City Hall Place

Last week’s post about buildings being demolished to make room for the new Lorain City Hall prompted longtime contributor Todd to wonder whether Lorain Hobby Center had survived the clearing of the land.

Early 1960s Lorain Phone Book ad

It was a good question, and to give Todd a definitive answer, I reviewed old city directories at the Lorain Public Library. In the process, I learned about City Hall Place, a very old Lorain street that today is pretty much a shadow of its former self. 

Although it now serves only as an entrance to the City Hall parking lot, at one time it was a street like any other in Lorain, with houses on both sides of it. 

Of course, for City Hall Place to get its name, Lorain City Hall had to be located nearby. That didn’t happen until the city purchased the old mansion built by William Jones in 1870 (and later purchased and lived in by shipbuilder John Stang until his death) for use as City Hall in 1903. 

But the name ‘City Hall Place’ didn’t show up in the 1905 city directory. 

Perhaps the name had to wait until Lorain's 1908 street renaming plan. It noted that, “Short and blind streets running north and south” were to be named ‘Places.' So it’s possible that City Hall Place didn’t get its name until the new system was in, er, place.

At any rate, by the time of the 1912 directory, the name was in use, with both even and odd numbered addresses. Most of these would remain in the listings right up until the old City Hall was demolished in 1974, since they were located on the portion of the street behind the old Central police station.

The 1919 listings include several of the same resident names, but with comically different spellings.

And by the time of the 1929 edition, there was even a commercial business listed: Lorain Dry Cleaning.

By the 1945 edition, Alf Nickley and his wife Esther were living at 219 City Hall Place (the future address of Lorain Hobby Center). Mr. Nickley was a Lorain city fireman at that point.

The 1960 directory included the first appearance of Lorain Model Center. The listings by name in another section of the directory indicated that it was run by Esther Nickley. Alf Nickely was listed as Chief City Fire Department. Note that at the north end of City Hall Place, an auto parts store was located at 144.

By the time of the 1968 directory, the 144 address was now the home of Duke’s Auto Body Shop, operated by Kenneth R. Futrall.

Here’s a 1969 aerial view, courtesy of HistoricAerials.com.

But as noted before, the old Lorain City Hall and Central Police Station were demolished beginning in late March 1974. At the time that the information for the 1975 city directory was assembled, only Duke’s Auto Body at the north end of the street, and Lorain Hobby Center at the south end, were still active listings.

By the time of the 1978 directory, only Duke’s Auto Body at 144 City Hall Place remained in the listings. And by the 1980 directory, Genie Sales made its appearance at that address.

Genie Sales would eventually become Nolan Garage Doors by the time of the 2000 directory. The lonely little building at the north end of City Hall Place was familiar to anyone who needed their garage door repaired.

But today, the building is gone, and with it, the final semblance of a city street with buildings and residents.

Thus City Hall Place is now just a memory, a road to nowhere.

On Area Movie Screens – January 2, 1961

So what was playing on area movie screens, sixty years ago this week?

A glance at the theater listings in the January 2, 1961 Lorain Journal shows that although westerns were beginning to fade in popularity (possibly because of the glut of them on TV), there were still some good ones being made for the big screen.

The Magnificent Seven (1960), one of the greatest westerns of all time, was playing at Amherst Theater.

I still find it unbelievable that anyone believes the 2016 remake (with its largely no-name but more diverse cast) was superior to the original, which starred Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach, Steve McQueen, James Coburn, Charles Bronson, and Robert Vaughn. The actors playing the seven guns-for-hire in the original version did such a great job of creating full-fledged characterizations that it's impossible for the viewer not to feel bad as they are picked off one by one during the climatic battle.

The number 7 also figures strongly in the other great western on the Journal movie page. That’s because ‘Seven' is the name of the character that decorated WWII war hero Audie Murphy plays in Seven Ways From Sundown (1960) which was showing at the Tower Drive-in. 

In this one, Audie plays a very green, young Texas Ranger trying to bring in the most likable, slickest bad guy of all time, played by Barry Sullivan. It’s another Western with a final showdown that chokes you up a bit. (This movie shows up on GRIT TV regularly, so if you’ve never seen it, be sure to catch it.)

The second feature at the Tower Drive-in starred Gina Lollobrigida in Where the Hot Wind Blows. (Flintstones fans remember that she was spoofed on the prehistoric cartoon comedy as an Italian maid named Lolobrickida.)

Elsewhere in the area, Desire in the Dust (no, it wasn’t a Western) was playing at the Dreamland; Butterfield 8 with Elizabeth Taylor was at Avon Lake Theater; the Academy Award-winning Ben Hur was at the Ohio; ol’ ski-nose himself Bob Hope was starring in The Facts of Life at the Palace; and Esther and the King with Joan Collins was at the Tivoli. 

Yup, you know the 1960s were well underway, as there were no more Bowery Boys films in the Lorain movie screen listings.

View of Lorain’s New City Hall Site – Jan. 1971

The year 1971 was a big one for the City of Lorain. 

The long-awaited new city hall was going to finally become a reality. As a result, that meant that many of the Downtown area’s oldest buildings would have to go – taking with them the heritage of that area that gave it a unique personality.

The photo above, which appeared in the Journal on January 7, 1971, provides a nice “before” aerial view of the new city hall location. Demolition was just getting underway, with the comfort station coming down a week earlier, and the Herbert Hotel (whose rubble is shown in the photo) at 280 Broadway as the latest target of the excavator. 

(Click here to read about some of the restaurants that were in the same building as the Herbert Hotel over the years.)

