Clinton and Clara Jolly operated Jolly’s Youngstown Manor, a cottages development, on the west end of The Strip in the mid-20th century. The cottages stood along Jolly Drive, previously Shady Beach South.
Clinton and Clara Jolly.
The cottages were built on land owned by Clara’s second husband, Heber Spencer, who also owned cottages across the street.
The name “Youngstown Manor” reflects the hometown of Clara Barbara Farnbauer Jolly, as well as the hometown of many of the guests who stayed in the cottages. There were seven cottages: Rainbow, Dawn, Twilight, Sunrise, Midnight, Echo (The Log Cabin) and Star Dust, the last to be built.
Youngstown Manor was a hodgepodge of cottages built in the 1930s by Clara and Heber Spencer.
A 1935 city directory shows Heber and Clara owning and operating the Manor and living there with Clara’s sons, Edward and Robert Bennett, from her first marriage. The couple had one child together, Sally Spencer (born 1933), who lives in Twinsburg. Sally has two daughters, Vickie and Beth Maltby.
Heber and Clara divorced in 1939. Clara received ownership of Youngstown Manor, while Heber got the Spencer family’s land on the north side Lake Road. A house and three cottages were built there (Lavender’s Cottages in 2017).
Clara added a house on the west side of Jolly Drive for herself and the three children, as well as additional cottages during and after the divorce.
Two of the cottages were in front of the house on the west side of the lot. These were Rainbow and Dawn.
On the east side of the lot, behind the former bingo building, were Twilight, Sunrise, Midnight and Echo.
Youngstown Manor stood next to the Shady Beach Hotel (right). The properties were purchased by the village in the early 1970s and razed to create a city park.
Clara married Clinton Jolly, a Pennsylvania native and dry goods salesman on Sept. 27, 1942. They tacked on his surname to the front of “Youngstown Manor.” Edward’s, Robert’s and Sally’s children assisted with the cottages as the Jollys got older.
“Each spring all of us grandchildren had to clean out the cottages, top to bottom, and get them ready for the summer season as soon as we were old enough,” recalls Janis Salcfas, Edward’s daughter. “Grandma was a perfectionist and a very hard worker and she expected the same from everyone else. Those cottages were immaculate. And she was quite the business woman … ran a tight ship for sure.”
An ad for Youngstown Manor Cottages from the 1960s.
After Clara died in 1968, Clinton ran the cottages with help from their family until his death in 1971. Edward and Robert Bennett and Sally Spencer sold the cottages to the village several years thereafter. With the exception of the bingo parlor/beauty shop, the buildings were razed and the land combined with the former Shady Beach complex (west of Jolly’s) to make a village park. The Chamber of Commerce/Visitors Bureau occupy the former bingo building.
Sally Spencer at her Twinsburg, Ohio, home, with her dog, Misty.
Information provided by Janis Bennett-Salcfas, Elizabeth Lake, Calif., granddaughter of Clara Jolly.