Posted April 18, 200817 yr New downtown McDonalds! A twin to the courthouse in Marion, Indiana, the Lorain County Courthouse is the other Elijah Myers courthouse in Ohio...and it has also had its tower altered (in this case, removed altogether) Elyria High (which survived OSFC (at least the oldest section))
April 18, 200817 yr It's just like Hamilton but with a Burger King! "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
April 18, 200817 yr Some nice buildings, but some horrendous 60s remodels. The person who "invented" those plastic and aluminum panels slapped up with spit and luck on top of perfectly acceptable bricks should be publicly flogged. Like the new Justice Center. Seems sympathetic to old Court House.
April 18, 200817 yr It's alright. well in that case save yourself a little effort looking over the threads because if you are cool on elyria then you are cool on hamilton too. :laugh:
April 19, 200817 yr Nice-looking downtown with quite a few handsome buildings. Looks like a lot of vacant storefronts. I caught the similarity to the Marion (IN) courthouse right away, and thought it must have had a dome originally. I believe I read something a while back about Grant County (Marion) planning a courthouse renovation and considering putting the dome back. That style really needs it; it clearly lacks something without.
April 19, 200817 yr And if you're cool with Stryker, you are cool with Lorain. i'm cool with elyrilton or hamiltyria. :wink:
February 11, 20214 yr Elyria has seen a lot of demolition recently. All of these buildings are now gone:
February 11, 20214 yr What, why? For what? "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
February 11, 20214 yr ^Various reasons... Several came down for a new McDonald's drive-thru restaurant (last picture), another one was demolished after the city let it deteriorate (Sears bldg, second to last picture), the Mussey/Century recently came down with a new downtown demolition grant program, and several came down for a new library (first picture). The biggest loss to me is the three-story Mussey/Century Block. That will be a big hole right in the middle of downtown, and the building was quite nice.
February 11, 20214 yr Make Elyria Great Again! ... by adding parking lots... “To an Ohio resident - wherever he lives - some other part of his state seems unreal.”
February 26, 20214 yr And another building--this time a very large block with facades on two streets--is lost to arson: Elyria police: 2 teens arrested in connection to fire that destroyed vacant commercial building (cleveland19.com)
February 26, 20214 yr Oh, man that's sad. I always liked Downtown Elyria, but they seem determined to level the whole place lately.
April 9, 20214 yr ^ oh geez i just read about that --- that's the infamous uncle vic's niteclub building -- a truly crazy, wild building -- 20 apts above it too. uncle vic was a radio dj too -- and he even had a hit song with space invaders -- i used to see him at the beach of all places, you sure couldn't miss the guy lol. uncle vic died of cancer last year. more: https://www.wkyc.com/article/news/local/lorain-county/uncle-vic-building-elyria-fire/95-a5ce20c6-606c-4979-8304-fb128fd616b0 victor 'uncle vic' blecman
April 26, 20214 yr ^Very sad, indeed. Between that building and the Mussey/Century Block coming down, the dense urban feeling in that part of downtown Elyria will be gone.
June 16, 20213 yr And now Elyria is facing the potential demolition of yet another significant building, the former Shane Furniture building. The building appears to have had a terra cotta facade, but is currently covered with cladding. https://chroniclet.com/news/265019/former-shane-furniture-on-demolition-path-effort-underway-to-restore-it/
June 16, 20213 yr 56 minutes ago, ink said: And now Elyria is facing the potential demolition of yet another significant building, the former Shane Furniture building. The building appears to have had a terra cotta facade, but is currently covered with cladding. https://chroniclet.com/news/265019/former-shane-furniture-on-demolition-path-effort-underway-to-restore-it/ I'm sorry to go on a rant but this is such BS. Elyria has a unique opportunity to rebrand itself as a walkable suburb with a central business district - similar to Willoughby, Chagrin Falls, etc. and instead of preserving the bones, they just tear the whole thing down
June 16, 20213 yr What the heck is going on with Elyria? Most other small cities in Ohio have managed to at least partially revive their downtowns in the recent years; look at Hamilton and Middletown in deep-red Butler County, or even Springfield which has finally stopped tearing down its downtown (for the most part). Even Lorain seems to be making smarter decisions than Elyria at the moment. Maybe city leaders need to stop taking advice from the townies who hang out at that depressing coffee shop that the New York Times visits every four years for "election coverage". “To an Ohio resident - wherever he lives - some other part of his state seems unreal.”
