Holiday Inn Motel – Part 2

That's the Holiday Inn Motel at the bottom of the photo, with Baumhart Road and the Ford Plant at the top
(Photo Courtesy of the Black River Historical Society)

The Holiday Inn Motel enjoyed a boom time of sorts when the Lorain Ford plant was built nearby in the late 1950s.

The motel and its owner are featured prominently in the article written by Dan J. Warner below, which appeared in The Chronicle-Telegram on February 11, 1957.

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First 'Boom' Signs Appearing Now
New Ford Plant's Neighbors Anticipate Business Surge

By DAN J. WARNER

BROWNHELM – Tap, tap, tap. Itchy fingers are tapping grocery store counters, bars and motel office desks along Lake Rd. near the site of the new Ford Motor Co. assembly plant, waiting to beat the drums of business which are predicted to yield a loud and ever vibrating, boom, boom, boom.

Not one bar, tavern, grocery, service station or motel owner along an approximately five-mile sector of the road predicts anything but the loudest, biggest and most profitable echo of a boom that ever bounced from business place to business place.

How can they lose, they say, with some 1,500 construction workers moving in to build the large plant this spring and a maximum of 4,500 permanent workers moving in to run the plant when it is complete?

In one place, the fingers have already stopped tapping the counter and are busy hustling food and liquor to the some 100 construction workers who have already started working at the plant site.

Richard F. Konik, owner of the Holiday Inn Lounge and the Holiday Inn Motel, paused momentarily from serving thirsty customers at a crowded bar to tell a reporter that "business is booming."

And he wasn't kidding either. It was mid-afternoon, the "slow" time during the day, and empty glasses were piling up in front of him as quickly as he could fill others.

With a broad smile Konik said business at the Lounge had increased "two or three times" in the last several weeks and that he is going to have to build more units onto his motel to accommodate the increased demand for living space by the construction workers.

He said he has already made plans to add six efficiency units to his motel, which already houses some 78 workers. One section of the Motel has been rented to the O'Connor Construction Co. for office purposes. Its parking lot is constantly filled with cars bearing Indiana license plates, home state of the company.

In the restaurant and bar, Konik says he has been forced to add five additional employees to handle the increased business, which is heaviest during meal times.

Asked whether he thought business would continue to improve, Konik shrugged his shoulders, smiled and said, "I hope so."

Other established owners along Lake Rd., however, had a more definite optimistic view into the future.

Joseph Povich, owner of the Conestoga Tavern, paused from reading a paper in his empty tavern, to say he is expecting "big things."

The boom in business he is sure is coming, according to Povich, after a summer when local establishments had practically no business due to repair work on Lake Rd and unseasonal weather.

Povich explained that most of the places along Lake Rd. depend on vacationers for most of their business and that last summer there was very little travel along the road due to construction.

The tavern, he said, will not be his only business venture to benefit from the new plant. He said he had purchased some real estate some time ago to be resold when things started booming. "And now it's coming," he said.

Trailer Camp is Full
Another busy businessman is Carl Johnson, owner of Johnson's Restaurant and Trailer Camp, who said that he has had 40 to 50 request for trailer space he can not fill.

Johnson also said that the restaurant has experienced some increased business as a result of construction work at the plant site. He plans to sell his places, now, while the price is high.

"It's getting to be too much work," he said simply.

Curly DeBracy, owner of DeBracy's Bar, an establishment which has only been open a month said he is expecting "a lot of business from the plant."

Curly admitted that he had the bar and short-order restaurant built onto his driving range as a result of the new plant.

Motel Business Up
"About a 10 per cent increase" in business was reported by Frank DeRose, owner of the Village Motel, who also predicted boom times.

"It's just starting now. It'll be great this spring," he said.

The other business owners, such as Mrs. Richard Kish, of Sunnyside Grocery and Motel, and Mrs. Ruth Winland, manager of Bohac's Mobile Home Court, all predict that business is going to boom and stay booming.

If the predictions come true, it looks as though this area of Lake Rd is no longer going to be "just for tourists."

Next: the Holiday Inn Restaurant

Holiday Inn Motel – Part 1

Continuing on my trip along the old Route 6 & 2 in search of long-gone businesses...

The Holiday Inn Motel (featured prominently in the 1950s Lorain promotional film) was just west of Baumhart Road on the south side of the street. Despite its name, it was a mom and pop motel with nothing to do with the well-known national chain.

What's the story behind the motel?

Fortunately, Brian Finley – a descendant of the man who started the motel – was kind enough to share some of his knowledge in a posted comment on this blog.

