Lorain’s Oldest Boarding House Closes – May 1938

Although it’s already June, here’s an interesting item from the May 2, 1938 Lorain Journal. It’s an “end of an era” article chronicling the closing of the city’s oldest boarding house, which had been operated by three Lorain sisters for 38 years.

Just a nice little slice of life of a time gone by.

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38-Year-Old Boarding House Closes
as Lorain Sisters ‘Call It Quits’

After 38 years of continuous operation, Lorain’s oldest and best-known boarding house served its final dinner Sunday.

The proprietors, the Downey sisters, Misses Alice, Mary and Elizabeth, who are all approaching the three-score-and-ten age, will retire from business and devote their time to “bringing up” two grand nieces.

They came here approximately 40 years ago from Indiana-co, Pa., and started a business in 4th-st. After a few years they moved to 214 6th-st and following the tornado in 1924, they located across the street at 215 6th-st.

As she reminisced Sunday, there were two happenings from the past 38 years' in the boarding house business that stood out in the memory of Miss Elizabeth.

One concerned a sailor fed at the “back door” by the three sisters.

“He was penniless and hungry,” Miss Elizabeth said. “We fed him. We never turned anyone away all the time we were in business. The next year, the sailor returned.

“This time he sat in the dining room and when he had gone, we found a five dollar bill under his plate.”

The Downey sisters’ “star” boarder was at the table Sunday. He is Fay Pennington who has eaten at the boarding house for 25 years. Floyd C. Brunner who has eaten at the house for 14 years, was also present.

Some of Lorain’s prominent business and professional men have eaten at the Downey’s are, Dr. S. V. Burley, Dr. F. R. Garl, Dr. C. J. Love, Dr. J. S. Mead, Sidney B. Royce, Atty. Andrew Keep, Harry Getty, William Scott, Harvey Hennes, Earl R. Lowrie, John Trimmer, H. F. Ingalls, A. C. Anderson and Francis Lust.

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The former boarding house lasted until the early 1960s, when it was apparently replaced by the western addition (shown below) to the brick professional building at 209 Sixth Street. The boarding house's 215 Sixth Street address no longer exists.

However, the fine old white house at 219 W. Sixth Street (adjacent to the Lorain Public Library’s private parking lot) survives. Along with the Elks Club, it gives the casual observer a hint of what the neighborhood was like back in the days when the Downey Sisters served up good food and hospitality.

 

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To really date myself, when I hear the words “boarding house,” I think of the classic comic strip, Our Boarding House. The strip featured the blustery braggart and inventor Major Hoople, who wore a fez while bloviating to his captive audience of wisecracking boarders.

Here's a scan of an Our Boarding House strip. It's from the Sunday, December 28, 1952 New York Sunday Mirror, part of an old comic section that was down in my parents' basement for years.

Interestingly, the Our Boarding House strip lasted into the early 1980s. In the last comic strip, Major Hoople finally struck it rich with one of his inventions.

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UPDATE (December 28, 2016)
Here's another serving of Major Hoople's antics in Our Boarding House, retrieved from microfilm from the pages of the April 4, 1943 Lorain Sunday News.

Lorain Sunday News Comics – May 30, 1954

Does anyone still look forward to reading the comics in the newspaper each day?

With the decline in newspaper readership, and with many papers having closed down or publishing less frequently, I doubt that many make it a priority to follow the funnies these days. 

Websites like GoComics.com make it possible to read some favorites without having to buy a newspaper, but I wonder how many people take advantage of it?

Anyway, seventy years ago comic strips were still going strong. The Lorain Journal didn't publish on Sunday yet, so it was up to the Lorain Sunday News to provide some color comic pages for the locals. I've posted a few below. It's an odd sampling with few (if any) that the average person today would remember or even have heard of. There's no Li'l Abner or Blondie here. But it reveals just how much times have changed.

Captain Easy and Wash Tubbs lead off the comic parade in the Sunday, May 30, 1954 edition. Tubbs (the little bespectacled nerdy guy) originally has his own comic strip, but the steel-jawed Captain's popularity eventually resulted in the two strips merging.

Next we have Our Boarding House starting Major Hoople. (The Major has been featured on this blog before on this post.) The 'topper strip' (a filler comic that usually ran above the main comic strip) was The Nut Brothers, who were popular as well.

I like that the times were such that Major Hoople could simply hitchhike his way to and from the country as a form of entertainment on a spring day.

Next we have Alley Oop the caveman. If I remember correctly, Alley Oop was carried by the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram.

Remember the popular song based on the strip?

Our last sample is Out Our Way, another slice-of-life strip that reflected the simpler times. Note that its topper strip (placed below it on the page, strangely enough) is The Comic Zoo, featuring cartoon animals.

I like the little strip of cartoon heads that runs at the bottom of each page. Aside from Alley Oop (which is still running today, believe it or not), Major Hoople, Captain Easy and Bugs Bunny, I'm not entirely sure who the others are. 

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It wasn't until the end of August 1968 that the Journal began publishing on Sunday. Comics were added a few weeks later. Here's a promotional ad for its comic section that ran in the paper on August 31, 1968.

The ad isn't entirely accurate. The list of comics mentions Mickey Mouse, but it was Donald Duck that appeared. Moon Mullins carried over from the small comics section that used to come with the Saturday paper for a while, but despite the appearance of Li'l Abner's wife Daisy Mae in the montage, Li'l Abner was not included. I do remember the offbeat comics like The Strange World of Mr. Mum and Henry that did run.