Landmark gone

[Randy]

Last year I put up some black & white pictures I had taken with my old Ansco Speedex Jr. One of the pictures was of Johnsons Drive-In Resturant, an old historical landmark here in Conneaut.



Well, old Mr. Johnson passed, and it turns out he didn't own the property his resturant was on, only the building. The Mason's next door own the property. Plans were made to tear down the building, and despite the actions of local historians, the building was taken down. As the building was going down, they found asbestos insulation, and there was quite an issue about who was going to pay for the safe removal. In the end the city ended up footing the bill. On a positive note, while they were taking the building down they found out it used to be a gas station, and it was once a metal kit building from a gas station chain from the early 1900s. The original metal frame and exterior has been saved by the Antique Engine Club and will be installed in the near future on their grounds next to the antique Pennzoil gas station they have.

[PeterW]

Sad to see any landmark go, Randy. But perhaps in view of the asbestors insulation it was for the best. History and nostalgia are great, but not worth anyone's health.

We lost several landmarks here in Ashford in the 1970s when they drove a four-lane ring road round the centre of the town. One of them was an old established bakers with a huge coal fired brick oven at least 150 years old. The early-morning smell when they were unloading the oven using iron shovels with about 12 foot long handles was so enticing. Their fresh bread was superb, and their meat pies were the best I've ever tasted. Today's supermarket products are, by comparison, convenient plastic-tasting rubbish.

In a way, I suppose the asbestos in Johnson's Restaurant served a useful purpose in the end. Had it not been there the building might have been demolished with a ball and chain and bulldozer and the old original metal gas station destroyed. Nice to hear that it's going to be saved and re-erected.

PeterW

[bobm]

History and nostalgia are great, but not worth anyone's health.

All too true Peter - just recently up in Invergordon, they had to evacuate a housing scheme as the land it had been built on, had previously been home to an old gasworks.

Problem was that although the gasworks was long gone, the benzene it left behind, hadn't.....

[John Parry]

Nice pictures Randy.

Just about everything was made of pressed asbestos plates - especially garages. We used to drill it, saw it, hammer it - who knew? Unless you actually worked for a company that processed the stuff, there is no comeback.

The hacking cough I have is probably nothing to do with the 20 cigs a day I've smoked for the last 40 years. It'll be that asbestos sheet I drilled back in 1965.

Yeah......

Regards - John