"My step-father's father was the guy behind the Holiday Inn," he wrote. "His name was Frank Koniewskowsky,which he shortened to "Konik" when he emigrated from Poland in the early part of the 20th century. He lived on the west side of Cleveland, where he owned a block of buildings. An entrepreneur, Frank bought the property at Liberty Avenue/Lake Road in the early 1950's, because he knew that it was smack-dab on the route to the vacation destinations to the west: Cedar Point, Port Clinton, Kelly's Island, Put-in-Bay, etc. This was before the Interstate freeway would bypass the area."

"Frank installed his sons Richard (my step-father) and Robert as owners/operators of the motel and adjacent restaurant. He named it after the epic Bing Crosby/Danny Kaye movie."

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It hasn't been easy for me to research the motel in its early days.

Since it was located between Lorain and Vermilion on what used to be referred to as Routes 6 & 2, it was in a no-man's land: outside of both Lorain's and Vermilion's city limits and thus not listed in the earliest city directories.

According to the Lorain County Auditors website, the motel was constructed in 1948. It first showed up in the Lorain phone book (in the Vermilion section) in the December 1950 edition.

The early ads gave its address as Stop 120, hearkening back to its location on the old Lake Shore Electric interurban route.

1952 Lorain Phone Book listing

Although the motel was not listed in the 1950s Lorain city directories, I did find it in the library's copy of the 1954 Lorain County Farm & Rural Directory. Here's its listing along with a partial of some of the others along that stretch of Route 6 (below). 

Apparently back then there were no numerical addresses assigned to the properties. So, whoever compiled the rural directory just counted east from Vermilion and numbered the properties as they appeared, noting if they were on the north or south side of the street.

It's interesting seeing the motel listed in there with some of the historic farms along that stretch, including those of the Claus and Baumhart families (both farms were sold when the Ford plant was built in the 1950s).

Next: Boom times for the motel

Fishy Memories

The sign in front of the closed store

I've driven past the former Garwell's store on Route 6 several times in the last few weeks, and it reminded me of how Dad tried to make fishermen out of my brothers and me. The sad truth is that I never developed a fondness for the piscatorial racket.

This is despite the fact that fishing ran in our family. The family photo album is filled with vintage shots of Grandpa Bumke from various fishing trips in Michigan, either grinning with a fish he had caught, or with his buddies in a cabin or boat. Dad liked fishing too, and I guess he wanted to share his enjoyment of the sport with us.

During those fishing years of the 1960s, it seems like almost every Saturday we headed somewhere different: Hot Waters; behind the Water Treatment Plant in Lorain; Mill Hollow; the Oberlin Reservoir; the Kipton Reservoir (now known as the Kipton Reservation); and the grounds of Fathers of St. Joseph out on Case Road in Avon.

The side of the Garwell's store, circa 2009

And each fishing trip started with a stop at Garwell's for bait. I can still hear the bubbling hum of the store's minnow tank.

But unfortunately we weren't very good little fishermen. We were constantly snagging our lines on rocks. Then Dad would have to unsnag them for us, or cut the line and set us up again with hooks. Inevitably, we would snag them again, and he would smile while trying to hide his disgust.

Sometimes we shattered our bobbers on the rocks. We even managed to get our lines caught in trees while casting!

It's a miracle that Dad ever got any fishing done himself, since he was constantly interrupted by our comical hijinks. But, he was a patient man and almost always caught at least a few fish.

After Dad gave up fishing with us, he fished with a few of his work buddies in the 1970s and 80s. One of them had a boat, and they would go out on Lake Erie, usually by the David-Besse Nuclear Power Station near Port Clinton.

During those years, we ate a lot of fish. The family freezer was always jammed with perch and walleye.

When I came back to Lorain after college, I tried once again to take up fishing. (I was unemployed and had plenty of time.) So I would head down to Hot Waters with one of Dad's old rods. Dad even brought me along fishing out on the lake a few times with his pals. I just remember being nervous and nauseous in the boat. So that was the end of my fishing career once and for all.

Despite Dad's best efforts to make me a fisherman, I just never got hooked.

But I cherish the memories of those days in the 60s when Dad spent all that time with my brothers and me on those Saturday afternoons.

Johnson's Restaurant on Routes 6 and 2

Here's yet another business that was featured on the 1957 Routes 6 and 2 map: Johnson's Restaurant.

As the small blurb on the 1957 map said, it was right across from the Lorain Drive-in movie theater. The restaurant was also part of the Carl R. Johnson's Trailer Court complex.

It's interesting that there were so many of those trailer courts along the lake there on Route 6. There still is today, in fact, giving the area a unique feeling as you drive west to Vermilion.

Anyway, you can see the restaurant building in the circa 1955 photo below. (Click on it for a larger version.)

Courtesy Black River Historical Society

Johnson's Restaurant is the large building directly across from the Lorain Drive-in screen, fronting on the road. A gas station sits to the left of it.

Once again, it was a difficult business to research as it was outside Lorain city limits and thus not in the earliest city directories.