June 16, 20213 yr If Elyria continues down this path, Lorain will end up being the city that Elyria wants to be. How ironic considering Lorain County residents view Lorain city as the joke of their county. Elyria is determined to be Avon apparently
June 16, 20213 yr Retail in downtown Elyria was killed off by Midway Mall. Now the mall is dead - but it doesn't seem to be giving downtown Elyria a jolt.
June 16, 20213 yr That is really sad. If it continues, Lorain will be perceived as the only city in Lorain County.
June 1, 20223 yr This weekend I was in Elyria, and noticed another building has been demolished. The quaint Wooster building is no more:
June 1, 20223 yr But on a positive note, the terra cotta facade of a once-cladded building in the 300 block of Broad Street has been revealed:
June 1, 20223 yr https://chroniclet.com/news/304487/elyria-council-debates-shane-furniture-building/ https://www.change.org/p/elyria-city-council-327-broad-street-is-worth-the-work There may be a great facade behind this cladding - I wonder if JC Penney was responsible for this cladding when it was their store pre-Midway Mall... Edited June 1, 20223 yr by buckeye1
June 1, 20223 yr The amount of demolitions in Elyria is insanely depressing to me. I guess they just don't see the potential in it that we do! Even with all the new empty lots, Downtown Elyria still has so much potential. I could see it having similar success to Newark's downtown if they played their cards right.
June 2, 20223 yr ^Elyria should be the revitalizing mid-size city outside Cleveland, like Newark to Columbus or Hamilton to Cincinnati. They need to start rehabbing downtown ASAP.
June 2, 20223 yr When I was there earlier this year, it seems Lorain had a healthier downtown than Elyria. I was truly impressed by Lorain's revival. Elyria made me sad as I had visited it before COVID and it seemed much better then. "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
June 2, 20223 yr Someone recently was awarded a TMUD for a major mixed use development in downtown on the site of the old Mardi Gras/Uncle Vic's complex that burned down. So there's at least some private sector activity. But I get no sense that there's any sort of leadership from the public side to make any more overarching investments in downtown- no overall vision for where the city's future may lie. Lorain seems to have a bit more of an idea going with the waterfront access along the Black River and Lake Erie. They need to tie it in better with the rest of downtown, though. The Broadway streetscaping is very nice, too, and gives Broadway a lot of pedestrian/cafe space that should make for a very active downtown if they can attract the businesses to fill it in.
November 5, 20222 yr On 6/1/2022 at 10:29 AM, buckeye1 said: https://chroniclet.com/news/304487/elyria-council-debates-shane-furniture-building/ https://www.change.org/p/elyria-city-council-327-broad-street-is-worth-the-work There may be a great facade behind this cladding - I wonder if JC Penney was responsible for this cladding when it was their store pre-Midway Mall... And now the Shane building is coming down, and the demolition has caused damage to the historic buildings on either side: https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/local-news/elyria-demolition-gone-wrong-damaging-multiple-buildings-in-collapse Sad state of affairs in Elyria.
November 5, 20222 yr Elyria's Downtown has really been through the ringer... as if it couldn't get any worse!
June 7, 20232 yr The four-story, terra cotta-clad Shane Furniture/JCPenney building is mostly removed…
July 12, 20231 yr well, a positive is that was a very nicely done news story on the shane bldg collapse. what a catch to see it happen — and then what a mess. now the big gap — with neighboring teardowns likely. ugh.
July 12, 20231 yr It's so weird that Elyria hasn't found its spark yet... so many other similar cities (Hamilton, Troy, Wapakoneta, Wooster, Newark, etc) seem to have figured it out, but Elyria is still in teardown mode, which is sad. Even the sleepier small towns that haven't fullt rebounded yet, like Sidney, aren't indiscriminately tearing things down. “To an Ohio resident - wherever he lives - some other part of his state seems unreal.”
July 16, 20231 yr On 7/12/2023 at 8:53 AM, BigDipper 80 said: It's so weird that Elyria hasn't found its spark yet... so many other similar cities (Hamilton, Troy, Wapakoneta, Wooster, Newark, etc) seem to have figured it out, but Elyria is still in teardown mode, which is sad. Even the sleepier small towns that haven't fullt rebounded yet, like Sidney, aren't indiscriminately tearing things down. you are right. and i just do not understand it. i would never have believed lorain would take the upper hand in investment and preservation and with a more vibrant downtown over elyria, but it seems they finally have. it would break my heart to see these eyesore gaps in downtown elyria, historically that was strictly lorain's specialty lol.
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