Oberlin Avenue Putt-R-Golf and other 1960's businesses

I was recently reminiscing about Lorain of the 1960's with a librarian at the Lorain Public Library main branch, and she happened to mention, "Remember when there was a miniature golf course on Oberlin Avenue?"

As soon as she said it, I remembered it. I vaguely remember playing there at least once as a kid, although none of my siblings or I were ever very good at miniature golf. It was fairly routine for our balls to go rolling into the parking lot and beyond. (That's probably why no one in our family is an avid golfer today, although I tried it for a few years.)

I did a little research and found the miniature golf center in an old city directory. Beginning in 1966, Putt-R-Golf was located at 4354 Oberlin Avenue. In 1968 the address changed to 4290 Oberlin Avenue. By 1969 it was gone, replaced by a Taco Kid restaurant.

From what I can tell, Putt-R-Golf was a chain similar to the more well-known Putt-Putt Golf. A quick internet search seems to indicate that there are still a lot of miniature golf centers that use one or the other of these names.

Looking in the city directory listings for that stretch of Oberlin Avenue brought back memories of other businesses that used to be there in the 1960's. 

There was Esco (or Economy Sales, if you prefer) at 4630 Oberlin Avenue, where my family bought an awful lot of gifts and presents through the years. The gimmick was that the whole place was a showroom. After you found what you wanted to purchase either in the showroom or the catalog, you filled out a small order form with the item's number and handed it to an employee. A few minutes later, your item would appear like magic on a conveyor belt from the warehouse in back.

Esco was a great place because it was minutes from our home and really simplified shopping. Today the old Esco building is home to the Lorain County Board of Mental Retardation & Developmental Disabilities.

Open Pantry Food Mart was another business listed in that area, at 4450 Oberlin Avenue. It had a little different feel than a Lawson store. More seedy, perhaps? (If you want to read more about Open Pantry, here's a link to another blogger's post about the long-gone chain.)

I can see that I'm going to have to research businesses along this stretch in the near future and take some pictures. I haven't even mentioned Lum's yet! Mmmm... I can just taste that hot dog steamed in beer right now!

The Coliseum Part 4

After the Coliseum burned down, the site remained vacant for a few years. Around the mid-1950's, a Howard Johnson's was built on the front of the lot, claiming the 2812 West Erie Avenue address (formerly assigned to a two-family apartment adjacent to the Coliseum). Around 1960 or so, the Beachcomber Motor Lodge was built behind it at the Coliseum's old 2800 West Erie Avenue address.

With the Coliseum gone, it was up to someone else to carry on the skating rink legacy on the west side of Lorain. A little further west of where the Coliseum was located and on the other side of the road, the Lorain Arena opened on April 2, 1955 at 3709 West Erie Ave. It closed around September 1972. A few other businesses then occupied the building, including Motor Homes Inc. and Penton Imports Motorcycles. Most recently, the building was the Kerr Beverage complex (now closed). Click here to see its link on the Coldwell Banker Hunter Realty website.  

And what about the businesses that succeeded the Coliseum? Today Howard Johnson's is now the popular Chris' Restaurant. And the Beachcomber Motor Lodge is now the Erieview Motel.  (See photo at top, looking north at the property and at left, approaching the property on Route 6 from the east.)

Further west on West Erie Avenue, Skate World Roller Skating Center at 4952 West Erie Avenue  continues the tradition of west side skating. It's located on the site of the former Benny's Motel and has been there since about 1975.

The Coliseum Part 3

On the morning of May 5, 1952 the Coliseum burned down. Here is how the Lorain Journal reported it that same day, with a front page article running under the above photo (click on it for a closer look.)

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Early Morning Fire Destroys Coliseum

A twisted, black skeleton within crumbling walls was all that remained today of the Lorain Coliseum after a fire that started about 3 a.m. and was still flickering at 10 a.m.

The big roller rink and dance spot, largest in this area, was declared a total loss by Black River Township Fire Chief Walter Wilker and owner Mrs. Ruth Stevens, Sheffield Lake.

"It was worth $125,000, but would have cost a lot more to replace." Mrs. Stevens said. The building was partially insured, she reported.

Origin of the fire has not been determined, according to Chief Wilker.

Started in Office

"It started in the back end of the office part around the stove," he said.

Forty volunteer firemen with three pumpers, one each from the Amherst, Sheffield Township and Black River departments, fought the blaze.

Lorain firemen did not assist them. The Coliseum is just west of Lorain on Route 6 about 300 yards beyond the city limits.

"We would have gone if they'd asked for help," commented Safety Director James Ryan.

Wilker said that "any more trucks would have been in the way." Only two fire hydrants were within usable range of the building.

First alarm was believed telephoned by Mrs. Lorenza Payne, 2812 West Lake Road, occupant of a half-brick two-family apartment adjacent to the rear of the dance hall. She called about 3:38 a.m. after a Mrs. Walters, resident of the downstairs apartment, rang her doorbell to tell her of the blaze.

