Goodbye, WildCat – and Space Spiral too?

It's been a rough time lately for fans of the old Cedar Point and the way it used to be in the 1960s and 70s.

First, in early May 2012 it was announced that the WildCat roller coaster was being permanently removed and dismantled. The roller coaster featured small cars that held four passengers; the Wiki entry reveals that it was actually the second roller coaster to bear that name, as the original WildCat was removed in 1978.

But the bigger bombshell was quietly dropped last week.

A new roller coaster is in the works for 2013 (according to this Morning Journal article.) As usual, when a new ride is added, something has to go to make room for it. According to this WKYC Channel 3 report, to make room for the new coaster, two rides are going to have to go: Disaster Transport and – the Space Spiral!

Here's the link to the Sandusky Register's version of the story; be sure to check out the comments section.

I find it hard to believe that Cedar Point would actually remove one of its iconic rides to make room for yet another roller coaster. The Space Spiral has been there since 1965 and is one of the classics; a family ride that offers spectacular views of the amusement park, as well as Lake Erie and the whole surrounding area.

A nighttime ride on the Space Spiral was usually one of the last stops for my family before leaving the park. It was always a memorable and magnificent finish to a day of fun. It'd be a shame if the park management got rid of yet another family-friendly ride, one of the final links to the Cedar Point of old.

Looks like I gotta get to the Point this year for one last ride on the Space Spiral. (I tried to get on the Space Spiral last year, but it didn't work out.)

Rec Field Dedication May 1928

Yesterday I mentioned that the two Kratt brothers played for George Daniel, the longtime athletic coach and Supervisor of Physical Education for Lorain Schools for whom the stadium on Oberlin Avenue is named.

Well, before the stadium was named in his honor in June 1958, it was just a nameless recreation field on the outskirts of Lorain. On May 26, 1928 – a little over a year after Board of Education bought the land for it – the city was preparing to open the new stadium with a patriotic pageant.

Above is The Lorain Times-Herald spotlighting that upcoming event. (Give it a click so you can read it.) There's some other interesting articles on there as well, including a little boy who ran away from home 137 times!

The Kratt Family of Lorain

Remember my post back in March with the "then and now" photos of the house on Ninth Street in Lorain? For me, it was pretty much a 'filler' post – something hastily prepared and barely researched (I'm embarrassed to admit).

Imagine my surprise when I received an email from someone who knew all about the house and its inhabitants – because she was related to them!

Diane Fort (who also provided me the vintage photo of the Lakeview Park War Memorial from yesterday's post) emailed me to let me know that she was related to the family that lived in that house and even provided a great family portrait (below).

As Diane explained, "Here is a picture of the residents of that 9th Street home that you blogged about recently. George & Katie Kratt; their children: Elsie (10), Oscar (8), George (5), Carl (3), and William – the infant. Their last child, Arthur, my grandfather, is not pictured."

Little William is the grown-up gentleman posing in front of the Lakeview Park in yesterday's photo.

Diane provided some sad news about Oscar, who was standing on the porch of the house in the vintage photo featured in the "then and now" pairing. "Oscar died only 2 1/2 years after that postcard you pictured was sent."

Here's another view of the stately Kratt Family residence on Ninth Street.

Diane also provided some other information about the Kratt family. "My great-grandparents settled here at the turn of the century," she pointed out. Her great-grandfather George Kratt bought land and opened a lumber yard.

A circa 1904 clipping Diane provided told about George Kratt's lumber company. "The George Kratt lumber yard is an institution which, although as yet but little known to the general public, is now about to take its place with other enterprises of a like nature in the city. Today an entirely new branch of the lumber trade, as far as this company is concerned, will be launched in the opening of an up-to-date planing and wood working mill, which when in full operation will give employment to thirty men.

1912 City Directory Listing

"Mr. Kratt, who is sole owner of the concern, came here entirely unknown less than a year ago. He purchased seven lots at the corner of Washington Street and the Nickel Plate tracks and began the erection of a large lumber shed. Business increased until he found it necessary to erect a planing mill, and this was completed yesterday. Today the machinery will be operated on actual work for the first time. At the start about ten hands will be employed but the proprietor has plans which, if they develop, will within a few weeks require the mill to run steadily to its full capacity."

