Elyria Ave. and E. 28th St., Lorain, OH

L. Shure, 2016

Every now and then I need to post a drawing from my hometown, Lorain, Ohio.  This old diner may have been intended to serve the area when Czechs and Slovaks were arriving to work at the nearby steel plant and shipyards.

Because Lorain was such an industrial powerhouse, it drew workers from around the world, but especially from Eastern Europe.  I still remember visiting the nearby Polish American Club for their Friday Fish Fry.  I think that building has now become a social services agency.

With the closing of the mills and shipyards, many of Lorain's businesses are long gone. East 28th Street, which was once covered with bars and restaurants, was hit even harder than the downtown. But this remnant always catches my eye, with its hopeful modernist storefront looking a little more dilapidated each year.

Storefront at 6962 N. Clark, 2006

Many blogs post their most popular entries around the new year. Great idea! But instead, here's one of the least popular entries, originally posted on 9/5/06. According to the counter, this was viewed 11 times in the past 7 years! Still, I do like the image.

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With the days getting shorter my evening walks with Felix have gotten much darker. I find myself drawn to the strangely organized and uncomfortably configured storefronts on Clark. In this case I'm not sure exactly what they're selling. Pretty much everything? The confusion and disarray makes it a pretty good subject for a drawing.

So I've been taking photographs of these amazing storefronts. I'm not sure where it's leading, but it's a good opportunity to play around with color.  This is a combination of Prismacolor markers and color pencils.

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Note:  This storefront has been completely replaced with a modern aluminum system.  I miss it.

Flower shop on Clark

More is more. Here's another confused drawing of a confused storefront. This is your one-stop-shop for stuffed animals, mylar balloons, cut flowers, chess sets, phone cards, and plastic toys.


I love the lettering in the windows. Certain letters have peeled off and been replaced with different colors. The overall effect is nice, and may be intentional. Or maybe those were the only colors available.

This may be the last storefront on Clark that I post, although I want to stick with night images for a while.

Hair salon on Clark

I'm amazed at how many stores my neighborhood can support. And I can't claim there's enourmous variety, either. In the three block stretch of Clark between Greenleaf and Farwell there must be 8 taquerias, 4 bakeries, 10 dollar stores, and 4 hair salons. How do they differentiate themselves from each other? Not through design or signage. What makes one dollar store successful, while another closes within a month? I don't know. There are probably ties in my neighborhood that I never see.

But I realize that we've fallen into our own pattern of patronage. Is there any reason we go to Taqueria Uptown instead of the one two storefronts over? Is there any reason we always go to the corner store at the southwest corner of Lunt and Clark instead of the larger one just east of Clark? Maybe there's enough density in my neighborhood that it's able to support hundreds of these patterns and habits. Maybe that's what makes small businesses successful in the city. I have to admit- the ones that stick around are there for a good long time.

Paleteria Monarcha, 6955 N. Clark

Angela has a big issues with signs in our neighborhood that over-use quotations marks. Do you really want to order a "Chicken" sandwich? This ice-cream shop on Clark joins that proud tradition with their "Nachos."

I'll be sad to see this place close down for the winter. They should switch to soup.