheffield Lake's 2012 Community Days, here's a newspaper ad promoting the same celebration back in 1972 – 40 years ago.

Graphic design-wise, the ad is a bit of a snoozer – but the creepy clown illustration and bizarre FUN! FUN, FUN! HO HO caption makes it a little amusing. Plus, the ad includes a listing of most of Sheffield Lake's businesses at that time so it has a little historical value.

Forty years later, several of those Sheffield Lake businesses are happily still around: Amber Oaks, Brownie's Market, and Risko's. Lake Shore Inn is now Dock's Tavern, and Ohio Canoe Adventures Inc. in Sheffield Village is now known as The Backpackers Shop.

Others listed above are gone, such as the Brunswick Shoreway Lanes, as well as Ilg T.V. (until earlier this year the home of an internet cafe).

Anyway, see you at Sheffield Lake Community Days!

First Lawson's in Lorain – June 5, 1959

Back on July 4th, I posted an old Lawson's newspaper ad dating back from 1962. Well, here's an even earlier one announcing that chain's first Lorain store.

It's surprising to me that the first Lorain store was located in the Westgate Shopping Center. I sort of assumed that Lawson's had always built their own stores, especially since you see dozens of the former outlets all over the place in Lorain County. Even my doctor's office is located in a former Lawson's store!

The ad above has a nice little message from J.J. Lawson, the founder of the chain. The ad also reminds me of why the chain was so great: it was centered around quality Lawson's dairy products and other branded items stocked for convenience.

I like the little illustration showing the well-stocked, spacious store with friendly workers and happy customers. I sure wish that scenario still existed today. I find it depressing – and dangerous – to go into just about any convenience store in Cleveland these days.

Lorain's Street Renaming Plan – May 1908

A few days ago, I mentioned that in the early 1900s, most of Lorain's streets were renamed. Well, above you see the newspaper announcement explaining the renaming proposal, which was included in a report submitted by a special council committee. It ran on the front page of The Lorain Daily News on Tuesday, May 19, 1908. 

An adjoining article explained that the report "consists of a complete plan for the renaming and numbering of the streets of the city and is the outcome of long and careful consideration on the part of the committee." It noted that the proposal combined suggestions from council as well as civic bodies in the city.

The article also noted that "a large amount of special legislation would be necessary before the plan can go into effect and as planned now it will not be operative before January 1, 1909."

Of course, such a major undertaking was not going to be implemented without complaints.

A July 21, 1908 article on the front page of The Lorain Daily News was entitled STRONG OBJECTIONS VOICED TO STREET RENAMING PLANS. It noted that at the previous evening's council meeting, "the scheme at once met with considerable opposition and it is doubtful if the present plan will ever be adopted." It also stated that some parts of the plan "were condemned by members of the council and by Postmaster Bowman."

It appears that most of the objections were related to the changes that would occur on the east side of Lorain. The plan was for all streets running east and west were to be called "streets" and named for letters of the alphabet, and for streets running north and south to be called "avenues" and named after the states. Thus First Street would be known as Kansas Avenue and Second Street would become Iowa Avenue.

Councilman David Hatt objected, stating that "he saw no improvement over the present plan and that he did not see why Ohio Avenue was any better than Fifth Street as it did not tell him any more or as much."

"It looks more like a geographic contest to me than a street renaming plan," he stated.

The Postmaster – understandably – wasn't crazy about the proposal either.

According to the article, Postmaster Bowman "led the most opposition to the system" and said that it "was so faulty that if adopted it would mean much delay in the mails to the detriment of all."

Although the plan was referred back to committee, it appears that most of the proposal was eventually adopted.

It was a pretty incredible undertaking if you think about it. 

Councilman Hatt certainly had a point. I lived on the east side of Lorain in the 1990s and street names always seemed like a mishmash to me – a mixture of selected states, some letters, presidents, cities and other miscellaneous monikers.

For me, though, the worst part of the renaming "scheme" is that it sure has made it more difficult to research specific addresses from the 1890s forward!