Scott’s Scrapbook featuring the Old Man of the Mountains– October 18, 1949

Newspapers have been fighting for their survival for years due to declining subscriptions that coincided with the availability of “free” news on the internet. Consequently, newspapers look for ways to cut costs, such as reducing the number of comics or syndicated features they carry.

But in the heyday of newspapers, they tried to make themselves distinctive by offering things that their competitors did not. Some of those things were illustrated features like "Ripley’s Believe It or Not!” or the one above, “Scott’s Scrapbook,” which appeared in the Lorain Journal.

The example shown above is from October 18, 1949. R. J. Scott is the artist. The feature was made available to the Journal by Central Press (which I wrote about here), which was a division of King Features in Cleveland. (Click here for a nice tribute to R. J. Scott on the King Features website.)

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The main topic of this particular sample – the Old Man of the Mountain – is of interest to me. It was one of the things we saw during a 1966 family camping trip to New England.

What’s funny is that I remember having trouble seeing him from our distant roadside vantage point. He was just too far away.

Here's the photo my parents took. No zoom lens on that camera!

It wasn’t until my parents picked up this travel brochure a few years later that I could appreciate just how much the rock formation resembled a man’s profile.

It was a real tragedy when the Old Man of the Mountain collapsed in 2003. Happily, New Hampshire honors his memory with an innovative solution.

Arlington Traction Co. – Part 3

Norman C. Muller and his museum made the national news in the summer of 1956 when he attempted to acquire another high profile historical streetcar to go with No. 4144. The United Press story below ran in a variety of newspapers, including the Anniston Star in Anniston, Alabama (June 21, 1956), the Brazosport Facts in Freeport, Texas (July 3, 1956) and the Provo, Utah Daily Herald (July 8, 1956).

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Transit Museum Man Seeks Oldest Street Car
LORAIN, O. (UP) – Norman C. Muller, who runs a transportation museum here, is making a concerted effort to do right by old 0140, the oldest street car in the world. Muller said the ancient electrical vehicle, which the Cleveland Transit System gave to the Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich., two years ago, is “sitting out in the weather with no protection or without even a badly needed coat of paint.” He wants the Transit Board to get old 0140 back in Ohio. At the museum now is 4144, the last street car to run in Ohio, and Muller wants to give it company.

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0140
(Courtesy www.newdavesrailpix.com)

Muller was not successful in his attempt to acquire 0140 and today it is still part of the Henry Ford Museum.

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By the late 1950s, it appears that things were winding down at Norman C. Muller’s museum.

According to the 1957 Lorain City Directory, a church – First Assembly of God – had already taken up residence at 5459 Broadway. The church shared its pastor, Keith Smith, with Lorain Gospel Tabernacle on E. 31st Street in Lorain, which continued to appear for one more year in the directory. It seems that both congregations were then consolidated at the 5459 Broadway location as Broadway Assembly. 

In July 1958, Norman C. Muller listed his house at 223 E. Cooper Foster Park for sale or trade. An ad which ran in the July 11, 1958 Sandusky Register stated, “Would like to trade for small farm Norwalk or Berlin Twps.”

And what about No. 4144?

Courtesy of Dennis Lamont

Dennis Lamont saw it shortly before it was scrapped. Referring to the above photo, he explained that it represents the “last days of Norm’s trolley.”

“His coat of “green” Southwestern paint has worn down to the original Cleveland Transit System colors and the church bus is in the new driveway.

“This is about the time I saw it last. It was not in good condition but unfortunately absolutely nothing was salvaged when it was scrapped,” said Dennis.

The book Cleveland’s Transit Vehicles: Equipment and Technology by Jim Toman and Blaine S. Hayes indicates that No. 4144 was scrapped in 1962.

The Trolley Dodger website provides additional history about 4144, the man who designed it and the reason as to why it was not salvaged by Gerald E. Brookins, the man behind Trolleyville, U.S.A. You can read this interesting post here.

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Norman C. Muller and his wife eventually moved to Richland County. A 1968 article in the Mansfield News-Journal indicates that he had been keeping busy as the caretaker at “one of Ohio’s oldest and most attractive roadside parks” near Olivesburg. It seems like an appropriate position for someone who brought a lot of enjoyment to the children who enjoyed his miniature train.

