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| The scene down at Lakeview Park on Saturday afternoon |
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| Nothing says Easter like an Easter Bunny scanned from a 1957 Harry Volk Clip Book of Line Art! |
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Happy Easter!
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Edna’s Restaurant – April 13, 1957
It’s a strange ad. No photo of “the newest most modern family restaurant” – just a bunch of clip art of hands with some space-age graphics thrown in.
As you can see, even in 1957 – decades after the Lake Shore Electric went out of existence – the only address in the ad is still Stop 111 West Lake Road. But after writing about Edna’s Restaurant several times (including this most recent post), I know that the new building in the ad is what we now know as the old Tiffany’s Steakhouse next to Skate World.
Here’s another ad (below) for Edna’s that I found recently. This one ran in the Lorain Journal in the big 125th Anniversary of Lorain edition in July 1959. The ad mentions that Edna had been serving truckers since 1953, but I have no idea where the business was located then; I was unable to find any listing of Ed or Edna Mitchell in any of the older directories.
As I’ve noted in a previous post, by the time of the 1960 city directory, Edna had moved her business to the south side of the highway to a smaller building and acquired a real address: 4875 West Erie.
Why did she move her business? I don’t know; maybe she lost her lease. I hope to find out someday, or at least find an ad that acknowledges the move.
By the way, there’s been some activity at the former restaurant building on West Erie in the last month, with a dumpster stationed outside for a while.
Why did she move her business? I don’t know; maybe she lost her lease. I hope to find out someday, or at least find an ad that acknowledges the move.
By the way, there’s been some activity at the former restaurant building on West Erie in the last month, with a dumpster stationed outside for a while.
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Paul & Bill’s Sinclair – April 1957
Paul Cuenin and Bill Bodnar had taken over operation of the service station located on the southwest corner of the intersection and were holding an open house of sorts. The ad for the big event ran in the Lorain Journal on April 11, 1957.
By 1962, the service station had become Bob & Bill’s Sinclair Service. Within a few years after that, it became just plain Bob’s Sinclair.
It appears that Bob ran the station for many years, switching to the Arco brand in the 1970s and Marathon in the 1980s. It remained open right into the 1990s, when its address was officially listed as 46005 Telegraph Road.
Today, the former service station at Routes 113 and 58 is shuttered.
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| Courtesy Google Maps |
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Gene Patrick’s Other Comic Strip for the Journal
Anyone who has read this blog for a long time knows that I’m a fan of the late Gene Patrick and his Passing Scene comic strip that ran in the Journal for several years beginning in the mid-1960s and right into the 1970s. At times it must seem like I’m attempting to post the entire run of the strip.
The Passing Scene was great because it commented on the happenings of Lorain County. Politics seemed to provide an endless supply of material for Patrick and his strip included funny caricatures of local politicians such as Lorain Mayors Woody Mathna and Joe Zahorec.
But Patrick must have had an urge to do a classic style strip that would feature his own material and humor, independent of any local angle. He found that outlet in a strip he started a couple years after the Passing Scene was underway.
And that new strip was called Ollie Odd. It was odd all right, and done in a gag-a-day style format.
Here are a few samples of the strip that ran in April 1967 on the 5th, 6th and 14th. This first batch was focused on Ollie’s attempts to come up with a good mode of transportation.
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The Passing Scene was great because it commented on the happenings of Lorain County. Politics seemed to provide an endless supply of material for Patrick and his strip included funny caricatures of local politicians such as Lorain Mayors Woody Mathna and Joe Zahorec.
But Patrick must have had an urge to do a classic style strip that would feature his own material and humor, independent of any local angle. He found that outlet in a strip he started a couple years after the Passing Scene was underway.
And that new strip was called Ollie Odd. It was odd all right, and done in a gag-a-day style format.
Here are a few samples of the strip that ran in April 1967 on the 5th, 6th and 14th. This first batch was focused on Ollie’s attempts to come up with a good mode of transportation.
Perhaps it’s fortunate that Patrick's Ollie Odd didn’t take off, as its success might have deprived Journal readers of his well-remembered Passing Scene.
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It’s That Guy Again!
In the Tomko ads, he is shown in a perpetual, toothless holler, as seen at right. Usually these ads depict him in various humorous scenarios by plunking his head on another body for zany effect.
Here on my blog, I’ve already documented five or six of his appearances in vintage ads for just about everything, including TV repair, painting contractors, new houses, furniture, and of course, new cars.
Well, here are two more examples of him quietly working to promote something. Below is a 1967 ad for the Antlers Hotel cocktail lounge promoting “Gene,” who regularly played the organ and piano there. Ed gives his thumbs-up approval. The ad ran around St. Patrick’s Day that year.
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| April 4, 1957 Lorain Journal ad |
Could that be Ed’s wife in the ad?
Anyway, to learn more about the history of Family Weekly and other "Sunday magazines," click here.
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| July 1957 Family Weekly (courtesy Ebay) |
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Ontario Store Expands – April 1967
Well, here’s an article about how the popular store had already had to expand to meet demand in its early days at its location between Lorain and Elyria. The article ran in the Journal on April 15, 1967.
