Cleveland Indians Home Openers – 1947 & 1957

Well, today is the Indians’ Home Opener – so I thought I’d better prepare something appropriate.

At the top you see my genuine Twins Enterprise, Inc. Collectible MLB Bobbing Head Chief Wahoo Doll fron the 1990s. It was inexpensive, and not a bad facsimile of the type of bobble heads that my brothers and I used to ogle down at the old Municipal Stadium souvenir stands in the 1960s. Those same original nodders now run about 300 clams on Ebay (that’s a lot of wampum), so this one will have to do for now.

Anyway, I went back to see how the Indians did on two other Home Openers – 70 years ago and 60 years ago.

In 1947 the Indians were still a year away from the season which ended with them winning the World Series. Bob Feller took the mound against the Chicago White Sox on April 15, 1947. Unfortunately, he was “trumped” (very appropriate now) 2-0 in front of a record crowd of 55,014 fans.

Here’s the story from the April 16, 1947 Lorain Journal.

In the 1957 Home Opener, the Indians played – who else? – the Chicago White Sox. On April 16, 1957, the day of the game, the Lorain Journal ran this article featuring great illustrations of Cleveland Manager Kerby Farrell and Chicago White Sox Manager Al Lopez.

Unfortunately, the Tribe lost this one as well, 3-2. Herb Score pitched all 11 innings of this three hour and 28 minute game.

Let’s hope the Indians make out better against the Chicago White Sox today.

Penfield Avenue Looking North – Then & Now

Vintage postcard postmarked January 19, 1910

Although the look of Downtown Lorain was altered forever by the 1924 tornado, the buildings of the Central Lorain business district have remained largely intact for more than a hundred years.

A good example is this vintage postcard (postmarked 1910) of "Penfield Avenue Looking North" that was recently on Ebay, and ripe for the “Then & Now” treatment.

Some of the signs in the photo are legible. I was able to find a few of them in the closest available city directory, although in the 1912 edition the Penfield addresses have already been replaced with that of the new name – Broadway.

We see a sign for DOCTOR GRILLS on the far left side of the photo. Dr. A. T. Grills was a physician and surgeon with his office there at 1948 Broadway. There are also signs for a hotel and a dentist that I could not identify in any available directories.

Further down the street is a sign for FURNITURE & CARPETS that corresponds with Reichlin, Reidy & Scanlan, whose address was 1930-1934 Broadway in 1912.

Today it appears that many of the original buildings from the vintage postcard are still there, though greatly modified through the years.

UPDATE (April 11, 2017)

I finally noticed that the sign advertising the hotel in the vintage postcard is actually on a pole – not attached to the building as I originally thought. Consequently, I believe the sign is pointing down W. 20th Street towards Livingston Avenue where the Commonwealth Hotel was located at 1950 Livingston. 

Cincinnati Red Stockings Coverage in the Elyria Independent Democrat Newspaper – 1870

To end this week, here’s something of interest to you baseball fans courtesy of regular blog contributor Rick Kurish – although it’s really more for devotees of the Cincinnati Reds than our Cleveland Indians.

Rick enjoys researching, and contacted me a few weeks ago with some baseball lore that he dug up – namely some very early baseball coverage as reported by one of our local newspapers.

He wrote, "Since the opening day of the 2017 baseball season is rapidly approaching I thought I would share one of the earliest reportings of a baseball game that I have come across in the local newspapers. The attached article is taken from the Elyria Independent Democrat of June 29, 1870, and relates the local fervor over the result of a game played between the Cincinnati Red Stockings and the Philadelphia Athletics on June 22nd.

"As most baseball fans are aware, the Cincinnati Red Stockings were the first professional baseball team, going professional for the 1869 season. As a result, they went undefeated that year, finishing with a perfect 65-0 record.

"The next year they continued their dominance, stretching their consecutive win streak to 84 games. Finally on June 14, 1870 they were defeated by the Brooklyn Atlantics by the score of 8 to 7 in 11 innings at Capitoline Grounds in Brooklyn. The following week they were scheduled to play the Philadelphia Athletics, another baseball powerhouse, in Philadelphia.