Streetcar buffs certainly appreciate his efforts to salvage an important part of transportation history for others to enjoy.

He passed away on January 19, 2001.

The corner of South Broadway and Cooper Foster Park today

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UPDATE (November 10, 2016)

Be sure to follow this link to my new post about the Arlington Traction Company featuring fantastic photos of the kids riding the cars!

Arlington Traction Co. – Part 2

Before Norman C. Muller began operating his small park and miniature train near today’s intersection of South Broadway and Cooper Foster Park Road, he worked at various jobs.

According to Dr. Eddie Herdendorf of the Sheffield Village Historical Society, Muller was at one time a maintenance engineer for the Cleveland, Southwestern & Columbus Railway for one of the electric substations.

Muller also spent some time in the early 1940s working at the family business, Muller Wallpaper & Paint located at 1207 Reid in Lorain.

By 1945, he was an electrician at National Tube. At about the same time, he acquired the land on Cooper Foster Park Road. The real estate transfers in the Chronicle-Telegram of November 19, 1945 including the transfer of property on Cooper Foster Park Road in Sheffield Township to Norman C. Muller.

So how and when did he acquire his full-size streetcar?

Since the 1940s, the Cleveland Transit System (CTS) had undertaken a program to eventually replace all existing streetcar lines with buses or trackless trolleys. Thus on January 24, 1954 the last CTS streetcars ran on the Madison Avenue line from Public Square to W. 65th and Bridge. The event was celebrated with free rides and decorated cars.

Here’s No. 4144 in front of Terminal Tower, all decorated and ready to go on that historic last day.

Photo courtesy of Dennis Lamont

Here’s another photo of 4144 on the day of its last run.

Photo provided by Rick Kurish and courtesy of the
Cleveland Memory Project,  The Gerald E. Brookins Collection

By the end of May 1954, Cleveland was well into the process of scrapping its old streetcars.

The Massillon Evening Independent told the story in its May 28, 1954 edition. The Associated Press story read, “Workmen with cutting torches and shears dismembered Cleveland’s last trolley car yesterday at the Cleveland Transit System’s Harvard Ave. shops, graveyard of some 1,700 old streetcars.

"The last 26 of the rattlers were sold to the Cleveland Iron & Metal Co, for scrap. The metal firm sold one of the better cars to the Arlington Traction Company of Lorain, a transit museum.”

So Mr. Muller acquired the only Cleveland streetcar that wasn’t scrapped: No. 4144.

The book Cleveland’s Transit Vehicles: Equipment and Technology by Jim Toman and Blaine S. Hayes, includes a listing of what happened to all of the cars and when they were scrapped. The listing for 4144 includes that it "had flag-bunting for last day on Madison 1-24-54, sold to Norman Muller and moved to his residence in South Lorain, PTD (painted) green, had a whistle and pipe organ installed and fender from Southwestern interurban attached, had “Arlington Traction Co.” on side.”

It didn’t take very long for Mr. Muller to put his historic car on display.

A Mary Lee Tucker story in the Lorain Journal on May 28, 1954 told the story of a trip to "the playground out Foster Park Road" by the Elyria School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. The young students enjoyed a ride on the miniature train and the “highlight of the afternoon was the visit to the newly painted green street car, the newest possession of the playground.”

The article included the photo at right.

The streetcar was even used as a dining room for the students. As the Journal reporter noted, "Our host set a long board across the backs of several seats in the streetcar, covered it with a white cloth and spread all the edibles on it. Then the children filed past, picked up their trays and proceeded to individual seats to enjoy the warm snack.

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Tomorrow: End of the line

Arlington Traction Co. – Part 1

Early last year, a Season Ticket for the Arlington Traction Co. (shown above) turned up on Ebay. As indicated on the ticket, it was located at 223 Foster Park Road, just east of Broadway and operated by Norman C. Muller.

There’s a small illustration of a train on the ticket, which got me wondering. What was the Arlington Traction Company anyway?