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Ontario Store Expansion Completed
A recently completed $100,000 expansion project at Rt. 254 and Elyria Avenue completed the theme of a long common front with Pick ’n Pay Supermarket. Both firms are owned by the Cook Coffee Company, headed by the late Max Friedman.
ACCORDING to Manager John Dimacchia, an eight-year veteran of the Ontario firm, “We originally offered price-competitive products only. We have now elevated quality to give our customers a wider range and price selection of the same items.”
He said although no new departments were added, “every department got a boost in individual items.”
One of the nicest things you’ll like about The Ontario Store is that you can tell clerks, cashiers and service personnel from a distance. Each wears a distinctive blue smock.
THE ONCE small parking lot has been expanded to where 350 cars now have parking spaces. Twelve checkout counters are operating on the SR 254 side and two on the Elyira Avenue entrance-exit.
The older original store has been completely remodeled.
Dimacchia said adding another 10,000 square feet “now brings the total shopping area to more than 50,000 square feet – chock-full of items high on customer priority lists.”
One example (and you’re probably too late) was brand-name golf balls at three for 88 cents.
“They’re going like hotcakes,” said the clerk as she stacked the last of them. “My goodness."
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The Winds of Change Are Blowing on West Erie Avenue
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| Vintage postcard of the Beachcomber Motel, later known as Erieview Motel |
First of all, the long-awaited demolition of the Erieview Motel (originally the Beachcomber) happened a few days ago.
(The Morning Journal’s coverage of the demolition included a link to my blog, as well as some quotes of mine from back in 2015 in which I criticized the city for how quickly it dubbed the West Erie Avenue motels nuisances that needed to be demolished. I groaned when I read my opinions in the article, as it reminded me of how I was beat up because of them on the blog back then.)
Just a little bit to the east of the steaming pile of motel rubble is the former Castle Restaurant. Since 2014, it had been doing business as Castillo Mexicano. Along with a recent change in management, the restaurant now has a new name: Papasitos & Beer Mexican Grill. I wish the new restaurant team well.
Lastly, a little bit further to the east, the Morning Journal has moved into the building that was home to various restaurants, as well as the former McDonald’s.
I first noticed the Morning Journal sign there a week ago and did a double-take.
I wish the Morning Journal good luck in its new home. (It’s going to need it; I noticed that the paper's newsstand price is now two dollars – double that of the Chronicle-Telegram.)
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Jimmy “Two-Gun" Lyons Murder Case Revisited – Part 1
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| Headline from Feb. 18, 1926 |
Since my original posts were based on a 1957 Lorain Journal article about the crime, I decided to go back and review newspaper microfilm from 1928 to see how the murder and the escape from jail were handled in the local press.
At the top of this post, you see the Norwalk Reflector headline from Feb. 18, 1926, the day of the murder. Unfortunately, most of the faded front page was unreadable except for the headline.
The Lorain Journal covered the murder the next day with this small front page article (below).
The impending trial of Jim Lyon only warranted a small article on the front page of the April 10, 1926 edition of the Journal as well.
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But it was the Journal’s turn for a dramatic headline when Jim Lyons escaped from jail in April. Here’s the front page from April 12, 1926.
Surprisingly, the best account of his capture after roaming Norwalk for a day was written by none other than Jim Lyons himself, who wrote his own story for the United Press. Stop back here tomorrow for that unique bit of journalism which appeared on the front page of the Journal.
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Jimmy “Two-Gun" Lyons Murder Case Revisited – Part 2
It’s a fascinating look inside a criminal’s mind. He’s actually a pretty good writer (and at least up to blogger standards).
I still think this tragic tale would make a good TV movie.
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“Two-Gun Bad Man,” SentBack to Jail by Wife to
Face “Chair,” Tells Story
Escape from Cell “Easy,” Asserts James Lyons, Who
Eluded Posses, Troopers and Returned Self
to Custody of Sheriff
EDITOR”S NOTE: James Lyons, youthful confessed killer, has written his own story of his escape and surrender for the United Press. The story follows:
By JAMES LYONS
(Copyright 1926 By United Press)
NORWALK, April 12 – A woman – my wife whom I hadn’t seen until yesterday for nine months – sent me back to jail to face the electric chair.
I was not outside of Norwalk all day Monday.
I walked about the streets, passing persons I knew well.
I took this occasion to visit a few of the boys who had been talking too much, and to leave them a little message that I might be back to see them most any time unless they did less talking.
I found out 10 days ago that I could unlock the jail door and escape.
I walked around the bull pen, I studied the locks and found I could pick all of them.
I was going to wait until later to make my get-away but last night I decided they might place a guard in the cell with me after the trial started so I made up my mind to leave.
With a little piece of wire I threw the bolts on the bull pen door.
Picked The Locks
After I opened the bull pen door, I picked the lock on the outside door. Then I went back to my cell and put on my clothes. Hugh Burdue, the guard, came up and looked into the cell but I was in bed.