Here’s a pre-demolition, late 60s street-view photo (courtesy of the Lorain Historical Society) of the area that was being cleared.

And here’s a “now” view, courtesy of Google Maps.

It sure would be nice if the present Lorain City Hall eventually has its own appointment with Mr. Buchs – and that all-important corner becomes the home of tax-paying restaurants, lodging and transportation companies again.

First Lorain County Baby of 1971

When it came time to feature a New Year baby on its front page of early January 1971, the Journal must have taken into consideration that its ‘Golden Crecent' readership area extended beyond Lorain County.

Thus it highlighted the first baby of the New Year born in Lorain, Erie and Huron counties on page one of its January 2, 1971 edition.

The honor went to the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Holzmiller of Norwalk, who was born in Amherst Hospital at 1:06 am on New Year’s Day. A roll call of other area hospitals was included in the article, with St. Joe’s bringing up the rear with a baby girl born to a Strongsville couple at 2:48 p.m.

But what about the First Lorain Baby born at St. Joseph Hospital in 1971?

Ah, I guess we’ll never know who it was. The annual ‘First Baby’ winner page featured the first Lorain County baby, namely Darren Wayne, son of Mr. and Mrs. William Weber of Avon Lake.

Darren and his parents still received some nice prizes, but as you can see, the pickins’ got slimmer each year.

If I do this blog long enough, we’ll probably discover that the prize for some poor mid-1980’s First bébé was a free Whopper Junior and fries.

First Lorain Baby of 1961

So who was the First Lorain Baby in 1961 – 60 years ago?

The article above, which appeared on the front page of the Lorain Journal on January 2, 1961 didn’t say. It did feature a photo of the first baby born at St. Joseph Hospital in the New Year – Jeffery Rich, son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Rich. But they lived in Amherst.

There was also a photo of the last baby born at St. Joe’s in 1960 – James Owen Coppinger, son of Mr. and Mrs. James Coppinger of Avon Lake.

Thus the First Lorain Baby in 1961 wouldn’t be revealed until a few days later, when the full-page ad below appeared. Theresa Marie McDermott, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John C. McDermott had the honor.

I like the ad for the Citizens Home and Savings Association, with the ‘winning’ baby happily exclaiming, “Hey! I’m Worth A Dollar Per Pound!” while another baby observes, “I was too late.” 

Anyway, Theresa and her parents received some nice goodies, including walking shoes from McKee’s; a West Bend 8-bottle sterilizer from Kline’s; a portrait from Michael’s Studio; a camera from Firestone; and a new telephone from the Lorain Telephone Company. (What, no new hat for the father?)

In case you’re wondering (like me) what the West End bottle sterilizer looked like, here’s a picture of one. It’s basically a pot.

Anyway, perhaps one of these years this charming New Year’s tradition of celebrating Lorain's first baby will be revived by the Morning Journal and Mercy Health, with the generous cooperation of some local businesses.

First Lorain Baby of 1951

There’s a lot of bad news crammed onto the front page of the January 1, 1951 Lorain Journal. 

But amidst all of the reported tragedy and crime is the happy article about Lorain’s first baby of 1951: a boy born to Mr. and Mrs. Pabon Julio Rentos of 3325 W. 12th Street in Lorain.

As the article notes, "Thanks to Lorain merchants, the Rentos baby’s every need will be satisfied.

“All the things that are necessary to keep him comfortable, well-fed and happy will be at his disposal, provided by 19 Lorain merchants. His mother and father will also be feted in a manner befitting the parents of the year’s first baby.”

Elyria’s first baby born at Elyria Memorial hospital was a daughter born to Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Rafter of Grafton.

Elsewhere on the front page are a lot of interesting little items.

Julius Spang, founder of the J. Spang Baking Company had just passed away the day before at the age of 97; four Birmingham High School students had skated on the frozen Vermilion River from Birmingham to Vermilion, a distance of about seven miles; Bushman, world famous gorilla, was found dead in his cage at the zoo in Chicago; and Ohio’s deer hunting season was opening the next day, with ‘nimrods’ permitted to ‘stalk the deer trails in 19 of the 88 counties in the state until the season closes Jan. 5.”

Gee, I heard Bugs Bunny refer to Yosemite Sam as a nimrod in a cartoon – Rabbit Every Monday (1951) – and never knew that it meant ‘hunter.’ It’s right at the 1:49 mark in this clip.

Anyway, thanks to Bugs Bunny’s use of the word in various cartoons, Merriam-Webster says that the meaning of ‘nimrod' has evolved to include ‘jerk’ or ‘idiot.’

Happy New Year!

Vintage postcard

Here’s wishing all of you a safe and Happy New Year!

As I always do, I’d like to wish my older brother Ken – Lorain’s First Baby of 1958 – a Happy Birthday! That’s him below, circa 1959. The cowboy hat is appropriate, since he’s been a Texan for some time now. (I wrote about Ken’s celebrity days here, here and here.

I’ll be doing my usual posts about other celebrity First Babies of Lorain very soon.

But in the meantime, here are some wacky vintage New Year’s postcards. 

This monacled snowman just might be Mr. Peanut on ice

Nothing says Happy New Year like frolicking, bearded gnomes

This might be the most politically incorrect rendering
of Baby New Year ever created

According to the blogger.com statistics page for Brady’s Bunch of Lorain County Nostalgia, Russia is the number two location when it comes to the number of readers. So here’s a 1959 Russian postcard with a Happy New Year theme for those special comrades.

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Thinking of making a few New Year’s resolutions? Hope you have better luck than those mischief-making magpies Heckle and Jeckle did in Sappy New Year (1961) from late in their movie career.