Lorain Fraternal Order of Eagles Burn Their Mortgage – March 1946

The Eagles Building in Lorain was in the news last month when it was announced that the nonprofit group associated with the FireFish Festival (which I enjoy poking fun at) is to acquire the four-story structure.

Well, back in March of 1946, the Lorain Aerie of Eagles was getting ready to finally burn the $225,000 mortgage on its building, which was dedicated back on March 15, 1925.

A mortgage-burning ball was to be held on Saturday, March 16 with music for dancing furnished by Sammy Gerace. Featured vocalists were Kenneth Buda and the Rusty Pipers quartet.

Amazingly, on Sunday a class of 200 candidates were to be initiated into the Eagles!

Several pages of the Lorain Journal was dedicated to the big mortgage-burning event on March 13, 1946 – 71 years ago today. Below is one page of that section.

Back in 2012, I did a “Then and Now” feature on the Eagles Building that included a roll call of businesses that occupied the street level spaces, including the much beloved Cane’s Surplus.

Winter's Not Over Yet – March 9, 1957

Unusually warm weather a few weeks ago lulled us into the false sense of security that winter was over and an early spring was coming. But the cold spell in store for us this weekend reminds us that winter is not quite over yet.

And winter wasn't done yet sixty years ago yesterday in Lorain, either. The city had just received a two-inch snowfall, with more light flurries expected.

Here's a nice photo of Lakeview Park that ran on the front page of the Journal on Saturday, March 9, 1957 with the weather story. Off in the distance you can see the B&O Coal Dock.

Now that’s the Lakeview Park we Lorain Baby Boomers remember (except for the snow): the skimpy beach, the hand railings and no boardwalk.

This (below) should refresh your memory, and put you in the mood for summer too.

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Almost forgot to wish my younger brother Ed (seen in that photo of my family's 1958 Savoy last week) a Happy Birthday! (He's 56, so that makes me an old man I guess.)

Quonset Huts in Lorain

I have no idea if any of the quonset huts that were part of Kew Gardens are still in Lorain. They had a unique construction that wasn't really the classic look commonly accepted as a quonset hut. But there are a few of the traditional type around town that are interesting to see.

For instance, there are two sitting right next to each other at 4465 Oberlin Avenue (shown above). The Lorain County Auditor website says they were built in 1948. One seems to function as a home, the other as a garage – it's kind of hard to tell. They seem to have been chopped down a little.

I first found the 4465 Oberlin Avenue address in the 1957 city directory – a year after Kew Gardens was dissolved and its quonset huts dispersed far and wide.

Here's an aerial view of how they are situated.

And here are a few more views of them.

Another quonset hut that was just brought to my attention yesterday by longtime blog reader and contributor Jeremy Reynolds is located at 1745 E. 28th Street.

The building's proportion seems right, and its 25' x 48' dimensions matches the huts listed for sale in the Kew Gardens sales ad.

I don’t know, but in this age of “tiny houses,” I wonder if quonset huts will make a comeback?

Kew Gardens – Part 3

In August 1956, the end of the line for Kew Gardens finally loomed into view. The Lorain Journal of August 23, 1956 announced that the buildings would be sold. The article also provides a short history of Kew Gardens.

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Kew Gardens To Go On Block
69 Buildings To Be Sold In 30 Days
Last 2 Families Will Move Soon

Sixty-nine buildings and fixtures at the 10-year old Kew Gardens veterans’ housing project in the East Side will go on sale to the public Sept. 3, it was announced today by Willard Francis, director of the Lorain Metropolitan Housing Authority.

Francis said the sale will mark the end of the temporary housing project which was erected in 1946 to relieve acute housing problems of World War II veterans and their families.

HE STRESSED that the buildings must be sold and removed from the property within 30 days after the sale begins.

“The buildings will be sold individually, if necessary, and anyone may purchase all of the buildings if the right price is offered,” Francis said.

Fixtures to be sold will include toilets, tanks, lavatory bowls, gas hot water heaters, gas space heaters, apartment-size gas ranges and combination sink and laundry trays, showers, and clothes poles.

Francis said he will handle the sale of the buildings, beginning Sept. 3, at the LMHA offices at 2150 Lorain Rd., Leavitt Homes project.

The sales of fixtures will take place at the Kew Gardens project. All fixture purchasers will be required to remove items they buy from the buildings.

“Only two families are still living in the Kew Gardens project,” Francis said. “Both of them will be out of the project within 10 days.”

There were 138 families living in 70 buildings at the project during most of the 10 years it has been in existence. One of the buildings was destroyed by fire.

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The Lorain Metropolitan Housing Authority ran ads promoting the sale in the local newspapers. Here is the version that ran in the Lorain Journal near the end of August.

Here is the slightly different Chronicle-Telegram version (courtesy Rick Kurish).

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Remember the 1952 Historic Aerial of Kew Gardens that I posted yesterday? Here is is again (below).

And here’s the same view in 1962, six years after the sale of the quonset huts.

Today the former Kew Gardens property is covered with trees with no evidence the post-WWII housing project was ever there.

