06/15/2026
🏛️ Crumbling Walls to Centennial Glory: A Dark Hour for the Broadway Building.
🛥️ Taken in 2016, from the port area of Lorain, facing southwest across the water, this photo captures the Charles Berry Bridge (formerly the Erie Avenue Bascule Bridge) in the foreground. And there, in the distance, stands the Broadway Building, but not as we know it today.
👀 Look closely at the building: No roof signage. The once-proud name is gone. Protective nets stretched across the crumbling walls. Not for construction, but for pedestrian safety. To catch falling pieces of a landmark that was literally falling apart. A sad, silent silhouette against the sky. The beautiful Beaux‑Arts facade, now hidden behind mesh and decay.
⏰ Just nine years before this photo, the building had been placed on the National Register of Historic Places (1985). But by 2016, it stood empty, neglected, and one bad storm away from possible demolition. The bridge carries on. The water flows beneath it. But the Broadway Building, a 90-year-old icon, was barely holding on.
👉 Not long after this photo was taken, a dedicated restoration began. By July 2019, crews were working six days a week, repairing the stone facade, installing new windows, and transforming the old building into the Ariel Broadway Hotel. The nets came down. The roof signage returned. And the walls, once crumbling now were made strong again.
♥️ Now, in 2026, we celebrate 100 years. From its grand opening in 1926, with a bowling alley, upscale restaurant, doctors' offices, and government agencies, through its years as the Spitzer Renaissance Hotel, to its dark days of vacancy and decay, to this moment of rebirth and celebration. The Broadway Building has completed a full century. This photo reminds us of how close we came to losing it all. And that makes today's centennial all the more precious.
📸 Photo by Alexander Wooledge, May 4, 2016.
👇 Were you in Lorain during these years? Did you ever worry the building would be torn down? Share your memories of watching this comeback story unfold.
