Memories of Old Stone Villa Part 3

Linda’s grandparents, Mary and Samuel Ross (at left) and her Uncle Gene (at right),
posing in front of the Old Stone Villa

While I was researching the Old Stone Villa, I contacted Linda for some more reminisces about her grandmother, and perhaps some snapshots of the restaurant.

She wrote, "I found a couple of photos. Mostly I have my memories. 

"I just turned 60 and I think memories of being with my Grandmother are some of my best, if not the best. And, memories of being with her in the restaurant are so so good. 


"I remember all that stainless steel all around. And her making my sister and I cheeseburgers with Velveeta cheese on the flat top. Watching her toss homemade coleslaw in a huge stainless steel bowl. She washed all her dishes (no dishwasher) with a sprayer on a long hose. I remember her serving lunch to locals and not charging them, saying “Well, he comes here all the time.” 


"She loved feeding people. She would send me to the Lawson store next door to get lemon pies for the restaurant. I loved going to the basement to get those skinny little bags of salted Mr. Peanuts and watching the man come to empty the juke box, I’ve never seen so many dimes in all my life, he'd always give me a couple. All those dimes must have meant the bar was a happening place! 

That’s Samuel Ross, Linda’s grandfather, behind the bar. “Pretty fancy,” noted Linda.

"Big news was when she got her electric fryer, she fried her chicken in it. It was next to the back door of the kitchen to the right as you walked in. I didn’t know much about the bar side, but I think it was busy at night."

The gang at the bar

Next: the history of the Old Stone Villa continues

Memories of Old Stone Villa Part 2

As hard as it is to believe, the building that eventually became the Old Stone Villa started out as a schoolhouse.

You can see a school indicated in the 1896 map detail above, located at the end of Oberlin Avenue where North Ridge Road and Cooper Foster Park road crisscross.

But how did the school become the Old Stone Villa?

It was explained in this short article that appeared in the Amherst News-Times on July 22, 1938.

****

NEW NIGHT CLUB TO OPEN TONIGHT
The Olde Stone Villa, a new night club, will open tonight (Thursday) in the former stone school house at the corner of North Ridge Rd. and Oberlin Av. Sam Ross, former owner of the LaPorte Inn, is proprietor of the new place.

The building has been re-built. It lately was occupied as a gasoline filling station operated by the Kolbe Bros. but was destroyed by fire some time ago, leaving only the stone walls standing. Using these stone walls as a base the architecture has been changed to represent an early American Inn.

****

The opening of the Old Stone Villa was also announced in the pages of the Thursday,  July 21, 1938 Lorain Journal (below).

And by the time of the 1938 Lorain City Directory, the Old Stone Villa settled in for a listing that would appear for more than thirty years.

Next: More of Linda’s reminisces

Memories of Old Stone Villa Part 1

1970 Lorain phone book ad

Although I try to have my blog topics planned out weeks in advance, sometimes I rely on pure serendipity to guide me on what to write about next. And quite often it pays off in a way that I never would have imagined.

That was the case recently, when I planned to write about Lorain restaurants – and was looking for one to research that I hadn’t already written about in the past.

That’s when I remembered that late last August, I had received an email from Linda Harding of Florida.

She wrote, "Wanted to tell you my Grandma and Grandpa built the Old Stone Villa in Lorain which is now an Antique Store or Floral Shop.

"I was born there in 1955, was just 6 years old when we moved to Florida. We lived in Amherst. But, my Grandma owned the corner where 'The Place' (as my family called it) was, I believe there was a gas station, Jet Car Wash, Lawsons, and a couple other local businesses.

"Those were my best childhood memories spent in her restaurant with my Grandma. She lived down the road on Foster Park. It was a big beautiful home, with a big deer in the front yard.”

Remembering Linda’s charming email about her grandmother, I decided that the Old Stone Villa would make a great blog topic. So I recently contacted Linda again for some more reminisces, and did some research of my own.

You’ll hear more from Linda as this story unfolds.

Next: From schoolhouse to villa

Philbo House Fun

Well, it’s the end of the week, and since I’ve been writing about restaurants lately, it’s a good time to post some articles about the Philbo House (now the Angry Bull) recently sent to me by regular contributor Rick Kurish.

You might remember that back in November, Rick had sent me a 1949 ad (below) that revealed that after Joseph and Bela Herring sold the Bohemian Tavern, they opened Herring’s Tavern on Lake Road, seven miles west of Vermilion. (As you remember, Herring's Tavern later became the Philbo House.)

In Rick’s latest email, he wrote, "I have attached two newspaper articles from the Chronicle-Telegram. The first is from July 22, 1961, and dates the opening of the restaurant as well as the origin of the name.”

Indeed, Rick’s article (below) includes the names of the men associated with the Philbo House: Phil Provenza and Bob Arheit.

July 22, 1961 article from the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram

Rick noted,"The second article on the clambake is from September 16, 1961."

September 16, 1961 article from the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram

Rick also commented, "Interestingly, Joe Hering is supervising the clambake and it sounds like this isn't his first bake. I couldn't believe the preparation involved --- I thought you just washed them off and baked them for a period of time.

"I first ate at Philbo House in 1970, on a date with my future wife, and several times thereafter. The food, especially the steaks, were always perfectly prepared. Ahh, good memories!"

Thanks for sharing those good memories (and articles too), Rick!

