Oberlin Memorial Arch – Then & Now

Sometimes after work, I loiter in Oberlin a bit before heading home – perhaps to stop at the bakery or just sit on a bench and enjoy the ambience of the college. It's a beautiful campus and there are plenty of photo opportunities.

I've admired the Oberlin Memorial Arch on Tappan Square for many years (shown above on the vintage postcard) but didn't know what it was commemorating. According to the Oberlin College Archives website, "The Memorial Arch was erected as a memorial to the missionaries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions who lost their lives in the Boxer uprising in China in 1900. The cornerstone of the Arch was laid October 16, 1902, and it was dedicated May 14, 1903. The construction is of Indiana limestone. Two handsome bronze tablets perpetuate the names of the thirteen missionaries and of their five children who were massacred by the Boxers. 

"Oberlin was chosen as the proper place for this monument because all but four of those who suffered martyrdom were Oberlin students or members of the families of these students. The Memorial Arch is located on the west side of Tappan Square."

The Arch has been the subject of many postcards over the years, and thus provided me a good opportunity to create some Then & Now treatments. 

The Arch is beautiful from any angle. But it looks a little stark these days.

Like the Knights Who Say Ni, it is in need of shrubbery.

Hurricane Hazel Hits – October 15, 1954

The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season has been a busy one. 

Hurricane Helene has been in the news since making landfall on Sept. 26 at Category 4 strength, and devastating North Carolina with a tragic loss of life. Now Hurricane Milton is strengthening with 180-mph winds and heading towards Florida.

Seventy years ago, Hurricane Hazel came ashore near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, as seen in the front page of the Lorain Journal above from October 15, 1954. The report notes, "Hurricane Hazel, accompanied by torrents of rain, hit with a devastating punch that washed piers away at Myrtle Beach, popular coastal resort, and severed communications lines.

"New York and Boston were put on the alert."

The weather.gov website notes, "Hurricane Hazel was the deadliest and costliest hurricane of the 1954 hurricane season (Figure 1) and is the strongest and only Category 4 hurricane to ever hit the North Carolina coast.

"Hazel made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane near Calabash, North Carolina, close to the North Carolina/South Carolina state border, halfway between Myrtle Beach and Wilmington. The hurricane brought a storm surge of over 18 feet to a large area of the North Carolina coastline, producing severe coastal damage. 

"Intensifying the damage was the fact that the hurricane coincided with the highest lunar tide of the year. Brunswick County suffered the heaviest damage, where most coastal dwellings were either completely destroyed or severely damaged. 

"The official report from the Weather Bureau in Raleigh, North Carolina stated that as a result of Hazel, "all traces of civilization on the immediate waterfront between the state line and Cape Fear were practically annihilated." The December 1954 NOAA report on the hurricanes of the year states that "every pier in a distance of 170 miles of coastline was demolished".

"The damage from Hazel was not limited to the coast. With Hazel having a forward speed of as much as 55 mph at times, the Raleigh-Durham Airport reported sustained winds of 75 mph with gusts to 90 mph. With such high winds state-wide, heavy damage was caused to forests, and to property as a result of falling trees. In North Carolina, the most rain was received in the interior of the state: Robbins received 11.3 inches of rain, and Carthage received 9.7 inches.

"Nineteen people were killed in North Carolina, with several hundred more injured; 15,000 homes were destroyed and another 39,000 were damaged. Damages in the Carolinas amounted to $163 million. Beach property incurred $61 million of damage alone. Elsewhere in the eastern United States, damages were estimated at $145 million for a total of $308 million in losses from the hurricane."

I've never been to Florida or spent any time on the east coast or the Gulf, so hurricanes are pretty foreign to me. My older brother (who lives near Houston) has dealt with them and their challenging aftermath, with house repairs and insurance claims.

As for me, I think I'll stick with Ohio and its occasional blizzards.

Fire Prevention Week Ad – October 1954

Did you know it's Fire Prevention Week 2024?

The annual public awareness campaign been observed during early October for decades, thanks to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). But how did the annual event get started, and why is it celebrated in October?

According to the NFPA website, "Since 1922, the NFPA has sponsored the public observance of Fire Prevention Week. In 1925, President Calvin Coolidge proclaimed Fire Prevention Week a national observance, making it the longest-running public health observance in our country. During Fire Prevention Week, children, adults, and teachers learn how to stay safe in case of a fire. Firefighters provide lifesaving public education in an effort to drastically decrease casualties caused by fires.

"Fire Prevention Week is observed each year during the week of October 9th in commemoration of the Great Chicago Fire, which began on October 8, 1871, and caused devastating damage. This horrific conflagration killed more than 250 people, left 100,000 homeless, destroyed more than 17,400 structures, and burned more than 2,000 acres of land."