"Since Philadelphia had recently defeated the Brooklyn Atlantics by the lopsided score of 19 to 3, they harbored the idea that perhaps they were the better team. The game played on June 22nd between Cincinnati and Philadelphia for baseball supremacy proved to be a slugfest that ended in a Cincinnati victory by the score of 27 to 25.

"The attached article details the importance of the game to excited local fans and affirmed Cincinnati's claim to be the best team in baseball.

"I have also attached a photo of the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings baseball team. The photo is from a web site devoted to the team and is in the public domain."

In closing, Rick expressed his hope for a good season for our favorite local team. "Lets hope the Cleveland Indians can run off several winning streaks this year,” he noted. "I would even settle for something less than 84 straight wins. Go Tribe!!!!”

Amen to that. Thanks for sharing, Rick! 

Thew Shovel Demolition

Undated aerial photo of Thew Shovel
(Courtesy Dennis Lamont)

Courtesy P. C. Campana

I guess I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the demolition of many of the original Thew Shovel buildings that’s been going on at the P. C. Campana complex on E. 28th Street since last year.

I happened to pass by it on the way home from Oakwood Park on Sunday and thought it was strange to not see the buildings that were so familiar to generations of Lorainites.

Thew Shovel is sometimes overlooked when it comes to celebrating Lorain’s glory years as an industrial powerhouse. Perhaps that’s because after a merger in 1964 the name was changed to the Thew – Lorain Division of Koehring Co.

Nevertheless, Thew Shovel was an important part of making the name ‘Lorain” known all over the world.

July 1949 newspaper ad

Anyway, I took a few photos from my car as I proceeded west on E. 28th Street. 

The intersection of Fulton and E. 28th Street

For great and poignant photos documenting the gradual demolition of the former Thew Shovel buildings, visit the always interesting Lorain365.com website.

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I did take a few photos on another Sunday morning back in 2013. I’m kind of glad I did.

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Speaking of the Thew Shovel buildings, it didn't take long for the company to expand its operations in Lorain in the early years. As this news item that appeared in the Norwalk Reflector of December 12, 1901 explains, a 100-foot extension to the shop on the west end was planned.

(Courtesy Drew Penfield)

Also, according to the May 26, 1913 edition of Industrial World, a 125 x 60 extension to the Thew Automatic Shovel works main building was being pushed to completion.

Oakwood Park – Part 2

It’s a good thing that Google Maps has an outdated view of Oakwood Park from July 2014 (above). At least we can see how Oakwood Park used to look before the park improvements began late last fall.

It’s pretty shocking if you compare the above photo to how it looks now with so many trees cut down.

Although the story had been in the news for months, I hadn’t had a good look at the park since last December. So I drove over there on Sunday to take a look as well as some photos. Of course, the leafless trees and soggy grounds made it look even more barren and depressing.

Looking east towards Grove Avenue (Route 57) from the center of the park

It seemed like a good idea to make $9 million worth of major improvements to the park, which had seen better days. To be fair, it was known all along that the first phase of the project would require the removal of existing trees. 

But somehow, seeing a bunch of park trees cut down has a way of making one feel empty and sad – especially with the long wait expected between the cutting down of the trees and the next phase of the improvement project. Thus the whole thing has been more or less put on hold for now, according to this story.

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I snapped this photo (below) of the park back on a Sunday in late December on the way home from Elyria. With the fresh stumps dotting the landscape, it looked as if Paul Bunyan and his Seven Axemen had laid waste to the place.

The view from Route 57

Here’s hoping that the community decides what it wants in a new, improved Oakwood Park and that the plan unfolds smoothly and quickly.

Oakwood Park – Part 1

Willis Leiter’s Real Photo Postcard of Oakwood Park

A  colorized, retouched version of Leiter’s composition

Oakwood Park had been in the news again last month (here), so it’s a good time for this post. It’s an article that ran in the Lorain Daily News back on August 31, 1939 that provides a nice capsule history of the park.

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OAK TREES NEAR SWAMP GAVE OAKWOOD PARK ITS NAME

The giant oaks that strive to reach the heights of the smoke stacks of the National Tube Co. in South Lorain are responsible for the name of Oakwood Park. The 70 acres of beautiful trees that form this park, drew their sustenance as saplings from swamp lands about them.

