Even Lorain has a downtown grocery store!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some nice-looking buildings and an orderly downtown, but it looks like Lorain continues its decline.

 

There used to be a big coal-transfer dock at Lorain, where they transferred coal from railroad cars to bulk freighters. The beach sand and pebbles used to have coal mixed in with them. I don't know if the coal dock is still active.

Not bad!

The new residential developments look quite nice.

 

Is that "brick" stamped into asphalt on the street scenes?

Is that "brick" stamped into asphalt on the street scenes?

 

I believe so.

UGH. So that must be painted asphalt.

 

We had crosswalks like that. Asphalt wore down quite quickly, and the paint needed to be reapplied quite often.

 

If you are going faux, at least use dyed concrete.

I don't know if Lorain as a whole is still in decline, but the Downtown is alot nicer than it was 10 years ago.  Alot less vacant buildings and the public realm is better maintained.

The street printing was done by Gerken Paving of Napoleon, Ohio, using a combination of techniques to imprint the asphalt.   For more information, see http://www.integratedpaving.com/.  The parking lanes and intersections were done with StreetPrint, and the crosswalks are DuraTherm.

 

Here's an image of an intersection in Amherst that uses the same techniques:

 

 

The same company also did the decorative paving for Levis Commons in Perrysburg:

 

 

and the riverfront in Toledo:

 

 

Even Lorain has a downtown grocery store!

 

There's also Fligner's Market on Broadway (since 1924)

"Home Of The Largest Custom Cut Full Service Discount Meat Counter In Ohio"

http://www.flignersmarket.com/FlignersAd.pdf

Fresh Hungarian sausage, homemade Italian bread, and Goya products all in one ad!

 

By the way, Ink, great thread, nice pictures of my hometown.

I haven't been there since I was a kid, I wasn't expecting it to look this good.

When I first saw Lorain (back in the day), I was expecting the downtown area to be along the lines of Canton or a smaller Youngstown - needless to say, I was kind of underwhelmed.

^ Think Warren, with a lake. :laugh:

You guys are right on my Saginaw, MI threads.  Both Lorain and Saginaw look very much alike.  At least Lorain's downtown looks far more intact.

no, lorain is not set up like canton or youngstown, its a main street town, that being the broadway that ink is showing us.

 

i agree downtown is looking better than ever in some ways and i am happen about the new paving (although the streets across rest of the city look like the moon).

 

the saddest part of downtown for me is across the street from city hall, the prime block on the sw corner of broadway and the lake road aka west erie avenue. there is a well used, but crummy ugly government building there set back in the middle of the block (and the small grocery strip mall behind it ink showed). what bugs me is when i was a kid it used to be totally filled with buildings. from broadway, this is about what it looked like on the corner when i was a kid. i barely recall my grandfather would take to that newsstand to play the numbers while i tottled around - lol!:

 

 

this is another old view of lake road heading west off the bascule bridge. the city hall is on the right today, but on the left you can see the same restaurant above and some of the buildings that filled all around that block:

 

ah well.

 

one more thing, besides broadway there is second main street too, and that is 28th street in front of the steel plant in south lorain. if you think broadway is in decline, it's thriving compared to that strip. in my day 28th st was still thriving, it used to have at least double the buildings it does now, a massive puerto rican grocery store "the hogar super riquenno" or something like that where we would shop, furniture stores, our bank was there, many of the ethnic clubs, etc., all oddly going about their business under the orange sky hellfire (until they put scrubbers in the sky was always orange and the soot was everywhere) - needless to say that's all gone now.

 

well thats some of my lorain memories. nice work inkaelin.

Lo-Lo-Lo-rain

Never been to Lorain, but it sure looks nicer than I had imagined.  Somehow, I had Gary Indiana in mind with a Cleveland twist.  Pleasant surprise.

I've been wondering what Lorain looked like, I have a bunch of relatives that live there.

I am looking for a picture of the former Brownell School located on Brownell Avenue in Lorain. Built in 1904, razed in 1984.

 

I am also looking for a picture of the original Fairhome School on Idaho Avenue that was built in 1901 and razed in the 1950s.

 

Finally, I am looking for a picture of the former Garden Avenue School which was built in 1890 and razed in 1938.

 

If anyone has pictures of these three school, please email me at [email protected]

 

oldschools here is the best i could find:

 

first is a pic of my grandmother's elementary class in front of garden avenue elementary 1919:

 

and here is a pic i found on the city library's lorain memory project. it says it is a 6th-7th grade class in brownell elementary 1913:

 

i can ask my mom if we have anything else,

but you might also ask here at the city library website:

http://www.lorainmemory.org/content.aspx?PID=1

 

or here at the black river historical society:

http://www.loraincityhistory.org/

 

good luck!

"Bleh." is the first thing that comes to mind.

I had some relatives living in Lorain when I was younger, so there's definately an air of familiarity here.  My favorite part of the city is the Charles Berry Bridge near downtown, which is apparently one of the longest bascule bridges in the world.  Seeing the street in front of you being upturned to let a huge ore freighter pass is quite a sight when you're about eight years old.

Definately the ugliest city hall in Ohio.

 

But not as bad as I thought it was going to be.

I must be the only one who thinks Lorain looks WORSE than I expected it to.  I didn't expect so many vacant storefronts.  The infrastructure looks decent, though.  It wouldn't take a whole lot to bring life back to some of those streets.

^ gc actually it looks much better than you would expect given the history. you can thank quite the one-two sucker punch for that.

 

first was ohio's most destructive tornado in the 1920's, which was almost unbelieveably a perfect storm. if i was the devil himself i could not have plotted a more sinister path of destruction. so loss of life aside, that totally wrecked the downtown and most of the old buildings and structures.

 

the second and equally destructive blow to hit the rest of the city was more recent and that was the rustbelt related loss of industry. of all the thriving major factories that were going strong in my lifetime, only the steel plant is still around...and limping along at that. ford assembly, american shipbuilding, thew shovel, lorain products (they made the insides of telephones)? gone. all employed many, many thousands of people. utterly devastating on a scale only youngstownians can understand. i honestly dk how the place isnt more gary-like.

 

 

Lorain's available waterfront acreage is a huge X factor for the future of that city.

Reposting this video...

 

A great video with vintage photos of downtown Lorain from the Black River Historical Society's photo collection:

 

 

Come what may, it's Our Town

A film by Tim Stewart

 

(now inkaelin has to reply "Great video" and all will be right in the world again)

i'm sure he will and i will say it too.

 

wow thx for posting that, they did a good job.

Great video.

Cool!