And seventy years ago, this was the public service ad that appeared in the Journal on October 5, 1954 for the annual observance.

It's a nice, effective ad. 

What caught my attention is how the fireman is pointing to the reader (like Uncle Sam) and asking for help. It's the same basic gimmick I used to win the Lorain City Schools Fire Prevention Week poster contest (for my age group) in 1972. (I wrote about it back here.)

As usual it's interesting seeing who the ad sponsors were, 70 years ago. But it's all insurance companies, and sadly, I don't recognize a single one that's still around. 

Anyway, it's a good time to think about smoke alarms. That's the theme of Fire Prevention Week 2024: Smoke Alarms – make them work for you.

Here's the official 2024 NFPA video. Hey, good old Sparky the Fire Dog is in it!

Lorain Journal Front Page – October 4, 1954

 

Seventy years ago, this was the front page of the Lorain Journal on October 4, 1954.

There was a lot going on; some big local stories, as well as some tragic occurrences elsewhere.

Besides the fact that it was the eve of the christening of the George M. Humphrey (which I wrote about here), the big news was the purchase of some lakefront property by the village of Sheffield Lake.

As the story notes, "The village has purchased 409 feet of lake frontage for use as a public beach, recreation area and municipal buildings, Mayor Sidney Jordan announced today. The property cost the village $35,000.

"Added to 500 feet of adjacent property already owned by the village, the property, known as the Lewis estate, gives the village 909 feet of lake frontage.

"Mayor Jordan said the village has been trying for four years to purchase the property. The land is at the foot of Rt. 301."

(Back then, State Route 301 followed Lake Breeze Road, instead of Abbe Road as it does now.)

I wrote about the D. D. Lewis estate back on this two-part post, "Dr. B. W. Donaldson's Lake Breeze Memories, Part 1 and Part 2." D. D. Lewis was a Superintendent of the Johnson Steel Company. He purchased the old Lake Breeze House for use as a personal summer home and to entertain guests.

Elsewhere on the page, another major news item was the anticipated announcement of the construction of the Cedar Point Causeway across Sandusky Bay. It would become the preferred way for guests to access the popular amusement park. (I wrote about the Cedar Point Causeway, along with the Chausee, back on this post with a Part 1 and 2.)

I found the story about the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station dairy farm out by Castalia kind of interesting. Here's a photo of it on the page 2 continuation of the front page story.

I thought it would be cool to take a drive out that way and grab a 'now' photo of the barn. Its location on Wahl Road west of Castalia put it very near the community of Crystal Rock, which I had visited before. So I did a little 'drive by' research on Google Maps. Certainly a 200 x 60 barn would be easy to find in an aerial view.

Unfortunately, despite 'driving' back and forth on Wahl Road, I couldn't find it. I consulted Dennis Thompson's Vintage Aerial website but came up short there as well.

Finally, I found it on the Historic Aerials website. There it was in the 1957 aerial (below).

It was in the 1969 view as well.

You know what's coming, of course. By the early 2000s, it was gone – under water.

It's now part of the Willow Point Wildlife Area.

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Here's a 1972 aerial view of the farm, courtesy of the Vintage Aerial website.

Oberlin College's Hales Gymnasium – Then & Now

I've passed and admired Hales Gymnasium located on W. Lorain Street on the Oberlin College campus many times during my commute over the past few years. But I never knew anything about the building (including its name) until I saw the vintage postcard above.

Before I get into the history, here's the "now" view from yesterday afternoon.

Under construction, 1939

Hales Memorial Gymnasium was dedicated on June 12, 1939 shortly after commencement. The sum of $150,000 was given by George Willard Hales, a former member of the Oberlin College Class of 1900, towards the construction of the gymnasium, in honor of his mother, Lina R. Hales.

The Architecture of Oberlin College website notes, "It was the first modern gymnasium for women at Oberlin, succeeding several makeshift structures that served multiple purposes. 

"Women had been using Crane Pool, adjoining Hales Gym, since it opened in 1931. The 1939 gym was designed by Richard A. Kimball to complement the design of Crane Pool. 

"The Hales Gym Annex, designed by Oberlin graduate Herk Visnapu, opened in 1958. It served the Department of Zoology after the demolition of Wright Zoological Laboratory that year. The bowling lanes were installed in 1963, replacing those in Wilder Hall. The Kettering Hall of Science, opened in 1971, absorbed science uses out of Hales. With the opening of Philips Gymnasium in 1971 and coeducation arrived in physical education, the bulk of the women's program migrated to the new facility. 

"Today Hales Gymnasium offers recreational and physical education opportunities to both men and women. It features a gym with one basketball court used for a variety of group sports and exercise classes. The facility also has classrooms, offices, locker rooms, and showers. The gym's multiuse wood floor accommodates recreational play in basketball, volleyball, badminton, and indoor baseball as well as physical education, yoga, and fitness classes. 