As usual, local historian and archivist Dennis Lamont – one of the two gentlemen involved with the planned Lake Shore Electric Railway museum in Avon Lake – had the answer.

As Dennis explained in an email, Norman C. Muller was “the guy that had the little trolley and the Cleveland streetcar out where the church is at Cooper Foster and Middle Ridge."

"He had sort of a “park” railroad, 2 foot gauge with little dinky cars you could just ride on.”

The Toonerville Trolley was featured in the comic strip
Toonerville Folks by Fontaine Fox

Apparently the train ran in a loop around the property, powered by overhead lines, just like a real trolley. It was jokingly referred to by Dennis as “Norm’s Toonerville Trolley.”

But besides operating the miniature train, Norman Muller also maintained a trolley museum of sorts on his property.

“The guy was a real collector of trolley stuff,” noted Dennis.

He must have been if he  had an actual former Cleveland streetcar on the property along with the miniature train. As Dennis explained, “That was his one full-sized car and it didn’t move.”

Here’s a photo of it, courtesy of Dennis.

So how did Mr. Muller end with an actual streetcar as part of his park? “Toon" in tomorrow to learn more about the history of his car.

Midway Mall Traffic Jams – October 1966

Fifty years ago this month, traffic jams were an everyday occurrence near the recently-opened Midway Mall in Elyria, and a remedy was needed – and fast. Shoppers reported delays of 15 to 30 minutes at the intersection of State Route 57 and Griswold Road.

The temporary solution, as described in an article (at left) that ran in the Lorain Journal on October 6, 1966, was to adjust the traffic signals a bit.

But the permanent solution described in the article was to build a bridge over State Route 57. You know, the one that was torn down last year.

Here’s a last look at it on the Bing Maps website.

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Even though it’s been about a year since the 49th Street bridge was demolished, I’m still not used to it being gone.

And I’m not convinced that getting rid of the bridge (as well as those I-90/Route 57 ramps) was a good idea, either. I had to go out to the mall area last weekend, and it seems like there’s a traffic light every few hundred feet or so on Route 57. Of course, I was snagged by each one as I proceeded south.

The sad thing is that once I got to where I was going (PetSmart), I noticed that most of its neighboring stores in that particular shopping center had vamoosed.

Cleveland Barons vs Buffalo Bisons Ad – October 1949

Well, the National Hockey League opened its regular season yesterday, so it’s a good time to post this ad. It’s for the Cleveland Barons vs the Buffalo Bisons and ran in the Lorain Journal on October 28, 1949.

The Cleveland Barons were actually a minor league team in the American Hockey League from 1937 to 1973, but a wildly successful one at that. You can read all about the team's history here.

It’s not easy finding examples of this early Cleveland Baron mascot online.

Apparently he was popular enough to be manufactured as a 1959 bank (which you can purchase here).

And here he is on a pinback button.

I’ve noticed that the Richman Brothers clothing store seemed to be ground zero in Lorain when it came to purchasing tickets to professional sporting events. I’m not sure why. Here are a few other samples, one from the Browns (1946) and one from the Indians (1958).

Torn Between Two Townships – October 1949

Here’s another tale of a house from October 1949. But unlike the subject of my posts earlier this week, this Lorain house had no treasure hidden in its walls.

Instead, the focus of the offbeat story above is where those walls were located.

As explained in the above article, which appeared in the Lorain Journal on October 29, 1949, the house at 1801 E. Erie Avenue  straddled two different townships: Sheffield Township and Black River Township.

This made it difficult for Mrs. Luella H. Hoffer, the resident, because she had a decision to make: in which township should she vote? Apparently the answer depended upon which side of the house she slept in.

This map from the Lorain County Auditor’s website shows how the boundary line crossed the property.

And here’s a September 2013 Google view of the lakefront house, which faces Maine Avenue.

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As a side note, I came very close in the late 1990s to seeing a lot of this house every day. The spouse and I had put in a bid on the house directly across from it on E. Erie.

It’s just as well that the owner rejected our bid, though. The source of heat in the house we wanted was an ominous boiler in the basement that was more than 80 years old; I probably would never have been able to sleep knowing that ticking time bomb was below.