Johnson and Moxham, the two men most concerned with the establishment of the steel mills in Lorain, helped to dedicate this piece of land to the city of Lorain for a park in 1894 through the Sheffield Land Company.

Twenty years later, late in 1914 or early in 1915, Thomas A. Peebles, 1965 East 32nd st., then a member of city council, overheard a conversation that indicated there was a mortgage about to be foreclosed that would deprive Lorain of her gift park. His fellow councilmen called him “crazy”, he says today, when he told them what he had heard. The park had been given to the city. There couldn’t be a mortgage. But when C. E. VanDeusen, 1128 5th Street, then the city prosecutor, received a notice of the foreclosure from the Federal District Court, council took immediate action.

Money was transferred from the established park fund which had been raised from a previous bond issue and the blanket mortgage of some $15,000 was paid off. This released the park and gave the city the entire allotment east of what is now Grove ave. This action of the city fathers netted Lorain a pretty return on her investment when these lots were sold. A block of land off Palm Ave. was dedicated to the Board of Education, and the ownership of the park was legally settled.

The park had developed according to the amount of labor and money spent on it by the city through the service department through 1933 and the Park Commission since 1934.

In the early years one man was hired each summer to clear out the underbrush and to keep the outside edges mowed. Later the bandstand was built, some filling in was done, ball diamonds and tennis courts built, and picnic tables were set up.

The park commission with PWA and WPA assistance had hauled in 25,000 yards of dirt to fill in low spots; has built 12 miles of cinder roads; put in 2 1/4 miles of drains and sewers; laid 1 mile of side walk; rebuilt two tennis courts and made two new ones; constructed 4 additional softball diamonds and has made an ice pond and built a shelter house.

When the 36th st. water main was laid this past year, George Crehore, park superintendent, had the dirt hauled in on the back of the park to form a knoll which was to be shaped a bit, planted, and generally made to improve the landscape. However, a young publis approbation, the beauty spot is a grand toboggan.

At the present time a lagoon and island is being constructed by 42 NYA boys under Park Commission supervision in the north east corner of the park.

Appropriate planting and colored lights will add to the beauty of the park. The park has always been a place for huge outdoor mass meetings as well as organization picnic. Nationality groups, church groups and family groups use the park of for their larger outdoor gatherings when the weather permits.

The city-wide development of a recreation program for children and adults by the WPA Recreation workers has greatly increased the use of the park as a play spot.

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In tomorrow's Part 2 of this series, I point the spotty lens of my Canon Power Shot A480 at the park (or at least what’s left of it) today.

Lorain Goes Krogering – April 3, 1936

Although there aren’t any Kroger stores in Northeast Ohio any more, the supermarket chain made its first appearance in Lorain in April 1936. The Lorain Journal and Times-Herald devoted a whole section of the newspaper to it on Friday, April 3, 1936 – 81 years ago today. The first page is shown above. (Click on it for a readable version.)

There was quite a bit of hoopla connected with the store opening, including a parade.

Kroger joined a very crowded market of grocers in Lorain, including A&P, Fisher Brothers, Harry Fligner, Goldberg’s, Jacoby Brothers and William Jeancola.

The original Kroger store in Lorain was located at 348 Broadway. By 1940, two more area locations were added: 1815 Broadway in Lorain, and 154 Park Avenue in Amherst.

By 1950, only the 1815 Broadway address was still open in Lorain. Another store was added at 129 Fourth Street in the early 1950s.

Apparently in that era, the Kroger name could not compete in Lorain against the many strong local grocers; by the late 1950s, both of the stores had closed.

But Kroger did not give up on Lorain. A new Kroger “super store” was built in 1976 at Oberlin Avenue and Meister Road. A second Lorain “super store” went up at Route 57 and Fairless Drive (by the Kmart) the following year.

There were a total of six stores in Lorain County by the late 1970s. But after a strike, they all closed – alone with 17 other northeast Ohio stores – in mid-September 1985. Kroger blamed it on an “unsatisfactory rate of return plus excessive union demands,” according to an article in the September 14, 1985 Chronicle-Telegram.

Today, Kroger is the largest supermarket chain in the United States (according to this Wiki entry). But if you feel like Krogering, you’ll have to drive to Sandusky or Port Clinton for the closest stores.