Kew Gardens – Part 2

In late 1947, additional trailers were still being added to Kew Gardens. The December 2, 1947 edition of the Chronicle-Telegram included the news that a contract was awarded "to set up 11 more trailers in the Kew Gardens veterans housing project in Lorain at a cost of $30 each. The trailers were recently acquired from the U. S. Government. They were located in Michigan.”

Apparently Lorain was interested in taking control of Kew Gardens early in the game, according to this article which ran in the Lorain Journal on November 15, 1949.

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Delay Action on Acquiring Kew Gardens

Action by the city in acquiring control of Kew Garden homes – not trailers – was postponed indefinitely by committee of the whole last night when Service Director Wallace Chapla announced that the deadline has been set back one year.

“A Public Housing Authority directive has extended the limit from Dec 22 this year to Dec. 22, 1950.” Chapla said. “I think council should decide whether the city should acquire the homes.”

Pincura Cites Ruling
In order to own the homes, the city would have to own the ground or lease it, according to Solicitor John Pincura. He told newsmen the city already meets federal requirements, since the Kew Garden area is now leased by the city.

Pincura said the city did not contemplate operation of the veterans’ housing development, but probably would sub-lease the land to the Lorain Metropolitan Housing Authority.

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It’s interesting to see how Kew Gardens was laid out. Dennis Thompson made me aware that the veterans’ housing project was clearly visible in photographs found on the Historic Aerials website.

Here’s a 1952 view, with all of the quonset huts laid out neatly like a military base. I’ve labeled the main roads so you can get your bearing as to where it was located.

Next: On the Block

Kew Gardens – Part 1

On my post about the First Baby of 1947, I noted that the father and mother “resided in a quonset hut in Kew Gardens.”

At least one person who left a comment on that post had never heard of Kew Gardens. That’s easy to understand, since there isn’t really a trace of it left today.

So what was Kew Gardens? Rick Kurish provided me with a nice capsule summary of what it was all about in an email a few years ago.

Rick wrote, "While spending time with friends on Lorain's east side over the holidays, we were discussing the post World War ll building boom in the area. I asked if anyone remembered the quonset huts that were erected on the south side of Colorado Ave. shortly after the war. Everyone looked at me as if I was crazy, but I clearly remember them.

"In the early 1950s, we would occasionally visit cousins who lived way out in the hinter lands of the east side on Colorado Ave,” said Rick. "I remember a number of quonset huts located south of Colorado Ave. somewhere near where Discount Drug Mart is currently. When I asked my dad what they were, he said they were emergency temporary housing that was erected for returning veterans. By the time I saw them in the early 1950s they were apparently already unoccupied. My dad said housing, and building materials, were scarce immediately after the war, and this was a stopgap solution.”

It’s strange to think of a bunch of quonset huts being up there on the south side of Colorado by Drug Mart.

Anyway, since Rick's email, I have been trying to compile enough information about Kew Gardens to do a post about it. 

An article that appeared in the Lorain Journal on November 23, 1946 show how the tenants were picked. The article noted that the names "of 139 veterans, selected for a special screening committee of World War II ex-servicemen for occupancy of the Kew Gardens veterans housing project were made public today by Willard Francis, secretary of the Lorain-co Housing Authority, which has charge of the project.

"The screening committee, made up of one representative each from the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans, the AMVETS and the veterans committee of the CIO, examined more than 600 applications.

“The committee went over each application using a special system of points. For instance, so many points were allowed for a family living in doubled-up quarters, there were points in cases involving pregnancy or in cases where families were forced to live in cellars or other quarters unfitted for residential use, also for families forced to live without proper toilet and other sanitary facilities necessary for decent living.” 

Once it was determined who was going to live in Kew Gardens, they had to have something to live in. In addition to the quonset huts, trailers were a big part of the first phase of the housing project. Where did they all come from? An article that ran in the Lorain Journal on December 26, 1946 revealed where they originated – and that they would soon be on their way to Lorain.

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TRAILERS COMING

County to Let Contract For Vets’ Home

By Staff Correspondent

ELYRIA – County commissioners laid plans today for moving the county’s house trailers to the Lorain Veterans housing project at Kew Gardens from points in Michigan, Maryland and Florida.

The trailers will be inspected at their present sites to determine what repairs are necessary. Trailer that do not pass inspection will not be brought to Lorain.

Contract for the moving will be awarded to a Midland, Mich. hauling firm as soon as the inspections have been made. A small number of utility trailers in Michigan are to be brought to Lorain.

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Quonset huts were apparently still a novelty when they were being used at Kew Gardens. In fact, the Journal ran this photo and accompanying caption to help explain what they were in the January 29, 1947 edition.

Fire Station Eyesore – March 1964

Although nowadays it seems like my hometown of Lorain is demolition-happy, there was a time when only truly rundown structures were targeted.

That seems to be the case here with the old No. Five Fire Station, which was located at 208 East 32nd Street between Broadway and Elyria Avenue. The photograph below and accompanying caption calling for its demolition ran in the March 7, 1964 Lorain Journal.

Although it was no longer an operating fire station, the Fire Chief wanted to keep using it for storage. 

Apparently he lost the battle because today a small, newer home sits at that address.