The article went on to state that the new planing mill building was forty by seventy feet in dimensions with fourteen large windows to provide light, and that the warehouse at the plant was sixty by ninety-six feet. It also revealed that Mr. Kratt was a contractor who had "seen experience in nearly every state in the Union."

Here's where the Kratt Lumber & Manufacturing Company was located (at the blue dot).

Lastly, thanks to some clippings that Diane provided me, it turns out that the Kratt Family had some excellent athletes. Two of the Kratt sons depicted in the vintage family photo – George and William – are in the Lorain Sports Hall of Fame.

It's interesting that both of them played for Coach George Daniel at Lorain High School, for whom Lorain's stadium on Oberlin Avenue is named.

George Kratt was inducted posthumously in the Lorain Sports Hall of Fame in March 1975.

William Kratt's nickname was "The Krupp Gun." His bio even features a nice Frank Katrick drawing. 

William Kratt passed away on November 26, 1971.

***

Special thanks to Diane Fort for sharing her family photos and memories.

The Lakeview Park War Memorial

William Kratt posing in front of the memorial at Lakeview Park circa 1942

The monument today

On Memorial Day, I featured a photo of the Lakeview Park War Memorial, which was dedicated to the men and women of Lorain who served in World Wars I and II.

Well, yesterday I received a terrific photo (above) in my email from Diane Fort. As Diane explained, "That's William Kratt who worked on the masonry when it was first made."

Diane is related to the Kratts; George Kratt, who owned a lumber yard in Lorain in the early 1900s, is her great-grandfather.

It's interesting to compare the view of Lakeview Park behind the not-quite-finished monument with the same view today that I posted on Monday.

And here's the Lorain Journal front page of the laying of the cornerstone by none other than Admiral Ernest J. King on August 30, 1942.

Tomorrow: More on the Kratt Family of Lorain

Vermilion Veterans Monument

I don't do very much on Vermilion on my "Lorain County" blog. So when I saw this rendering of that city's Veterans Monument in a May 9, 1951 Lorain Journal, I thought it would be a good topic. The accompanying article about the then-proposed monument is below. (Note Lorain bandleader Jimmy Dulio is mentioned.)

****

Vermilion Monument To GIs Gaining Momentum
By Staff Correspondent

VERMILION – Thru the generosity of the management of Crystal Beach Ballroom in donating the hall, a large benefit dance will be held May 26 to raise funds for the proposed memorial to Vermilion veterans of all wars.

Also contributing to this affair is Jimmie Dulio, who has offered his services to the committee. He has stated that due to union law members must be paid but they have offered to do so for the minimum. However Dulio is donating his time.

The committee, under the chairmanship of Mrs. Eugene Boyd is under the auspices of the Vermilion Junior Women's league. However its membership is composed of representatives of all the women's clubs in the community. They have been working diligently to obtain this memorial for more than a year.

All organizations of the community have been invited to help financially with this as it is the desire of the committee to make it a community - wide tribute to the men and women who have given their time and in some cases their lives to their country.

Cards have been sent out to the citizens giving them an opportunity to send in their personal pledges.

The monument is to be a clock mounted on a cenotaph, with a bench on each side of it.

The clock will be mounted in white Vermont marble, of the same type used in the Roosevelt memorial at Hyde Park, and in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington. It is nine feet high and three feet wide. It was designed by the Wolslagel Monument Co. especially for Vermilion.

The cost will approximate $2500 which will include the incidental expenses of mounting. The clock has been purchased and paid for and a good balance is still available toward the total cost, but a lot is still needed.

Permission has been obtained from the village council to place it in Exchange Park in a strategic location.

When outsiders have offered to help with this, it is the hope of the committee that Vermilion men and women will match that generosity with their own contributions and in support of the dance.

****

Today, the monument is still a beautiful and impressive piece of art fronting US 6. It was dedicated on Memorial Day, 1952.

Happy Memorial Day!

Lakeview Park War Memorial dedicated to the men and women of Lorain who served in World Wars I and II

65th Anniversary of Lorain's WWII Memorial

You've driven past it a hundred times – and probably didn't even know it was there.