I fixed up a dummy in the bed, put on my clothes and walked out.
When I got out to the bridge of sighs I found a Yale lock on the door to the courthouse and because this would take too long to fix, I went back to the jail and got a blanket off my cot.
When I came back I struck a loose bar in the bridge and it rang out like a bell. I thought sure I was gone. I tied the blanket to the bottom of the bridge and crawled up to the roof thru a hole I had noticed when they took me over for arraignment.
I slide down the blanket and started to run out of the alley and east on Seminary-st.
Fled To Wife
I decided to go and see my wife. I married her two years ago.
I knew what would happen when I saw her. That she wouldn’t have anything to do with me. I hadn’t done right by her so I told her I would lay low until they put another thousand on my head.
“Then,” I told her, “you can turn me in and get the reward.”
I proposed this to her while we ate breakfast. She refused.
I was with her five hours and then went to call on some of my friends.
Saw The Searchers
Late in the afternoon I built a fire beside the road, just east of town and dried my shoes. Trolley cars went by so close I could see the passengers. I saw the searchers go by. I decided to take my wife’s advice and come back.
I walked up Seminary-st after I had been on Main and other streets, then went to the sheriff’s home.
I rang the bell and the sheriff’s son, Clarence, opened the door. I asked if Sheriff Gregory was in. Clarence said: “No,” and started to close the door.
Then he said: “I’ll be damned if it isn’t Jim!” and he grabbed my shoulders. He called his sister, Lucille.
Back To Stay
She looked at me and said: “It’s Jim Lyons, it’s Jim Lyons. Are you back for good Jim?”
I said: “Sure, why not. What did you think I came back for – for another suit of clothes or something.”
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A week later, Jim Lyons apparently changed his mind and decided to make a break for it again. But this escape was thwarted, according to the article below, which appeared in the Lorain Journal on April 19, 1926.It’s a good thing, too, as his guards risked modern-day comparisons to Barney Fife if Lyons had escaped a second time.
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Lyon’s Second Escape IsFrustrated By Deputies
Wire Found in Cell, Steel Watch Spring Missing;
Gunman Wills Pistol to Wife
By UNITED PRESS
NORWALK, April 19 – Plans of James “two gun” Lyon to make another break for liberty from the county jail were believed frustrated today when Deputy Sheriffs Frank Adelman and Hugh Burdue searched his cell and found a long piece of wire similar to the one he used in his escape a week ago.
The cell was searched while Lyon was on trial for the murder of Frank McGrath, agent of the American Railway Express Co. The deputies also learned, they said, that Lyon had taken apart his watch and had failed to replace the mainspring.
The cell was searched thoroly but the spring was not found.
Sleuth on Stand
Lyon will be searched when he is returned to his cell.
While the search was on Lyon was listening to testimony of Capt. T. Rowe, of the B. and O. Railroad police who accompanied Lyon back to Norwalk from Alpena, Mich, where he was captured.
Rowe’s testimony was regarded as one of the strongest links to the chain of evidence by which the state hopes to send the alleged killer to the electric chair.
The defense contends Lyon did not fire the shot that killed McGrath. Rowe testified that enroute from Alpena to Norwalk Lyon admitted he fired the fatal bullet.
Four Shots Fired
"We asked Lyon how many shots were fired,” Lowe said. “He said four had been fired.”
Lyon, under heavy guard, entered the courtroom smiling today. He had just made his last will and testament in which he bequeathed his German Luger to his wife.
“I am leaving the pistol to my wife,” the young desperado told reporters. “She has had it most of the time anyway and I want her to keep it."
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Jim Lyons made plans for one last attempt to avoid the electric chair – or die trying. However, he was unable to convince his brother to slip him a weapon, and was executed, as described in the article below on the front page of the April 9, 1927 Lorain Journal.
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Lions Club Ad – April 22, 1957
Here’s a cute ad for the Lorain Lions Club’s 6th Annual White Elephant Sale. The ad ran in the Lorain Journal on April 22, 1957.
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| Early 1920s version of the logo |
For some reason, Lorain’s Lion Club Club didn’t have a formal listing in the city directories along with all of the other civic organizations until 1950. At that time, the club was listed as being located in the Hotel Antlers. Shortly after that, the official address became 308 Washington Avenue.
Anyway, I wonder if the term ‘white elephant sale’ is still in use today? If you’re wondering (like me) how that expression came into being, check out this Wiki entry.
And, happily, the Lorain Lions Club is still around! Click here to visit its blog.
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We’ve Got Souse! – April 28, 1967
What’s that? You don’t know what souse is? (The ad asks the same question too, in fine print.) Then I guess you didn’t have any Germans in your family.
During the Depression, my father’s family had to move in with his German grandparents. Consequently, he was exposed to German language and culture – including food. Grandpa Esterle did his own butchering and made his own head cheese – which is also known as souse.
Then a few years ago, I happened to be in Hansa Import House in Cleveland on Lorain Avenue (near where I work) and impulsively bought a 1/2 pound of souse to bring back to work and gross out my co-workers. None of them would go near the stuff. But after nibbling it all afternoon, I discovered that after all these years I thought it was pretty good.