The 1954 Lorain County Farm and Rural Directory did list a restaurant – Mac's – adjacent to Carl Johnson's Trailer Park, but I'm not sure if it was in the same building or not. If it was, it didn't last long, because an ad for Johnson's Restaurant appeared in the November 1955 Lorain phone book.

Here's the ad (below).

Strangely enough, the Johnson's Restaurant name didn't last very long either despite the proximity of the Johnson Trailer Court.

By the 1957 phone book, the name of the business was now Lakeshore Drive Inn (or Lake Shore Drive Restaurant – I saw it both ways.) It remained by that name in the books from 1957 to 1962.

In the 1963 and 1964 directory, the restaurant had a new name: Ye Olde Hen House Restaurant.

The 1965 and 1966 books revealed yet another name: Renea's Restaurant. And in the 1967 book, the restaurant was listed as Lighthouse.

Finally, in the 1968 directory the restaurant was listed as Chris's Restaurant. It would remain by that name until the late 1970s. (As we all know, Chris's Restaurant moved over to the former Howard Johnson's just to the east on Route 6.)

Angela's Restaurant was the name of the establishment in the 1978 - 1980 books, and Harry's Family Restaurant was there from 1981 - 1992.

The restaurant was listed in the 1993 book as Windrose Restaurant. By 1995 it was the Blue Marlin.

Finally, beginning around 1999 the business became known as Jack and Diane's Lounge, and it remains that today at 5100 West Erie Avenue in Lorain.

Fior's Spaghetti House on Routes 6 and 2

There wasn't very much information available (in the Lorain Public Library, that is) about Fior's Spaghetti House, one of the businesses on the 1957 Routes 6 and 2 vacation map that I posted last week.

Since the restaurant was almost in Vermilion, it did not make it into the vintage Lorain City Directories, making it difficult to research. There's no date listed on the Lorain County Auditor's site either as to when the restaurant was built.

The small blurb next to the restaurant's location on the 1957 map stated, "Absolutely the best spaghetti this side of Florence, Italy." The text indicated that if you dropped in, you could plan on "shooting the breeze with Dick Fior." It also mentioned the "new building."

Here's the 1959 Lorain phone book ad (below).

A very helpful anonymous commenter on that post pointed out that Fior's Spaghetti House eventually became Hanna House. I did find a listing for Hanna House in the 1968 phone book.

Here's the 1970 ad phone book for Hanna House, also known as Hanna's Italian Village (below).

I'm sorry that I don't have any information as to when the restaurant became the Driftwood Inn. The anonymous poster thought that it had been the Driftwood Inn for the last 20 years or so. (Thanks for your help with this!)

Here is the building at 3674 Liberty Avenue today (below).

The Passing Scene – June 1, 1974

Here's yet another one of the late Gene Patrick's weekly The Passing Scene cartoon that ran in the Journal in the mid-1960s and into the 1970s. (They make nice filler for this blog when I don't have anything else ready yet!)

This one ran on June 1, 1974 – thus the Memorial Day reference in the cartoon. I no doubt marched in that parade with the Admiral King Marching Band.

Speaking of Gene Patrick, I happened to find an old rerun of the Mary Tyler Moore show the other day on Me-TV (the one where Ted wants to move into Mary's apartment house), and I swear I saw him sitting in the background in the newsroom. (Remember back here, when it was pointed out that he had done just that in some episodes while trying to get an acting career going.)

Anyway, I might as well also post this ad for Gene Patrick's business endeavor in Lorain: Gene's Hobby Hub. It ran in the Journal on May 12, 1972.

The small hobby store was located right next door to Yala's Pizza. And since Yala's added a drive-thru to the store, I believe Yala's is now located more or less in the old Hobby Hub space.

Bruce Horner Parkway

Over the weekend I was up and down Oberlin Avenue several times (a very rough ride, with all the construction related to the installation of new water lines). But I did manage to grab this shot of the recently installed sign honoring Army Sgt. Bruce Horner, who was killed in action in June 2007 while serving in Iraq.

The sign designates West 26th Street between Oberlin Avenue and Ashland Avenue as Bruce Horner Parkway. The sign is right across from George Daniel Field and just a short distance from the former Horner home.

Both of the local newspapers did excellent, touching stories about Bruce Horner.

The Morning Journal's story from May 21 featured some nice video and some comments by my old A.K.H.S. Marching Band pal Rev. Doug Horner. The Chronicle-Telegram's heartfelt article ran on Memorial Day and was very well-written. It contained interviews with Doug, as well as a look at how the whole Horner family has always given back to the community.

Anyway, the sign is a wonderful tribute to Bruce. It's hard not to get choked up standing in front of it, knowing that the Horners lived just a few doors down.

I'm thrilled for the Horners that Lorain did this to ensure that Bruce isn't forgotten in his old neighborhood.