Handmade model ships highlight Lorain's first industry at The Shipyards event center

LORAIN — A longstanding part of the city's shipbuilding industry is finding a second life as an event center. The Shipyards' grand opening is today. Formerly home to the American Shipbuilding Co. until the early 1980s, the space has traded its former industrial past for a taphouse, event center, cocktail lounge and coffee shop — but its owners are not letting history be forgotten. Restoring the former American Shipyards building wouldn't have been complete without upgrading the pattern model that has hung in the building for the past 70 years. Now, it is a model of the Arthur M. Anderson, a cargo ship famous for being the last ship in contact with the SS Edmund Fitzgerald before it sank in November 1975. Shipyards co-owner Joe Lucas of North Ridgeville enlisted the help of Alan Doane of Amherst to create the model. Doane retired in 2016 and took up model planes, so the jump to ships wasn't a far one. "It was actually a pattern boat," Lucas said. "So when they were making the actual boats, they would come here and look at it and try to figure things out. That's why they didn't have all the details that we added back on because they were more interested in the hull and everything — the construction." Ninety-four hours later, what was a bare hull now includes meticulously hand-strung railings, a pilot house and other details. "Joe called me over and first of all I built him a couple scale models of the first boat built here in the yard, Superior City, and the last boat was the William J. Delancy when she was launched, 1981," Doane said. "And then he said he had a challenge for me, he said 'Can you do something with this block of wood?'" The Arthur M. Anderson hangs on the far wall of The Boiler Room restaurant. At 13 feet, 7 inches and an estimated 250 pounds, the rework is based on the original American Shipyards technical drawings Doane received from a maritime database in Bowling Green. It took four men to move it back to its longstanding location, underneath an equally long standing handwritten sign of "keep aisle clear." His other models, 1/16th scale of the first and last ships to launch from the city, are also on display. "Joe had mentioned to me about Superior City, so I called up my fella at Bowling Green (maritime database) and he said 'Come on out, I've got some drawings, take a look.' He had the original mylar drawing from 1898," Doane said. The Superior City left the city's docks in 1898, sailing for 22 years until she sank in Whitefish Bay, Lake Superior, after a collision with another steamship. It is now the namesake of The Shipyards cocktail lounge. The William Delancey left the International City's port in 1981, two years before the American Shipbuilding Co. closed its doors in Lorain. The bulk freighter is now the Paul R. Tregurtha and is still in use. Looking at an app on his phone, Doane said it was hauling coal to St. Clair, Michigan. He and his family have stayed on the ship multiple times. The Superior City and William Delancey models are near The Shipyards conference center in a custom-built showcase. Lucas plans to include additional artifacts from the city's first industry, including a piece of glass from the Roger Blough, which caught fire while in drydock in 1971, killing four men. The Shipyards building is one of several that would have made up the American Shipbuilding Co., born out of the Cleveland Shipbuilding Co. from the 1870s, Lucas said. The railroad originally ran through the building, the corrugated metal doors still part of the design. Train tracks were traded for an industrial ramp to the second floor more than 60 years ago, and now that ramp leads to a 500-person venue looking out onto the lake. "This is all original," Lucas said. "You couldn't replace this. All the bricks (are) between 14 and 18 inches thick. And it's a facade — it's all iron beams inside of it. So it survived the tornado in 1924 ... it didn't damage this building." The restaurant, cocktail lounge and eventually Monkey Island Coffee shop — set to open July 9 as crews are still working on the space — add to the list of uses the building has had over the years. For Lorain-born-and-bred Lucas and Doane, it means a lot to see the space up and running again. "I'm very proud to build these, but that big one (the Arther M. Anderson) is just amazing — from what it was to what I brought it to," Doane said. "Being retired you have to do something and I just go down into the basement and I get really involved in it and it's very enjoyable. It means something to me, it means something to Joe just being from Lorain and being built (here)." The Shipyards is at 500 Shipyards Way, Lorain. A ribbon-cutting is set for 11 a.m. today, with live music 6 to 10 p.m.. Live music is also scheduled for 6 to 10 p.m. Friday, 2 to 10 p.m. Saturday and 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday. A pig roast is slated for 4 to 9 p.m. Saturday. The city's fireworks will be at 10 p.m. that evening. Tickets for the pig roast are $35 and available on eventbrite.com. Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.