Just another example of a good idea that took a while to catch on.
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It’s Check-Out Time for Shoreway Motel
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| Vintage postcard of the Shoreway Motel in happier times |
Sure enough, when I drove by there today, the demolition was well underway.
I resisted the urge to grab a souvenir cinder block for my collection.
Oh well, here’s hoping the great signs out front get a new home.
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Remember when the Shoreway Motel was for sale back in 2010? It still looked pretty good back then.
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Colonel Henry Brown’s House – Part 1
The house was later owned by the Baumhart family. You can see its location in the 1874 map above as the small black square on the Adam Baumhart property, where today’s Baumhart Road meets U. S. Route 6.
The house is long-gone now – ironically lost to the now-shuttered Ford Plant. But as you will see in this blog series, the house had a rich history and was a Lorain County landmark for many years.
This first article, written by Rhea Soper Eddy (Mary Lee Tucker herself) ran in the Lorain Journal on May 27, 1947.
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House Built by Judge Gave Brownhelm Name
Indian Lookout Post, Hand-Carved Woodwork, Huge
Fireplaces Distinguish Ancient Home
By RHEA SOPER EDDY
Possibly you never noticed as you whizzed by on State Route No. 6 that it’s a different sort of a structure than the usual type of home usually seen these days.
Perhaps you didn’t know that the big square house on the lake shore west of Lorain, with its large square windows uniformly set into the wood on all sides, is the oldest frame house in Brownhelm-twp – built around 125 years ago.
Mysterious Trap Door
If someone had called your attention to the house and you had examined it at close range, you no doubt would have asked about the mysterious trap door that sticks up from the high roof, and the lovely hand carved doorways on the front and side.
The house, somewhat weather-beaten and much in need of repair, was one of the best known residences in northern Ohio once upon a time. It still is impressive with its two large front rooms with high ceilings, glass fanlights over its doors and delicate, carved woodwork.
Col. Henry Brown, later known as Judge Henry Brown, arrived in 1816 from New England and settled on the site of the present house which, in late years, has been known as the Baumhardt house, named for the late Jacob Baumhardt, who was born there.
He first built a log cabin and later the present frame building, thereby establishing a new settlement closely associated with the early development of Lorain-co.
It was in this big home, with its immense hand-carved log fireplaces in every room, that the township people gathered to organize the first church. It was there that the pioneers congregated to decide on a name for the town, and in later years, it was the township postoffice.
Little is known about Brown, other that that he named the place for himself – Brownhelm. Why he picked “helm” is not known. Possibly it appeared to him as more euphonious than the usual suffix, “ham” or “ton.”
Judge Brown, like so many of those early New Englanders, was devoted to the idea of higher education. He had spent two years at Harvard university and had often discussed plans for a college for settlers’ sons.
But, in spite of his determination to get a college established in these parts, he didn’t succeed.
Oberlin Offer Better
After many conferences, the sites he selected were turned down and folks who owned the clearing where Oberlin now stands offered their land for less. It was mostly mud and clay, wet much of the time, but cheaper.
Judge Brown, however, was rewarded for his efforts. Before Oberlin got underway, people down in Hudson, O., some 70 miles distant, asked him to help them obtain a charter for a college they were going to call Western Reserve. He saddled his horse, took himself down before the legislature, and got the charter passed. In return, he was made a trustee of Western Reserve, a position he held the rest of his life.
The present owner, Mrs. Harvey Emmerich, who, like her father, Jacob Baumhardt, was born in the house, declares that Brown built a trap door in his roof as an Indian lookout because there had been much talk about Indian uprisings. Leading up to it is a winding, steep stairway from the high ceilinged second floor. The spot provides a splendid view of the lake beyond the Nickel Plate tracks.
It is believed that Judge Brown used the platform only a few times. Little is known of his personal life, but there are indications it was anything but happy. Death came again and again to members of the family when they still occupied the log house and after they moved into the big one.
Rows of Graves
Besides the graves of Judge Brown and his wife, Harriet, in the little old Browhelm cemetery on North Ridge at the head of the Vermilion river valley, are a row of children’s tombstones. Inscriptions on them indicate that four children of the couple died between the years 1822-27.
First to die was Henrietta, in 1822 at the age of 11. Next was Sidney, aged six and a half, whose death occurred two years later. Then Harriet, 10 and Henry Jr., 3, both died in 1827.
The judge died in 1843, at the age of 70, and no one in these parts can tell of a single survivor today of the man who had struggled against many handicaps to rise to wealth and power. His wife, Harriet Seymour Brown, died 24 years later at the age of 86, in Auburn, N. Y.
Mrs. Emmerich knows little about the circumstances whereby her grandfather, James Baumhardt, acquired the property, other than that he came in possession of it in 1842, the year preceding the death of Brown.
Ninety-five of the 224 acres of land which comprise the present Baumhardt property are tillable and are worked by Mrs. Emmerich’s husband.
