New use for the old Carnegie Library?

The former Lorain Public Library in Streator Park (shown at left in a vintage postcard) may have a new lease on life – literally.

Last month, the city of Lorain began exploring the possibility of selling off or leasing some city park land and buildings to non-city entities. And that includes the building at left, located at Streator Place and Long Avenue.

How the city hopes to do it legally was explained here.

I've mentioned this building in this blog before. I sketched it back in 1974 for my high school art class (which I told you about here.)

What I didn't tell you about – yet – was my detective work a few years ago in which I tried to determine where the long-gone fountain and the lagoon in Streator Park were located, so I could grab some then-and-now shots. And I'll do that next time.

Meyer Goldberg Ad Featuring Huckleberry Hound

Portion of a October 3, 1962 Meyer Goldberg ad from the Lorain Journal

I saw this great ad on microfilm the other day at the library, and had to post part of it here. It's from October of 1962, and combines a great Lorain memory – Meyer Goldberg super markets – and one of my favorite cartoon characters: Huckleberry Hound! (Give it a click for a closer look.)

Longtime Lorainites fondly remember grocery shopping at Meyer Goldberg's. In 1962, the chain was still in its infancy, consisting of only two stores – one on South Broadway and one at Oakwood Plaza. (I'll do a proper treatment of the store in a future blog series.)

But getting back to our old pal Huck. The cartoon hound was created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and was their first major TV star. The Huckleberry Hound Show debuted in 1958 and was sponsored by Kellogg's cereals. It was the first cartoon to win an Emmy award.

In 1962, Huck was still enormously popular with adults as well as kids. Consequently, Kellogg's used him and Yogi Bear in promotional campaigns that played out on the backs of Kelloggs cereal boxes, national magazine ads and super market newspaper ads, as shown here.

Note that the Meyer Goldberg ad also has a strange little SOS circle logo to the right of Huck. SOS stood for Sabin Oral Sunday and referred to a campaign at that time which encouraged people to get their three doses of the Sabin oral polio vaccine. You can read more about it here.

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Huck and Yogi were pretty big in our house while I was growing up – we watched the cartoons regularly (I still do, on DVD) – so I can't resist posting this photo.

It's probably the oldest of all my personal possessions: a Huckleberry Hound and Yogi Bear ramp walker made by Marx©. According to this ramp walker website, it dates from 1962 – same as the above ad.

I've had this toy all my life and looking at it brings back a flood of happy childhood memories.

I'll wrap up this post with a look at the closing credits of the original Huckleberry Hound Show, where Huck and Cornelius the Rooster pick up all of the Kellogg's cereal characters (Snap, Crackle & Pop, Tony the Tiger, Tony Junior, Smaxey the Seal, and Sugar Pops Pete) in their jalopy.

Name that Drive-in

Here's a small, sad building that has intrigued me for several years. It sits at 2309 W. 21st Street, on the south side of the street between Oberlin Avenue and Leavitt Road.

Through the years, I never really used that stretch of W. 21st Street very often (except to go to Chicken 'n Ribs Galore a few times), and thus missed seeing the evolution of the commercial strip on the south side of the road. So I have no memory of this place whatsoever.

It turns out that it spent most of its business life as Dick's Drive-in, run by Richard Rissman. The business first appeared in the City Directory in 1958. Amazingly, it lasted until the end of the 1970's.

In the early 1980's it was vacant a few years, until it became TJ Groceries & Carry Out around 1982. When that business didn't last, the building enjoyed a renaissance – as a rib joint.

In 1983, it was the home of the International Barbeque King. In 1984 it was G-Que Ribs. It was vacant again around 1986, before becoming the Rib House in 1987. After another vacancy, it continued on in 1991 as David Lee's Bar-B-Que.

Unfortunately, by 1993 it was vacant again, and I was unable to find any more listings for that address in the available directories at the library. In fact, the address wasn't even listed anymore after 1999.

Hopefully someone will read this and post some good memories of this place.

Wrestling at the Lorain Arena

On March 5, 1960 (51 years ago tomorrow) this Lorain Arena ad appeared in the Lorain Journal. (Give it a click so you can read it!)

As Bill Latrany (listing agent for the building, currently for sale) can tell you, the Lorain Arena wasn't just for roller skating. Many different types of events were held there, including concerts and wrestling matches as seen here.

In this case, the main event of the evening was Fritz & Waldo Von Erich versus the Gallagher Brothers. This wiki entry reveals that (gasp) Waldo Von Erich was only the stage name of Canadian wrestler Walter Sieber. He is not really related to his wrestling 'brother' Fritz.

As for the opening match that night, here's a link for information about Baron Gattoni on the www.onlineworldofwrestling.com site. His opponent that night, Tony Marino, has a page as well, if you click here.

That's what's so great about the internet, you can find out something about just about anything!

Maybe fans of these particular wrestlers will find this post someday and get a kick out of it.

March 1962 Shoreway Shopping Center Ad

Seeing how it is now March, it's appropriate for me to post this cute ad for the Shoreway Shopping Center in my town, Sheffield Lake. It ran in the Lorain Journal on March 1, 1962 – forty-nine years ago.

