Post #658070 by bdzmusicprod on Wed, Nov 7, 2012 12:33 PM

I am a semi-professional musician and did a gig nearly 30 years ago at a banquet for alcoholics anonymous. There was so much smoke in the hall that the smoke eating machines could not handle it and the smokers were complaining! My clothes smelled so bad I almost had to burn them. Regarding mid-century architecture there are a lot of books out there on the subject as well as web sites that have many photos of past and still existing sites. Toledo lost one such place the last few years...the former Crown Room which was part of Imperial Lanes was a fine example of mid-century architecture. It's a shame that the night club portion of the Town House Motel could not have been spared and restored to it's original decor but as one individual put it...after Irv Shapiro left the place it eventually became just another dining room. After the race riots hit the inner cities in the late 1960's the location of the Aku Aku made it a less than desirable place to spend an evening and that had a major impact on the future of the hotel and nite club. A lot of Toledo is blighted...just look at the area around what used to be the Southwyck Mall, the Northtown Mall, the Woodville Mall, downtown itself...even with the new stadium and hockey arena there is a lot of empty building space not to mention the empty lots.