If the large maple trees in the front yard, which have been there since before Judge Brown first picked that site for his home, could talk they would have many fantastic stories to relate to the couple’s three grandchildren who play under them.
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Colonel Henry Brown’s House – Part 2
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Could Stop TrainsBut Don’t Bother
By RUBY TOTTEN
VERMILION-ON-THE-LAKE – It probably wouldn’t appeal to the Nickel Plate Railroad’s sense of humor, but someday a member of the Harvey Emmerich household might flag down one of its streamliners and clamber aboard.
While it’s doubtful that this will ever come to pass, an old agreement made sometime around 1880 provides for just that.
Resourceful perpetrator of this agreement was Adam Baumhart, Mrs. Harvey Emmerich’s grandfather. Adam gifted the land back of his home on Lake Road just east of Vermilion-on-the-Lake, to the railroad on condition that the train would stop and give passenger service to the family whenever needed.
IT IS JUST one of the many fascinating aspects of this old home which has stood for 130 years and has been in Mrs. Emmerich’s family for 90 years.
When the fine old frame structure, which stands close to the highway on the north side was built, John Quincy Adams was president and Abe Lincoln was only a strapping lad of 17. The first U. S. passenger railroad was yet to be built and Victoria, Queen of England, was still a child of nine. The telegraph was unheard of, and the Civil War wasn’t to be fought for 35 more years.
LITTLE WONDER that Mrs. Emmerich, a tiny curly-headed woman nearing 60, has resisted all efforts to buy the property. However, over the years she has lost 46 feet of an original 60 foot front yard to the state for highway projects. In the current road widening the state chopped down several magnificent trees, one of which was a huge elm which was believed to part of Ohio’s virgin forest.
“It was like losing a member of the family,” she said.
The house was built in 1826 by Judge Henry Brown who founded Browhelm Township and became its first judge. Apparently he was the township’s first postmaster too, for in her basement, Mrs. Emmerich had the tall old cupboard which sat in the living room and through which, by the way of a latched door in the center, the mail was handed out. The mail arrived via stagecoach. The cupboard is still functioning though perhaps not quite so illustriously – its innards now hold canned fruit.
ALSO IN THE basement you can see the hand hewn beams with wooden pins that form the home’s structural framework, and also that of the big old barn across the highway. The barn is one of the last few out buildings on the property that has withstood the press of time and weather. The house itself, while weathered, did not require new siding until about 10 years ago.
Foot-thick walls and indestructible woods have made very little change necessary in the interior. Only that for the comfort of the occupants including modernizing and some diminishing of the giant rooms, has been done. Eight great fireplaces have been filled in to conserve heat.
The family has retained a beautiful hand carved cherry mantlepiece which graced the living room fireplace. The woodwork throughout the living room is of this cherry wood and an arch between livingroom and dining room is carved to match the mantel.
MRS. EMMERICH has estimated that there are about 300 Baumhart descendants living in the area, including her brothers, Kenneth and Edward who live nearby. A third brother, Louis, is now dead.
A tragic tale accounts for the fact that there are not so many descendants on the Herwig side of the family, maiden name of Grandmother Baumhart. The sole male Herwig, Grandmother Baumhart’s brother, was drowned in Beaver Creek along with his expectant wife and five children as they were on their way to church one Sunday. No one ever knew exactly what happened, but their bodies as well as those of the horses drawing the buggy were found in the creek. It was assumed that the frightened horses crashed through the bridge rail and into the stream during a storm.
Grandfather Adam and his wife died in the old home in 1893 and 1904 respectively, as did father Jacob in 1944 and mother, Mary Krapp Baumhart, in 1935. Mrs. Emmerich, her father, and her daughter were all born in the same bedroom, and the daughter, now Mrs. John Morrison, was born on the same date and day of the week as Jacob, August 19, on a Monday.
THE BAUMHART BLOOD line extends through five generations who have lived in the house. Bringing up the tail end of this lineal sequence is 12-year old Robert Morrison, youngest of four Morrison children who with their father and mother live with the Emmerichs.
Mrs. Emmerich doesn’t think the Nickel Plate Railway has to lose any sleep about any members of her family flagging down the train.
“I don’t know what on earth we’d want to do it for,” she said, and added she didn’t even know if she could find her copy of the old agreement.
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Colonel Henry Brown’s House – Part 3
Mrs. Harvey Emmerich – interviewed in the two Journal articles posted earlier this week – found herself talking about her historic house again to a local newspaper in mid-July 1956.
This time, however, the circumstances were quite different.
The Ford Motor Company’s new assembly plant was coming, and many Brownhelm Township residents – including the Emmerichs – had already sold their farms to Ford. All that remained was the annexation of the land to Lorain.
Many township residents had mixed feelings about losing their farms, which is the subject of the article below, which ran in the Chronicle-Telegram on July 13, 1956.
Reluctance To Vacate Homesites Is Blended With Joy At Progress
Mixed feelings – joy at seeing their area grow and reluctance to give up their homesites – were voiced yesterday by residents and neighbors of the Brownhelm Township tract where the Ford Motor Co. will erect a huge truck and car assembly plant.
