Squire’s Castle

One of the most interesting places to visit in the Cleveland Metroparks is Squire's Castle in the North Chagrin Reservation (located in Willoughby Hills, Ohio).

The castle "shell" really wasn't a castle. It was supposed to be a gatehouse for a large country estate to be built by Feargus Squire, one of the founders of the Standard Oil Company in the late 1800s. (The large estate was never built.)

Squire’s Castle is beautiful in the fall when the trees begin to change color. A few years ago, I made a video of some of my pictures and videos taken of the castle over the years and that video is below. Since the weather was warm and sunny today, and the leaves were showing some beautiful color, I took a drive out there for some new photos, which I have included here.


Squire’s Castle Video

Castle Interior

View from Squire's Castle

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A Tour of Cleveland In Vintage Postcards

Here’s something that anyone from Cleveland, Ohio may enjoy. The short video below is a nostalgic tour of the city of Cleveland that I put together using vintage postcards from the 1930s-1950s. It includes postcards of the Terminal Tower, city roads and bridges, Public Square, University Circle, public parks, and other buildings of interest. (The music in the video is one of Gershwin’s Preludes.)




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The Fairport Harbor Lighthouse & Museum

In July, I took some pictures of the Fairport Harbor Lighthouse and then forgot about them. Since we seem to be in a slow weather pattern right now, and fall colors seem to have stalled a bit, I thought it was a good time to bring out the lighthouse pictures.

The Fairport Harbor Lighthouse , at the mouth of Ohio's Grand River and near the shore of Lake Erie, should not be confused with the much smaller Fairport Harbor West Breakwall Lighthouse , which is only a short distance away on the shore of Lake Erie at Mentor Headlands State Park. In fact, you can see both lighthouses at the same time, depending on where you are standing either at Mentor Headlands Beach, or at the Fairport Harbor Lighthouse.

The Fairport Harbor Lighthouse also houses the Fairport Harbor Marine Museum, which unfortunately was closed the day we visited. We decided to head to the Fairport Harbor Beach which is just a short distance down the road from the lighthouse. And it is DOWN the road, seeing that the lighthouse is perched very high on a steep hill above the beach area. The Fairport Beach Park is much smaller than its neighbor Mentor Headlands Beach, but was still a very nice place to visit.

Fairport Harbor Lighthouse and Museum

Fairport Beach

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Fall is Approaching

Even though fall isn’t technically here yet, were are starting to see some leaves change color. Fall flowers also are adding some color to the landscape. Here are some pictures I took from the yard today. My “Black Beauty” Elderberry is loaded with berries!

I am sure it will be snowing before we know it (heavy sigh).

OK, we also had some fun with bubbles while we were outside.

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Mentor McDonald’s Demolition – Out With the Old, Make Way for the New

Update August 22, 2008 - Here's how it looks today

The demolition of the neighborhood McDonalds’s in Mentor, Ohio, on Mentor Avenue (US Route 20), began today. I spent some time watching and recording some of it. For a fleeting moment, as the roof was starting to peel away, I swear I smelled burgers and french fry oil. I didn’t eat there very often, as many times just driving by the place you could smell burgers cooking, so much so that it felt like you were eating one. At least the smell didn’t have the calories that are in the food itself!

Don’t despair, junk food junkies. Another McDonald’s is being built in its place. Some information about this story from the Lake County News Herald is listed below the videos.

McDonald’s Demolition Part 1



McDonald’s Demolition Part 2





Going, going ... gone
Wednesday, August 20, 2008 12:52 AM EDT
By Jenny May

It took just three hours to auction off 43 years of Mentor history on Tuesday.

About 30 people attended the bidding at the McDonald’s at 8775 Mentor Ave., hoping to score deals on restaurant equipment or just bring a piece of nostalgia into their homes.

The restaurant, which was built in 1965, will be demolished Thursday and will reopen in late December to make way for a new restaurant prototype.

Ali Mandovi, owner and operator of the McDonald’s, is donating the nearly $4,000 in proceeds from the auction to the Ronald McDonald House of Cleveland.

Interested bidders arrived at the restaurant about 9 a.m. to get a glimpse of what was being offered before the auction began at 10 a.m.

Auctioneer Roger Steinfurth of Wayne Luoma Auction Co. in Mentor ran the event. Steinfurth said restaurant auctions are typically only open to those in the restaurant business.

Because this one was open to the public, many of the items that would normally be auctioned off in bulk, such as tables, chairs and paintings, were offered individually.

“We were told there are a lot of people who have been coming here for 40 years and want to buy their favorite table,” Steinfurth said to the crowd before bidding started. “This is the first McDonald’s we’ve ever auctioned, so it’s a test run for all of us.”

Though many in attendance had never participated in an auction, they caught on quickly to Steinfurth’s fast-paced pitches and managed to snag many of the items they came for.

Accepted bids ranged from $1 for napkin holders to more than $1,000 for a cooler.

Mentor resident Dawn Freeman came to buy items for a house her son recently purchased.

She managed to outbid others for a set of four hanging green lights, which she bought for $15 each, a napkin holder featuring the McDonald’s logo and the crown molding running the perimeter of the dining area.

Freeman was disappointed when she lost a bid for the large mirror hanging in the dining area. The mirror, etched with “Mentor Ohio Original Inn,” went to another local resident for $30.

“I’ve been to this McDonald’s a thousand times and I thought it would be fun to get some of the items for the house,” Freeman said. “I’m really pleased with the crown molding. I paid just $75 for that, so it was a great deal.”

In addition to the contents of the kitchen, dining room and rest rooms, people bought the outside parking lot lights and even the bushes in front of the building.

Elaine Crane, owner of Rider’s Inn in Painesville, bought a four-door reach-in stainless steel cooler for about $1,000.

“One of my coolers just died yesterday, so this will replace it,” she said. “Shopping at auctions helps us keep our prices low. It’s also fun because you get to see other people in the industry.”

Crane also couldn’t resist purchasing two cookie racks featuring the McDonald’s logo for her daughter, Elizabeth Courtney Crane-Sherman, who is co-owner of the Inn.

“Those will be a housewarming gift for her,” Crane explained.

“She used to work at this McDonald’s and has been coming here since she was 5 years old, so I think she’ll get a kick out of it.”




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Olympic Rings of Sunflowers

My neighbors have some beautiful sunflowers in their yard. This grouping reminded me of the arrangement of the five Olympic rings. Well, maybe not as round and not arranged so perfectly, but they still look pretty.



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A Gaggle of (Pro) Golfers

John and I spent yesterday at the 2008 Bridgestone Invitational golf tournament at the Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio. John had the privilege of golfing this course a few times. But yesterday we went back to watch the pros go at it. As the tournament itself isn’t starting until today, the players were out on the course Wednesday for practice, and spectators are permitted to take photos. I managed to get a few pictures of the pros. Since they weren’t following any kind of schedule, we just had to stick around a few of the holes and snap whomever happened by. And, since it was very cloudy, the pictures look a little drab. We were lucky, though, to find cover before a thunderstorm with buckets of rain hit the course.

Phil Michelson

Fredrik Jacobson and Ian Poulter

Lucas Glover and David Toms

Chad Campbell and Stuart Appleby

Robert Allenby

Trevor Immelman (2008 Masters Winner)

A Gaggle of Golfers

The Firestone Water Tower

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