History of Avon Lake Told Through Photographs

July 21, 2011 - PRLog -- The newest addition to Arcadia Publishing’s popular Images of America series is Avon Lake from local author Gerry Vogel, on behalf of the Avon Lake Historical Society and the Avon lake Public Library. The book boasts more than 200 vintage images and memories of days gone by.

Twenty miles west of downtown Cleveland, in the northeast corner of Lorain County, Avon Lake hugs five miles of Lake Erie shoreline.
Once part of a land called Xeuma by the Erie Indians and later part of Tract Seven of the Western Reserve, the area was difficult to tame, but forests became ships and swamps turned into fields.

By 1900, the fields were mostly orchards and vineyards. The arrival of the Lake Shore Electric Railway turned the scattered rural township into a summertime resort destination, thus igniting a real estate boom. By World War II, the LSE was no more, but plentiful, affordable, and locally produced electricity and water made Avon Lake a good place to make a living and a desirable place to reside.

Fruehauf and B.F. Goodrich arrived and stayed, followed by more industry, commerce, suburban settlers, and commuters. Avon Lake became a city in 1960, and today 24,000 residents call it home.

Highlights of Avon Lake:
•   Proceeds from the sale of the book will benefit the Avon Lake Historical Society, the Friends of the Avon Lake Public Library, and the Avon Lake Public Library Foundation.
•   The majority of the images in the book are from the collections of local residents and organizations, many never before published.
•   Fruehauf built the world’s largest truck trailer factory in Avon Lake in 1947. Today, it is a much larger Ford assembly plant.

Available at area bookstores, independent retailers, and online retailers, or through Arcadia Publishing at www.arcadiapublishing.com or
(888)-313-2665.

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With more than 6,000 local history titles published to date, Arcadia Publishing is the leading publisher of local and regional history in the United States. Widely recognized sepia books feature hundreds of vintage historical images.