want something non-alcoholic to do when you need a break from visiting family?  :laugh:  clev has a pretty fantastic antiques district* on the westside mostly bet w35th and w85th streets along gritty old lorain avenue in the detroit-shoreway nabe. it's the largest concentration of antiques dealers in ohio. despite 95 degree heat last week, somehow my spouse kept focused & scored a beaded sweater --- while i scored a few pics.

 

first, here's some info for you visiting antiquers:

 

http://www.dscdo.org/about/abt_c_c.html

http://www.discoverlorainave.com/lorain/categories.jsp?id=5

 

*note -- there is another more chi-chi cleveland antiques district along larchemere near shaker square, but we did not make it there this time. info about that one:

http://www.larchmere.com/antiques.html

 

yay for public rail transit --- the rapid at work

 

first stop is chelsea's off detroit, prob the best vintage clothing shop in the usa

 

very clevelandy apts next door

 

what? heh. i think its the renovated warehouse condo on detroit?

 

some occasional apocalyptic devestation

 

get outta their way

 

here we go, the real nitty gritty on the drag

 

typical

 

umm hmm

 

needs love

 

if you only go to one, the bijou is prob the best antique shop of all

 

 

it's a very diverse nabe, culturally and economically

 

a colombian deli

 

alley bungalows

 

yay for hooptys  8-)

boo for empty lots behind them  :x    :?    :whip:  :shoot:

 

nice

 

cute

 

 

 

hey remember that led zep song? ahhh hot dog!

 

very clevelandy style signage

 

schweet patina -- a lot of these buildings need shops to reopen below them again  :|

note this one also lost it's next door neighbor along the way  :wtf:

 

your streetfront factory neighbor, does a walk to work sound nice?  :clap:

 

groovy windows

 

another highly rec'd hipster antique/vintage clothing shop on the strip

 

heading out -- lots of varied row housing dots the area

 

it was a very exciting surprise to see lots of activity and renovations going on in gordon square  :clap:

 

but then boom it's right back to an apocalyptic war zone, this nabe sure has it all

 

alrighty now -- lets end on something postive shall we? --- some infill housing -- yay!  :clap:

 

Nice pics. The best I've seen in a while...cause it shows the good and bad. The hoopty is just awesome.

There used to be a place called "The Wrecking Ball" on Lorain in that general vicinity, 15-plus years ago. It was just a run-down old house cram-packed with doors, windows, cabinets, trim and hardware salvaged from demolished houses. When I was working on trying to restore some of the 1800s character of the inside of my house, I picked up several doors and other odds and ends there, pretty reasonable.

Where is 'Bijou' located?

^the bijou antiques mall is on lorain ave somewhere in the mid 70's cross streets. despite it's outward building appearance and single enterance it is not merely one shop, it's a huge antiques mall with many dealers on two floors. if you go hit 'suite lorain' too, imo those two are the best of the bunch for browsing.

Very nice! An interesting area indeed.

Interesting.

Nice pics.  But the camera doesn't lie.  As nice as some of the Antiques District strip looks along Lorain, there is so much that looks downright seedy -- to the extent that, if you are Cleveland's travel arm, do you really want to prop this neighborhood up as 'the place to go' to get antiques?  Larchmere, though not as extensive (Length-wise, anyway) as Lorain, is a much nicer area to buy antiques; much more pleasing to the eye -- and, no, I'm not saying this because I live right around the corner.

 

I'm pulling for Lorain though, because we're all Clevelanders.  But, really, I wish the City would take this area under it's wing and start proactively cleaning it up -- much like the City cleaned up Ohio City's Market Square retail district in the 90s which has lead to its current renaissance.

^ sadly 'tis true.

 

i hate to say it, but while hanging out the only local pedestrians i saw all day were a couple roving packs of gang banger kids rockin their colors and a pair of shirtless emaciated and tattooed gentleman who appeared to have more than a passing familarity with crystal meth. i got the fisheye from all of them for sure. if not for the large group of auto shop guys hanging out and watching the streets it looked like potentially non-stop trouble.

 

otoh, despite this kind of long running situation no question lorain ave is "thee" place to go for antiques. i saw many suburbanite type ladies parking right in front of the antiques shoppe of their choice and flouncing in and back out to the car like it was nothing -- all the while studiously ignoring their surroundings -- of course that happened thanks to plentiful streetside parking.

 

it always seems to me the city just utterly ignores the whole strip.

 

so anyway fair warning -- be careful and use your city savvy spidey sense if yr out walking the streets around there.

 

The Levin College, with funding from the Gund Foundation, is working on a "form based zoning" effort that focuses on Lorain as its model street.  The end goal (I believe) is to attract more real estate attention to the corridor by upping the ante as far as design and code are concerned.  Namely, no more used car lots or drive-thrus.  It won't happen over night, but it's gotta start somewhere, right?

 

Also, the prices along that strip are remarkably cheap.  You can buy a half-block of retail frontage with rentals on top for a song.  That, or you can buy some vacant land and build new.  It seems like a great opportunity for a developer (or three!) to come in and start filling in the gaps!

 

I've been to Suite Lorain and I loved it.  Do they still have the soda fountain/diner setup when you first walk in?

 

Is the Wrecking Ball that Rob1412 mentioned still around?  That sounds awesome!

 

^outside of outright redevelopment action, that's the good news i wanted to hear, so thx mgd. i could not agree more that the lorain strip is a developers dream. even a novice developer. i just wish the city itself got more visibly involved and twisted more arms behind the scenes. ditto for e105th too for that matter.

 

fyi - suite lorain is the forever the same. i remember the wrecking ball shop, but it is no more. i'm not sure where it was, i think it was maybe where 'antiques in the bank' is now (up the street just before fulton)? that's just a guess. rob mentioned it being in an old house.