Sale of the land to Ford will mean, in some cases, families moving from properties that have been in their families for nearly 100 years. In others, it will mean that residents newly moved from cities to “the country” will soon find themselves neighbors to a bustling new industry center.
Members of the Baumhart family, owners of most of the 375-acre site, are selling property that’s been in the family since 1865.
Young couples who will not be selling their newly-constructed Baumhart Rd. homes have no financial salve for having an industry move in across the street from the “country homes” they built to get away from the traffic and factories in the city.
Officials Jubilant
Township officials are jubilant over the activity and new importance coming to their area. No one seems to dispute one point: The industrial development will be good for the area.
“You can’t stop progress,” said Mrs. Harvey Emmerich, granddaughter of the Baumharts who settled the area when there was grass growing in the middle of Lake Rd. and Baumhart Rd. was just the “path to the church.”
Some residents previously have had sections of their farms lopped off for the widening of Lake Rd. Then Ohio Edison bought the section just to the east of the Ford site. The Lake Rd. widening took many of their front yards, but the Ford plant will take most of their entire farms.
Will Retain Home
“We’re selling the 167 acres of farm land, but we get to keep the house because it’s on the north side of Lake Rd.,” Mrs. Emmerich said. “My father, my daughter and I were all born in that bedroom.
“Naturally, I’m glad to get the money – in fact they came around and raised the price four times.”
Mrs. Emmerich said she doesn’t think the industrial development will hurt the neighborhood. “The zoning is rigid,” she said. “I wondered what they could have when I heard all the restrictions. But I understand it will be a light industry and the building will be glazed brick.”
Selling 105 acres
One of the few plant site residents not related to the Baumharts is the Howard Burke family, who live on Rt. 2 and 6. Mrs. Burke said the family’s 105 acres all is on the plant site, but she doesn’t particularly mind moving. “It’s all right if we can find what we want in some other farm… Everybody else is satisfied. I guess we’ll have to be too,” she commented as she walked back into the field to continue cultivating.
“We don’t like it,” said Mrs. James Bell, one of the young people who are building new homes on Baumhart Rd. “We moved away from 21st Street in Lorain to get the children out in the country away from traffic and factories. Then they go and start building a plant right across the street… We’ve got this big picture window and now we’ll be looking right at a factory. But I guess it depends on where they put it and what it looks like…”
Two Farms West of Road
Two farms on the west side of Baumhart Rd., owned by the Kenneth Baumhart family also are being sold for the industrial site. “When you’ve had anything such a long time it’ll seem kind of odd to be without it,” Mrs. Baumhart said. She said the owners of other farms being sold for the side, Adam and John Claus and Charles Baumhart, all are relatives.
Her daughter, Mrs. Richard (Ruth) Reed is building another new home on Baumhart Rd. “We’ve been working three years at building our own home, now it’ll be right across the street from a plant. But you can’t stop progress,” she commented.
‘Good For Area’
“I really don’t give a darn – I’m a farmer and that’s what this land has been,” said Robert Leimbach, township trustee chairman. “But the plant will be good for the area. As long as we know what it is now, it’s OK. But I was opposed to rezoning the land when we didn’t know who wanted to come in here.
“The plant taxes probably won’t help the Firelands school district much because most of the site is in the Vermilion school district. Actually I think it will help Brownhelm Township more than anything else,” Leimbach said.
Ben Taylor, another trustee, said he had “very much faith that the plant would arrive here finally.” He said “We’ve been obscured here too long.” He compared the new plant to a new child: “It will bring a lot of activity… life. I’m glad we got it – the rezoning was a crisis, but it’s all set now."
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Next: Anachronism
This time, however, the circumstances were quite different.
The Ford Motor Company’s new assembly plant was coming, and many Brownhelm Township residents – including the Emmerichs – had already sold their farms to Ford. All that remained was the annexation of the land to Lorain.
Many township residents had mixed feelings about losing their farms, which is the subject of the article below, which ran in the Chronicle-Telegram on July 13, 1956.
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Brownhelm Residents Voice Views On New Ford PlantReluctance To Vacate Homesites Is Blended With Joy At Progress
Mixed feelings – joy at seeing their area grow and reluctance to give up their homesites – were voiced yesterday by residents and neighbors of the Brownhelm Township tract where the Ford Motor Co. will erect a huge truck and car assembly plant.
Sale of the land to Ford will mean, in some cases, families moving from properties that have been in their families for nearly 100 years. In others, it will mean that residents newly moved from cities to “the country” will soon find themselves neighbors to a bustling new industry center.
Members of the Baumhart family, owners of most of the 375-acre site, are selling property that’s been in the family since 1865.
Young couples who will not be selling their newly-constructed Baumhart Rd. homes have no financial salve for having an industry move in across the street from the “country homes” they built to get away from the traffic and factories in the city.
Officials Jubilant
Township officials are jubilant over the activity and new importance coming to their area. No one seems to dispute one point: The industrial development will be good for the area.