I'm talking about the World War II memorial on the west side of Henderson Drive on the eastern approach to the Lofton Henderson Memorial Bridge. This Memorial Day is the 65th anniversary of its dedication.

Strangely enough, the memorial sits in front of the building that was home to Lake Erie Upholstering at 1830 Henderson Drive. The memorial originally was on the east side of Henderson Drive. How it ended up on the west side – as well as its history – is an interesting story.

The memorial was originally dedicated as part of the climax of Lorain's Memorial Day celebration on May 31, 1947. The Lorain City Club dedicated the memorial as well as 103 sycamore trees lining the eastern approach to the bridge. The plaque on the memorial reads, "THIS AVENUE OF TREES IS DEDICATED AS A TRIBUTE TO THOSE FROM THE CITY OF LORAIN WHO LOST THEIR LIVES IN WORLD WAR II."

Since World War II had only ended two years earlier, honoring Lorain's war dead was an especially emotional event. As the Lorain Journal stated in its coverage of the dedication, "A little Lorain mother flung herself to the ground before the plaque erected at Central High Level bridge in memory of Lorain's World War II dead and cried hysterically. She had lost two sons in the last war and the plaque, erected by the Lorain City club, was dedicated to her two boys, as well as to 217 other Lorainites killed in action."

Unfortunately, it didn't take long for the World War II memorial to be forgotten.

Photo and caption from May 20, 1951 Lorain Sunday News

By 1951, the area around the memorial was a mess. As the May 20, 1951 Lorain Sunday News described, "A visit to the memorial on Henderson Drive, on the east end of the Central High Level Bridge, reveals that it is being sadly neglected."

"There are weeds around the memorial, some more than a foot high, and the marker has been scarred by automobiles that have scraped it in several accidents in that area.

"It is thought that the marker not only needs attention, but that it could be moved, placed further from the street, but still in view of passing traffic and that a chain could be placed around it held by steel or concrete posts.

The memorial was indeed moved, although the exact date cannot be verified. But it remained neglected.

A short article in the November 23, 1954 Chronicle-Telegram stated, "Moved last March from its position on the east side of the roadway to the west side, the monument has become something of a "sore thumb" to area merchants who say its position blocks erection of more business establishments there. Two foot-high weeds around the monument were cleared away recently by a merchant who said the city is not caring for the monument dedicated to those who lost their lives in World War II. The monument is about six feet from the property line of the Hi-Level Nursery on Henderson Drive. "

A May 11, 1955 article in the Lorain Journal entitled "Memorial Neglected" wasn't very pretty, stating, "The Lorain Memorial Association will blast the city for failure to maintain properly the Henderson Dr. Memorial in honor of World War II dead at a meeting in American Legion home at 8 p.m. tomorrow.

"Officials of the association, which sponsors the annual Memorial Day services and parade, said the memorial marker, adjacent the High Level Nursery, was a "disgrace to the community."

"Although a plot of land with about 25 feet of frontage on Henderson Drive was donated to the city for a memorial, the land has the appearance of a trash yard. Large mounds of dirt from recent sewer excavations line the entire frontage. There are several utility poles on the ground to the right of the marker and bales of peat moss and large quantities of nursery stock occupy considerable space on the memorial plot. The ground has no grass and the extreme rear of the plot contains clippings from bushes, branches from trees, cans and other debris."

The article went on to explain that the marker was moved "more than two years ago" when the Memorial Association complained that too many motorists were running into it, and that the high weeds kept it from being seen.

"After" photo from June 1, 1955 Lorain Journal

Happily, the city cleaned up the area.

A simple "before and after" set of photos of the memorial appeared on the front page of the Lorain Journal on June 1, 1955. The photo at right shows the final result.

Today in 2012, the area around the memorial has been better maintained.

The immediate proximity includes a similarly designed monument to its left that is inscribed with names under a small sign that reads "In Remembrance." The Stars & Stripes fly from a flagpole with inscribed paver bricks surrounding its base.

Despite its unusual location in front of a commercial strip, the memorial's original purpose – honoring Lorain's World War II dead – is as important today as it was 65 years ago. Hopefully, the memorial's proximity to the bridge honoring one of Lorain's many war heroes will ensure that it is never neglected again.

The view today, looking towards the Lofton Henderson Memorial Bridge in background