I don't hear the old "in like a lion, out like a lamb" analogy for March too often anymore. I think it's starting to become rather passé up here in Northeast Ohio, where sometimes it's downright mild in early March, and sometimes we get a mini-blizzard in April.

Anyway, I think the ad is fairly eye-catching, with its great type and clip-art (although the graphic artist rather lazily plunked the word CENTERWIDE onto his artwork, without worrying about matching the other type or fixing the word spacing!)

Vintage Elberta Inn Ads

Here's a couple of vintage ads for the Elberta Inn. The combo ad above is from May of 1946, and the one at the bottom of this post is a more recent one from the 1971-72 Lorain phone book.

The ads are kind of interesting because they date from the glory days of the Elberta Inn, when a night out meant a dinner and live entertainment for dancing. (It's almost strange to see the name of the man who would later become Mayor of Lorain in the above ad – because you usually see his band listed as performing at Lincoln Park.)

A few days ago, I mentioned how I recently became interested in dining at Alize at Elberta – only to see it burn down over the weekend. 

My heart goes out to the owners, as well as to the restaurant's regulars. I know how a favorite restaurant can become a home away from home, and how much it becomes a part of your life.

1971 Lorain phone book ad

Pepsi Memories

Remember the old 1970's Saturday Night Live sketch that took place in a Greek greasy spoon? No matter what the customers tried to order (especially if it included a Coke), the proprietor (played by John Belushi) would change the order to a cheeseburger, chips and a Pepsi!

Well, the unavailability of Coke as depicted in the diner would have been fine in our house while I was growing up. My parents never bought Coke. We washed down our Yala's pizza every Friday night with good old sugary sweet Pepsi. In fact, I only remember my parents buying Coke a few times, back in the returnable bottle days, when for some reason Pepsi temporarily wasn't available at A&P or Meyer Goldberg's (or wherever they were shopping at that point).

We were a real Pepsi family, that's for sure. That's why I always thought it was kind of neat that there was Pepsi bottling plant on Route 57.  I never knew how long the plant was there until I found the following article on microfilm at the library. It appeared in the Lorain Journal on Saturday, April 12, 1958.

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Pepsi-Cola Will Build Elyria Plant
Company Picks Site on Rt. 57

ELYRIA – Plans for the location of a $500,000 Pepsi-Cola Bottling Co. Plant here were announced yesterday by Robert H. Snyder, president of the Pepsi-Cola Bottling Co. of Cleveland.

The new plant, which is expected to be in operation by June, 1959, will be located on a six-acre site fronting on Rt. 57, between the State Highway Patrol Building and the Turnpike Interchange.

Snyder and Ivan L. Lawyer, vice-president, said the plant would employ about 50 persons, most of whom would be hired from this area. Certain key personnel will be transferred from Cleveland to supervise operations.

The new plant will be a modern, one-story building, covering some 40,000 square feet, Snyder said.

Besides the three sizes of Pepsi-Cola, the plant will produce the company's line of flavored beverages for distribution throughout Lorain, Huron and Erie counties.

Snyder said Pepsi-Cola's sales in this area had increased 22 percent each year over the past three years and estimated that the new plant would produce in excess of one million cases of soft drinks.

Construction of the building will begin late this fall, Snyder said, explaining that the construction was timed to fall between the peak seasons for soft drink sales.

Several other sites were considered before Elyria was chosen as the site for the new plant, and much of the credit for the decision to locate here was given to the Lorain County Development Committee, which assisted in the negotiations, Lawyer said.

Elyria was chosen as the site for the new plant because of the city's geographical location in the area to be served and because of the utilities available, Lawyer said.

The plant will consume some 15 million gallons of water a year, Lawyer stated, adding that Elyria's ability to provide this volume of water at high pressure was an advantage in the city's favor.

Negotiations for locating the plant in Elyria began last September. The land was purchased from Jack R. Hanford and Phil L. Bradstock of Elyria and was recently rezoned by the city and the Elyria Township trustees to permit building of the plant.

The plant site is located partly in Elyria and partly in the township. The building will be located within the city's corporate limits. The area within the township will be used for parking area.

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Pepsi Bottling plant on Route 57 in Elyria

Today the plant is still in operation, and the building and truck signage reflect the latest corporate makeover of the Pepsi logo.

As a graphic designer, I feel really strongly about maintaining a continuity of design, and thus I never really liked the new look. I preferred the original, classic logo that looked great on a bottle cap. But I understand that the Pepsi brass aren't trying to appeal to middle-age members of the 1960's Pepsi Generation.

Or are they? Have you tasted Pepsi Throwback yet? If you prefer the way Pepsi used to taste back in the 1960's, then you'll love Pepsi Throwback, which uses real sugar instead of corn syrup. It's terrific – with Yala's Pizza or anything!

Apparently Pepsi is going to keep making it as long as people buy it, so stock up! (I am! But don't tell my trainer or my dentist!)