"Hales Annex now houses the Cat in the Cream Coffeehouse that offers space for solo and small ensemble jazz performances that draw appreciative audiences."

Here's another vintage postcard. It's postmarked 1944.

To read an interesting article on the Oberlin Review website by Kayla Kim, managing editor, entitled, "Remembering Hales Gymnasium: The Glory Days," click here.

Oldsmobile for '64 Ad – Oct. 3, 1963

I've mentioned many times that we were an Oldsmobile family beginning around 1963 or '64. Thus, this ad, which ran in the Journal on October 3, 1963 may very well have influenced my parents. 

The ad features the Olds F-85 on the bottom half of the ad, and that's the model that launched our love affair with the brand. I'm pretty sure ours was a 1964 model year F-85, and it looked pretty much like this (below) if I remember correctly. It was a beige color.

And here's another one.

And here's an ad that I posted previously with an illustration that really resembles our car, since that's the color it was.

I still like the way that car looks. It's not too surprising that my parents eventually settled on the Cutlass as their car of choice, as the Cutlass was part of the F-85 series in the early 1960s. 

Our F-85 became Dad's work car when they purchased a second Olds (a Delmont 88) to pull a pop-up camper on our cross-country trips. (Mom and Dad sold the Delmont to my aunt and uncle in Elyria when it was necessary to buy a car with air-conditioning to cross the desert on an upcoming Western trip. They settled on a Delta 88.)

While my parents bought their first Olds at Kaminski Olds, they eventually bought all their cars – old and used – at Milad's in Amherst on Leavitt Road (Route 58).

That's why I was happy to find this reminder of our Olds heritage (below) in Mom's attic when I was cleaning out her house in preparation for putting it on the market.

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I've devoted a few blog posts to my family's Olds fixation, including this one focusing on the Cutlass, and this post putting the spotlight on Kaminski Olds and another F-85 ad.

Lorain Journal Promotes "Gilligan's Island" – Sept. 1964

It’s a question that men have been struggling to answer for generations – a debate that has raged on since 1964. 

When discussed openly, it’s sometimes pitted father against son, and poisoned formerly cordial relationships among co-workers and neighbors.

But when pondered privately, a man must look deep into his soul and be honest with himself – even if he might be surprised by his own answer.

And that question is: Ginger or Mary Ann?

Yup, which comely castaway on perennial TV rerun Gilligan’s Island did you fall for like a coconut dropping on Gilligan's noggin? Were you a sucker for the highly seductive charms of sexy, slinky Ginger, who very likely was no stranger to the Hollywood casting couch? Or were you more comfortable with the irresistibly cute, wholesome, Mary Ann in her short shorts and certain way with a coconut cream pie?

This debate all began exactly sixty years ago, when Gilligan’s Island made its TV debut on September 26, 1964. In the weeks before that, the Lorain Journal did its best to help promote the show. And it did it by printing – what else? – photos of Ginger (Tina Louise) and Mary Ann (Dawn Wells).

Mary Ann struck first with a photo on the TV page of September 9, 1964.

It's interesting that Dawn Wells was a former Miss Nevada in the Miss America pageant.

But this photo of Tina Louise, shown cavorting with the U.S. Olympic basketball team, neatly capsulates the point of view held by those who wouldn't mind being marooned with Ginger rather than Mary Ann. It ran in the paper on Sept. 24, 1964.

Anyway, in our house we watched Gilligan's Island both first-run and in reruns. I was a loyal fan of the show, reduced to watching it during its last season on a small black and white TV while my siblings watched The Monkees at the same time on the large color TV in the kitchen.

We must have missed the first season of Gilligan's Island, because the black and white reruns that showed up on Channel 43 when it first signed on were new to us. It always annoyed my mother that we enjoyed it, and I vividly remember her kicking us out of the house one time to go outside and play when we were watching it.

What's funny to me now is that while watching a lot of GRIT-TV, I see the Skipper (Alan Hale, Jr.) and the Professor (Russell Johnson) in lots of old Westerns. Russell Johnson plays a particularly rotten weasel in the great Ride Clear of Diablo (1954) with Audie Murphy. 

And speaking of 1960s TV regulars playing Western scumbags, DeForrest Kelley was the king, before becoming Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy on Star Trek. And he, too, tormented Audie Murphy, in Gunfight at Comanche Creek (1963).

This insightful tome was on the Brady bookshelf for years

Be with us next time when we debate the rocky choice of Wilma vs Betty (although they giggled the same and could both be shrews to their hard-working husbands), followed by Archie Andrews' conundrum of Betty vs Veronica (who were both drawn exactly the same except for hair style and color).

Just kidding.