Flames 40-Feet High

"Flames were shooting 40 feet into the air when we got there," Wilker related. "Then something went off and an orange ball of fire went along the roof and the whole roof was going in a minute and a half."

Wilker said his men had the fire under control by about 6 a.m. At 10 a.m. hoses were still being played on the smoking ruins. In places flames still licked over charred timbers under what was once the dance floor.

The building resembled a collapsed dirigible after the rounded roof collapsed, exposing tangled steel girders.

Lorain Fire Chief Elmer Stough, who arrived at the blaze early, praised the work of the volunteers in throwing up a water curtain to protected three houses next to the burning building.

Two of the houses, owned by Mateo Mannarilli, 1309 10th Street, were scorched and had windows broken by the intense heat. Mrs. Payne and Mrs. Walters occupied one home, Mr. and Mrs. Steve Andrews the other.

Built in the mid-twenties  by the Lorain Moose Club, the structure was known as the Moose Coliseum. Mrs. Stevens is the first private owner.

The Coliseum Part 2

Here's an ad for the Coliseum that ran in the 1951 Lorain phone book. The same ad ran for several years, with the only difference being that this ad listed the address as 2800 W. Erie Avenue instead of Stop 104.

If you compare it to the early photo in my previous blog, you can see a few structural modifications to the front of the building since the early days.

I asked my mom what she remembered about the Coliseum. She remarked that she remembers seeing Chief Don Eagle wrestle there. And for those of you (like me) who don't know who Chief Don Eagle was, click here to visit a fellow blogger who is an expert on the subject!

The Coliseum Part 1

In a blog entry that I did a few weeks ago about the 1945 Lorain County Victory Day Celebration (back here), an ad for a luncheon event listed the Coliseum as the location. This prompted one of my regular readers (who coincidentally happens to be my brother) to ask where the Coliseum was located. I knew the Coliseum was out on West Erie Avenue (US Route 6) somewhere but I wasn't exactly sure at the time. Well, I did a little digging in the city directories and found out that it was just a little bit west of the Castle. But I'll get into the actual location and what is located at the site today a little bit later in this series.

The Coliseum is a place that my parents had mentioned over the years, but all I knew about it was that it was a popular skating rink and that it had burned down. (Also, it was the place where my aunt had first met my uncle.)

According to the Lorain Images of America book, the Coliseum was built by the Lorain Moose Lodge back in 1926 at a cost of $115,000.

Here's a photo of the inside, courtesy of the same Images of America book.

All the Dairy Best to Sheffield Lake

Although I've lived in Sheffield Lake for ten years, I haven't given it too much attention on this blog. As a result, when I do stumble upon something with a Sheffield Lake connection that's even mildly interesting, I try to get it onto this blog ASAP to ease my guilty conscience.

Here's something that fits into that category. It's a 1959 newspaper ad for a Dairymens facility in Sheffield Lake. (Click on it for a larger view.) It appeared in a Lorain anniversary edition of the Journal, so consequently the focus of the ad is that Lorain is growing so rapidly that Dairymens added a Lorain County delivery station.

It's interesting that a Cleveland dairy would make such inroads into Lorain County, since there were already so many dairies out here at that time, such as Home Dairy, the Lorain Creamery and Clovervale Creamery. I guess since home delivery was still big at that time, there was room for everybody. Now, more than fifty years later, all of the local dairies are gone, and only Dairymens in Cleveland is still around. Here's a link to the Dairymens website (although it doesn't seem to work very well.)

I drove up Abbe Road in Sheffield Lake in a futile attempt to see if the building pictured in the photo was still there. According to the address listed in the city directory at the time, the facility was located near or just south of where the railroad tracks cross Abbe Road. Today of course there is a huge overpass at that location, so apparently the building is long gone.

Oberlin Avenue City Directory Listings 1952

Here's a snippet from the 1952 Lorain City Directory, listing all of the Oberlin Avenue addresses south of W. 29th Street. As you can see, it's a pretty short list, and all of the addresses are on the west side of the street.

By 1952 the Airport Tavern had been around for about ten years, and there were finally some other addresses listed between it and the Oberlin Avenue farmhouse (that I blogged about here.)

Several of the private residences listed were built in 1950, according to the Lorain County Auditor website. Curiously, the 3644 address is shown to have built in 1930.

Of the most interest to me is the driving range on the east side of Oberlin Avenue, roughly across from where Lorain National is now. It's strange to imagine one in that location.

In 1952, there still was no Lorain Shopping Center, no Willow Hardware, etc. And (gulp!) no Yala's Pizza – it was still two years away!

Speaking of Yala's Pizza (as I usually am), be sure to visit their new website, www.yalaspizza.com. The website has a nice little history of the pizzeria in the 'About Us' page.