“You can’t stop progress,” said Mrs. Harvey Emmerich, granddaughter of the Baumharts who settled the area when there was grass growing in the middle of Lake Rd. and Baumhart Rd. was just the “path to the church.”
Some residents previously have had sections of their farms lopped off for the widening of Lake Rd. Then Ohio Edison bought the section just to the east of the Ford site. The Lake Rd. widening took many of their front yards, but the Ford plant will take most of their entire farms.
Will Retain Home
“We’re selling the 167 acres of farm land, but we get to keep the house because it’s on the north side of Lake Rd.,” Mrs. Emmerich said. “My father, my daughter and I were all born in that bedroom.
“Naturally, I’m glad to get the money – in fact they came around and raised the price four times.”
Mrs. Emmerich said she doesn’t think the industrial development will hurt the neighborhood. “The zoning is rigid,” she said. “I wondered what they could have when I heard all the restrictions. But I understand it will be a light industry and the building will be glazed brick.”
Selling 105 acres
One of the few plant site residents not related to the Baumharts is the Howard Burke family, who live on Rt. 2 and 6. Mrs. Burke said the family’s 105 acres all is on the plant site, but she doesn’t particularly mind moving. “It’s all right if we can find what we want in some other farm… Everybody else is satisfied. I guess we’ll have to be too,” she commented as she walked back into the field to continue cultivating.
“We don’t like it,” said Mrs. James Bell, one of the young people who are building new homes on Baumhart Rd. “We moved away from 21st Street in Lorain to get the children out in the country away from traffic and factories. Then they go and start building a plant right across the street… We’ve got this big picture window and now we’ll be looking right at a factory. But I guess it depends on where they put it and what it looks like…”
Two Farms West of Road
Two farms on the west side of Baumhart Rd., owned by the Kenneth Baumhart family also are being sold for the industrial site. “When you’ve had anything such a long time it’ll seem kind of odd to be without it,” Mrs. Baumhart said. She said the owners of other farms being sold for the side, Adam and John Claus and Charles Baumhart, all are relatives.
Her daughter, Mrs. Richard (Ruth) Reed is building another new home on Baumhart Rd. “We’ve been working three years at building our own home, now it’ll be right across the street from a plant. But you can’t stop progress,” she commented.
‘Good For Area’
“I really don’t give a darn – I’m a farmer and that’s what this land has been,” said Robert Leimbach, township trustee chairman. “But the plant will be good for the area. As long as we know what it is now, it’s OK. But I was opposed to rezoning the land when we didn’t know who wanted to come in here.
“The plant taxes probably won’t help the Firelands school district much because most of the site is in the Vermilion school district. Actually I think it will help Brownhelm Township more than anything else,” Leimbach said.
Ben Taylor, another trustee, said he had “very much faith that the plant would arrive here finally.” He said “We’ve been obscured here too long.” He compared the new plant to a new child: “It will bring a lot of activity… life. I’m glad we got it – the rezoning was a crisis, but it’s all set now."
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Colonel Henry Brown’s House – Part 4
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| The house's sheer scale is startling when seen in this shot looking north across the Ford plant's roof toward the lake. |
Thus it was a pleasant surprise when I discovered that the house had made it into several aerial photos of the Ford Motor Company plant that are in the photo archives of the Lorain Historical Society. Above you see one of them.
The photos – some of which are identified as a 'Bill Long' photo – reveal a huge, lonely farm house completely out of place with the modern factory nearby.
Here are a few more shots from the Lorain Historical Society's archives.
Next: Loss of a Landmark
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Colonel Henry Brown’s House – Part 5
By the early 1960s, the Emmerich family were living elsewhere. (Harvey G. Emmerich’s obituary from late January 1964 stated that he had moved to Tampa, Florida two years earlier.)
Unfortunately, it is difficult to know for sure who lived there after the Emmerich family. To find out, we need a street address to research.
The house’s location in Brownhelm Township outside Lorain meant that it was not included in the older Lorain city directories of the 1950s. The house did not have a numerical street address in the books until the early 1960s, after the Emmerich family had moved out. (Prior to that, “Stop 119” was the only address referenced in a newspaper article.)
But by using available resources, it is still possible to come up with some answers.
The 1954 Lorain County Farm & Rural Directory confirms that the house was the second house east of Baumhart on the north side of U. S. Route 6. Here is that directory's listing (below). Note that the listings at the top of the column (including the Holiday Inn Motel) are closer to Vermilion and that the listings run from west to east towards Lorain.
This 1952 aerial (courtesy of Dennis Thompson) shows the Emmerich house (circled) and farm where the Ford plant would later be located. As you can see, there are only the two houses on the north side of Lake Road near Baumhart Road.
The 1964 Lorain City Directory listing below – with the addresses starting at Beaver Park and progressing west towards Vermilion – reveals numerical addresses for those two houses.
It appears that the address of our historic house was 8360 West Erie Avenue.