A Tale of Taco Boy and Taco Kid

The Taco Boy restaurant on West Erie Avenue in Lorain, circa June 1969
(Currently the home of Chapman's Food Mart)

Back in July 2011, I did a post on the Taco Boy restaurant that was located on West Erie Avenue across from the Castle (in the building that is currently home to Chapman's Food Mart). The Taco Boy restaurant opened in June 1969, to be followed by a second one on Oberlin Avenue that was part of the group owned by businessman Ken Cassell.

However, by the time of the February 1970 "quick service" restaurant article, the building – located next door to the Pizza Hut – had a Taco Kid sign.

Taco Kid restaurant on Oberlin Avenue circa Feb. 1970
(currently the home of Exhale Hooka Lounge)

So why did the restaurant chain change its name and mascot?

Well, I did some research and here's my theory.

Back in the mid 1960s, tacos were growing in popularity thanks to the Taco Bell chain, and quickly becoming an American favorite. Consequently, other taco chains began to pop up.

One of them was located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, with the name of – you guessed it – Taco Boy. An aggressive campaign to sign up Taco Boy franchisees was launched around May 1969. The parent company took care of site selection and building construction; all the franchisee had to do was come up with the $17,000 required investment.

Here's what the Taco Boy logo looked like (below).

Meanwhile in Ohio, businessman Hank Cartwright had been enjoying success in the restaurant franchising field. In 1964, he and his brother had purchased a Pizza Hut franchise in Lincoln, Nebraska. The brothers later added more units: six in Las Vegas, Nevada and two in Phoenix, Arizona. According to an article in the March 2, 1969 Toledo Blade, “they did so well in the franchise restaurant business that the Pizza Hut company bought back all the franchises for $250,000 and gave them the Toledo-Cleveland franchise area to develop.”

Cartwright opened his first Pizza Hut in Toledo in 1967 and another in 1968. A third Toledo unit was under construction, with two more planned for – not surprisingly – Lorain.

With all this franchise experience and success, it’s not surprising that Cartwright decided to start his own franchised restaurant system, called – what else? – Taco Boy! Cartwright’s Taco Boy mascot even looked vaguely similar to the Oklahoma-based company with the same name.

Anyway, by March 1969, Cartwright had three successful Taco Boy restaurants open in Toledo, with outlets under construction at Bowling Green, Ann Arbor and 44 franchises signed up. His stores must have looked very appealing to Pizza Hut, because by July 1969, Pizza Hut bought Taco Boy and all of Cartwright’s Pizza Huts for $1.2 million.

So Lorain's Taco Boy on West Erie was part of this first wave of franchising.

I’m guessing that once Pizza Hut bought the chain, the company determined that there were too many other restaurants around the country with the name Taco Boy. Pizza Hut probably also noticed that Taco Bell was using its own 'Taco Boy' mascot.

So Pizza Hut came up with the name Taco Kid – and that’s what the one on Oberlin Avenue was called, even though it was still listed in the Lorain city directory as Taco Boy.

Courtesy www.locallimetaco.com
(Click here for the link to this image)

I'm not sure how long Taco Kid lasted as a chain owned by Pizza Hut. (The Taco Kid trademark expired in 1992 according to one of those trademark websites.)

And what did Cartwright do shortly after he sold his Pizza Huts and Taco Boys? He started another restaurant chain: Olde English Fish ’n Chips!

So that’s why it makes sense that Lorain had a Taco Kid, a Pizza Hut and an Olde English Fish ’n Chips – all in a row on Oberlin Avenue.

Unfortunately, both of Lorain’s original taco restaurants disappeared from the city directories by the time of the 1971 edition. I guess they were just a little ahead of their time.

Lorain's Oberlin Avenue Quick Service Restaurants Today

That 1970 article about Lorain’s “quick service food” outlets (which I posted back here) revealed that the collection of franchised restaurants on Oberlin Avenue south of Tower Boulevard were all originally owned by Ken Cassell, who wisely grouped them together.

It was certainly a nice variety of culinary tastes all in one place for Lorain’s West Siders.

There was Pizza Hut, Taco Kid (which introduced Lorain to tacos years before Taco Bell), Fish and Chips and Lum’s. I definitely remember going to that Pizza Hut, and my family also went to Lum’s (which I wrote about back here) and was further south on Oberlin Avenue.

So what does that Oberlin Avenue “quick service food” restaurant strip look like today? Here’s my shot from last weekend.

The Pizza Hut (which closed in the mid-1990s) was most recently an internet cafe and today sits vacant.

The building that housed the taco restaurant) is now Exhale Hooka Lounge (below). 

What’s a hooka lounge? Click here if you’d like an explanation.

Of the four franchised restaurants, only the former Fish and Chips location is still serving up food as Diso’s Bistro (below).

Tomorrow, I’ll address the Great Taco Boy/Taco Kid Controversy. I’ll bet you didn’t even know there was one!

1964 Cedar Point Sky Ride 8mm Film Clip

A few weeks ago I posted two 1960s Cedar Point postcards (including the one at left) showing the totem pole that was near the Sky Ride depot located at the back of the park.

You can see that the totem pole would have been very close to the Sky Ride passengers on the trip heading back towards the front of the park

Well, here’s a wonderful clip on YouTube that is one of a trio of 1964 Cedar Point videos shot by the grandfather of the person who uploaded them. The great footage was shot by the gentleman from his Sky Ride car starting with its departure from the depot shown in the postcard. Consequently you can see the car just clearing the totem pole.

The rest of the Sky Ride journey is a fascinating aerial look at Cedar Point circa 1964.

Here is the link to the original YouTube posting, where you can read the description as written by the grandchild of the videographer, and access the link to the other two films. 

I’m sure the family is proud that their grandfather captured something on film that more than a half-century later brings back happy memories to Northeast Ohioans.