08/24/2026
🏛️ Back to the Loop: A 1950's Postcard View of Broadway Building!
📮 Take a look at this fantastic vintage postcard, postmarked 1953, showcasing a bustling view of the "Loop" at Broadway and West Erie Avenue in Lorain. The scene captures a classic 1950s moment, complete with a car towing a boat around the corner. In the background, the Broadway Building stands tall and proud, a thriving hub of activity decades before its later years of vacancy and restoration.
📫 This postcard gives us a glimpse of a downtown filled with local businesses. Bear's Furniture was listed at 319 Broadway around this time, and Fisher Brothers was a neighbor at 330 Broadway. The streets were busy, the storefronts were full, and the Broadway Building was a cornerstone of the community.
😊 By the time blogger Dan Brady shared this postcard in 2016, much had changed. He noted that many of the buildings shown in the postcard were gone, thanks to urban renewal. The Broadway Building itself was in a period of decline, famously "wearing a hairnet" of protective netting. But of course, the story doesn't end there.
💯 Celebrating 100 Years. Today, the Broadway Building, now the Ariel Broadway Hotel, stands fully restored and vibrant once again, celebrating its Centennial in 2026. This postcard from 1953 is a wonderful reminder of its long history at the heart of Lorain.
📸 Image from a vintage postcard, postmarked 1953, via Daniele Brady's blog "Down at the Loop – Then & Now," June 2016.
👇 Do you remember the Loop in the 1950s? Have any family stories connected to this corner? Share them in the comments!