Using that address and available directories (including the 1962 Dickman Criss-Cross Directory), there were only a few people who lived in the house in the 1960s:
1962 – Hugh Martin, A. C. Aycock and Jas. R. Pratt
1963 – Vernon Hector
1964 – Vernon Hector
1966 – Walter Higdon
1967 – Walter Higdon
1968 – Walter Higdon
1969 – Vacant
Next: The Rest of the Story
Next: The Rest of the Story
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Colonel Henry Brown’s House – Part 6
HistoricAerials.com reveals that the two houses managed to survive until at least 1969.
At some point in the 1970s, Ford acquired the properties north of the highway containing the two houses. Perhaps it was part of the Lorain plant’s much-publicized expansion in the early 1970s.
Anyway, a 1971 topographic map on HistoricAerials.com shows that the two houses are no longer depicted on the map.
An aerial photo of the plant from an undated Ford advertisement (found in the Lorain Public Library archives) shows the land containing the two houses cleared, with many tracks left by earth movers, but with the ramp and highway overpass across West Erie Avenue not yet constructed.
Today, there’s not much for motorists to see at the intersection of U. S. Route 6 and Baumhart Road. If they look towards the lake, they see only a weedy, fenced-in area with an unused overpass leading to a shuttered auto plant.
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Colonel Henry Brown’s House – Part 7
I’m sure you’re just as surprised as me to see yet another post in this series about Colonel Henry Brown’s house that I concluded yesterday. (Think of it as a curtain call.)
I forgot that I had a funny news story in my files about the house from one of the later years that the Emmerich family owned it. The short article is from the Lorain Journal of July 2, 1956, and provides a good example of the pitfalls of living in a highly visible house on a major highway.
Mrs. Harvey Emmerich, Stop 119, East Lake Rd., doesn’t mind an overnight guest now and then, but she does like to know about it.
Shortly after arising early Saturday morning, Mrs. Emmerich discovered a well-dressed man comfortably ensconced on her couch and sound asleep.
A FURTHER CHECK disclosed his late-model car parked neatly in the drive. A daughter later told Mrs. Emmerich that she had noticed the car there when she drove past the house about midnight.
Mrs. Emmerich called her husband in from the barn, notified an upstairs tenant and the three roused the stranger and demanded to know what he was doing there.
STARING ABOUT him in confusion, he mumbled that he “must have got in the wrong place.”
“Did I hurt anyone?” he asked. Thereupon he asked the directions to Sandusky and left.
Recovering from their amazement, the Emmerichs alerted the State Highway Patrol and Sheriff’s office, but efforts to locate the man were unavailing.
Describing her unexpected guest as tall, grey-haired, about 55 and nicely dressed, Mrs. Emmerich nevertheless declared, “I sure am going to keep my doors locked after this."
I forgot that I had a funny news story in my files about the house from one of the later years that the Emmerich family owned it. The short article is from the Lorain Journal of July 2, 1956, and provides a good example of the pitfalls of living in a highly visible house on a major highway.
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Emmerichs Find ‘Guest’ In HouseMrs. Harvey Emmerich, Stop 119, East Lake Rd., doesn’t mind an overnight guest now and then, but she does like to know about it.
Shortly after arising early Saturday morning, Mrs. Emmerich discovered a well-dressed man comfortably ensconced on her couch and sound asleep.
A FURTHER CHECK disclosed his late-model car parked neatly in the drive. A daughter later told Mrs. Emmerich that she had noticed the car there when she drove past the house about midnight.
Mrs. Emmerich called her husband in from the barn, notified an upstairs tenant and the three roused the stranger and demanded to know what he was doing there.
STARING ABOUT him in confusion, he mumbled that he “must have got in the wrong place.”
“Did I hurt anyone?” he asked. Thereupon he asked the directions to Sandusky and left.
Recovering from their amazement, the Emmerichs alerted the State Highway Patrol and Sheriff’s office, but efforts to locate the man were unavailing.
Describing her unexpected guest as tall, grey-haired, about 55 and nicely dressed, Mrs. Emmerich nevertheless declared, “I sure am going to keep my doors locked after this."
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Colonel Henry Brown’s Grave
So on this past beautiful Sunday morning, I took a short drive out to Brownhelm Cemetery on North Ridge Road.
I was disappointed to find the row of his family's tombstones still in bad shape.
Several years ago – when I first began researching this story – I noticed that either a storm or vandals had created a mess of the Brown family’s stones. Broken monuments were lying on the ground, or unceremoniously stacked like TV dinners in the freezer.
They were pretty much in the same position on Sunday.
In that case, it looks like the Judge is out of luck.
According to an article in the Elyria Independent Democrat of October 9, 1872 about the death of Mrs. Abby Long, "the deceased was daughter of Judge Brown, who first settled in, and gave name to the township of Brownhelm, and was the last surviving member of that honored family."
The History of Lorain County, Ohio published by Williams Brothers, Philadelphia (1879) includes a biography of Judge Brown and notes that "the family is now extinct in the township."
Nevertheless, it doesn’t seem right that the family plot of a man so important to the founding of Brownhelm should be so neglected, especially during the township's bicentennial year celebration.
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