Auroraadvocate.com - Kaleidoscope: Muscle cars, model trains, Garfield estate, lighthouse worth Lake jaunt

by Ken Lahmers

Editor

Two of my acquaintances -- Leighton School physical education teacher Mike DeMay and Hudson Hub-Times editor Bill Hammerstrom -- occasionally talk about growing up in Mentor.

They also directed me to some neat attractions to visit should I ever head up to Lake County on one of my weekend road trips. That jaunt came about the last Saturday in October.

Two of the places I visited relate to transportation -- street and rail particularly. Both were on Tyler Boulevard, west of Route 306 on the south end of town.

Traveling in fast lane

The Mentor Museum of Speed is a haven for "muscle car" fans, and it also has a number of cars from the 1920s, '30s and '40s. It is housed at Best of Show Automotive.

It's not just a museum; if you have a lot of cash to burn, you can take one of the classic cars home. Magnificently restored, some of them go for $100,000-plus.

More than 100 beauties line the inside of the 60,000-square-foot showroom at 7700 Tyler Blvd.

In September, Best of Show's 1967 Plymouth Hemi GTX took first place in the classic American performance class at the Gathering of Significant Automobiles at Glenmoor Country Club near Canton.

During my visit, some of the muscle cars on display were Dodge Chargers, Plymouth Road Runners and Barracudas, Camaros, Chevelle Super Sports and a Pontiac GTO Judge Ram Air III.

Some of the older genre of vehicles were a 1926 Pontiac -- the first year GM made that line -- 1929 Ford Model A Crew Cab Pickup, 1934 Pontiac Steel Rod, 1932 Ford Highboy Roadster, 1941 Willy's and 1949 Mercury convertible.

The colors of the cars are brilliant -- metallic oranges, reds, yellows, blues, bronzes and purples. Shiny silver engines in the muscle cars range from about 350 to 440 cubic inches.

Skilled craftsmen at Best of Show can transform a beat-up mess into a prize winner. The shop's brochures indicate a full-blown restoration can cost $40,000 to $60,000, plus parts.

Model trains galore

Just down the road is the Western Reserve Model Railroad Museum. After Dec. 1, the museum will move to Justin Way in the Liberty Business Park (old Caterpillar/Tow Motor complex).

A holiday open house at the new facility will be Dec. 5 from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Dec. 6 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., when many trains will be set up around Christmas trees and in holiday villages.

There are dozens of model railroad layouts in N, HO, S, O, O-tin plate, Standard and G gauges, and there even is an entire layout made of Legos.

Through Memorial Day, the museum is open varying hours every day except Friday.

Model trains might not be the only rail gems on display at the new location. Museum officials are hoping to acquire full-sized rolling stock to display outside the building, which encompasses 18,800 square feet.

They are trying to obtain a 1944 steam engine, 1950 diesel engine, mid-1950s passenger car used by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and 16 Pullman passenger cars from the 1970s.

The group also is talking about constructing a roundhouse, turntable, eight switches and about a mile of track to run passenger excursions along a 2-mile loop.

All of these plans involve a lot of money -- several million dollars to be exact.

According to museum officials, the site had attracted more than 7,000 visitors through the end of September.

The -year-old museum features a greater variety of gauges on display and more operating layouts than any similar museum in the world.

The museum operates through corporate sponsorships, donations and grants.

Home of a president

A farm and mansion on Mentor Avenue on the city's southeast side was home to President James A. Garfield in the late 1870s and early 1880s.

When Garfield, who served as principal of Western Reserve Eclectic Institute -- now Hiram College -- in the late 1850s, bought the farm in 1876, the house had nine rooms. He enlarged it to 20 rooms and from 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 stories.

The homestead was dubbed Lawnfield by reporters in 1880 during Garfield's precedent-setting "front porch" campaign for the presidency. He converted a small library building into his headquarters.

Garfield, who served in Congress from 1863 to 1880, was elected the 20th U.S. president in November 1880, but was assassinated slightly more than seven months later by a political fanatic.

He is buried in Lake View Cemetery on Euclid Avenue on Cleveland's far east side, where a large monument honoring him stands guard.

In addition to the house and campaign office, the property comprises a memorial library, carriage house, outbuildings and windmill which supplied power to the house. Many of the home furnishings are originals.

The Garfield family owned Lawnfield until 1936, when it was donated to the Western Reserve Historical Society. Today, it is owned and maintained by the National Park Service.

To Harbor, Painesville

From Mentor, it's only about 6 or 7 miles to Fairport Harbor, which boasts two lighthouses and somewhat resembles a New England coastal port.

I'd never seen a live lighthouse, so I decided to head up that way to explore.

The easily accessible 1871 lighthouse sports a 60-foot tower with 69 steps to the top, and has served as a marine museum since 1945. The light has not shone since 1925.

That's when the other lighthouse -- a combination light and foghorn station -- was built on the west breakwater pier extending into Lake Erie. It can be seen in the distance, but is inaccessible.

The older lighthouse museum houses several artifacts pertaining to life on the Great Lakes, plus other maritime exhibits. A former pilothouse from the Great Lakes carrier Frontenac is attached.

Unfortunately, the museum is not open after the third Saturday in September, so I'll have to return some other time to go inside. Visitors are permitted to walk up the tower to the beacon area.

I drove to the west side of the Grand River to Headlands Beach State Park, trademark of which is a mile-long natural sand beach, the largest in Ohio.

The wind that day was howling off Lake Erie, making it difficult to walk toward the beach, but I managed to do so and gaze northward. However, I didn't have a clear view of the newer lighthouse.

Although I didn't have time to drop by, Fairport Harbor also has a Finnish Heritage Museum, which houses books, documents, records, artifacts and displays.

Before heading home, I wanted to visit and photograph one last thing -- a gray stone former railroad depot in Painesville, just 4 miles or so away from Fairport.

It's owned by the Western Reserve Railroad Association, which hopes to some day open a museum devoted to Lake County's railroads and interurban lines.

The depot was opened in 1893 and served the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern (LS&MS) Railroad. The Richardsonian Romanesque-style building cost $18,075 to build.

In 1914, the depot became part of the New York Central Railroad, and in 1971 the last passenger train pulled out of the Painesville yard.

Conrail used the depot until 1992, when it was acquired by a private citizen, who in 1997 donated it to the preservation group. CSX's double main now runs by the old station.

E-mail: klahmers@recordpub.com

Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3155