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. Author
Bio: The Avon Lake Historical Society and the Avon Lake Public
Library worked together to collect a