The Hruby Conservatory of Music, located in Cleveland’s Slavic Village neighborhood, was founded by Frank J. Hruby in 1917. The Hrubys had immigrated to Cleveland from Prague in 1883, when Frank was just six months old, for his father to find more opportunities in his musical career. Growing up in an incredibly musically talented household, Frank and his five brothers formed the Hruby Brothers Orchestra (renamed the Hruby Family Orchestra as Frank’s two sisters and father joined) in 1907. They performed at venues around Cleveland and even traveled across multiple northern U.S. states for their concerts. The success of the orchestra made the Hruby family name famous in the Cleveland music scene, and enabled each member of the family to find stable work in either musical performance or education.
For over 50 years, the institution acted as an artistic and cultural centerpiece for Cleveland’s Czech-American population, as students enjoyed opportunities for high-quality instruction on various instruments, singing, and live performances. The conservatory’s prominence in the community benefited from its proximity to another major Czech-American cultural center, the Bohemian National Hall, where students could join dramatics groups and participate in public showcases. Another major factor that considerably boosted the conservatory’s stature as a significant cultural center in the public eye was that several members of Hruby’s immediate family performed with the Cleveland Orchestra at various points throughout from 1918 onward. The family’s locally renowned musical talent and the conservatory’s established reputation as an institution of artistic excellence allowed Hruby Conservatory to attract students not only from the nearby Czech-American neighborhoods, but from nearly every part of Cleveland.
The conservatory operated until Frank Hruby’s retirement in 1968. The building remained unused for nearly a decade when private owners purchased it in 1976. In 1980, the old conservatory building was reopened as a school of music, becoming the Broadway Branch of the Cleveland Music School Settlement. In 1983, the structure began operating as the Broadway School of Music and the Arts, the name it retains to this day.
]]>If you have ever wondered why there’s a Mound Elementary School and a Mound Avenue in the Slavic Village neighborhood, it’s because Cleveland was once home to a series of mounds and the Native American cultures that built them. When most people think of the mound builders, Cleveland probably is not the first place that comes to mind. However, geologist Charles Whittlesey discovered a series of mounds in and around the city. One of the peoples who occupied the ancient future site of Cleveland is named the Whittlesey culture after the man who discovered and documented their artifacts.
Charles Whittlesey was born in 1808 in Southington, Connecticut, and moved to Tallmadge, Ohio, in 1813. He was also a West Point graduate in 1831. After returning to Ohio, Whittlesey also contributed to many publications on several different topics. Whittlesey served as the editor for the Cleveland Herald in 1836 and 1837 and continued thereafter to publish material on the early history of Cleveland, the Cuyahoga Valley, and other parts of Ohio. Those topics are just a few he wrote about in his more than 200 books and articles published during his career. Whittlesey accomplished many firsts in the history of Native American and Ohio geology. He conducted the first geological survey in Ohio during the late 1830s before becoming the official assistant geologist for Ohio in 1837. He also conducted geological surveys for over 20 years in states such as Wisconsin, Michigan, and Mississippi where he focused on Native American earthworks. During his Ohio survey, Whittlesey discovered numerous earthworks and found large iron and coal deposits that would help develop the state.
Charles Whittlesey is not only known for his discovery of new Native American earthworks; he is also known for his Civil War service. During the war, he helped plan and construct fortifications for the U.S. Army in Ohio and Kentucky. He was selected for the task because of his extensive knowledge of geological features and ancient fortifications. In addition to building fortifications, he also was appointed to serve as an escort for President-elect Abraham Lincoln, who would go on to be the sixteenth President of the United States in 1861.
Whittlesey was a large asset to the war effort as he built fortifications, served the future president, and fought in the war. He fought in both the Battle of Fort Donelson and the Battle of Shiloh in 1862. In addition to fighting in the war, he was also the assistant quartermaster general for Ohio troops while he engineered fortifications for Cincinnati, Ohio. Whittlesey eventually resigned from the army after the Battle of Shiloh in 1862. After he retired, he became a historian and moved back to Ohio in 1867. That same year, he was instrumental in founding the Western Reserve Historical Society, in which he served as president until 1885. But Whittlesey’s most notable legacy arguably his contributions to understanding the Native American culture which was named after him.
For over 14,000 years, prehistoric groups lived in Ohio, congregating around large bodies of water and other waterways. Many Native American cultures and practices have been a part of Ohio’s history. In Ohio, between 800 BCE and 1200 CE, the Woodland culture period flourished and was defined by several features: groups settling down into larger communities, large-scale agriculture, and mound building. Mounds were often used for burial practices but could also be used for gathering places or ceremonial rituals. However, none of the mounds discovered in Cleveland appeared to be designed for burial practices.
Archaeologists refer to the Late Woodland culture in northeast Ohio as the Whittlesey culture or Whittlesey tradition to acknowledge Charles Whittlesey, who documented many historical sites and mounds. The Whittlesey culture lived along the banks of rivers and brooks from Lake Erie to the Black River in Conneaut between about 1200 and 1640. Whittlesey discovered various mounds in what is now the Cleveland area. Thanks to his extensive documentation in books such as Ancient Earth Forts of the Cuyahoga Valley, Descriptions of Ancient Works in Ohio, Early History of Cleveland Ohio, and Ancient Mining on the Shores of Lake Superior, we have considerable insights into the Whittlesey culture's customs, art, and mounds.
Native American mounds that Whittlesey describes in the Cleveland area include Fort 1 Newburg, an earthwork he discovered in Cleveland near Harvard Grove Cemetery, and mounds near Public Square, Euclid and East 9th, Woodland Cemetery, Sawtell Avenue mound (now East 51st Street off Woodland Avenue), and on East 53rd Street.
The Sawtell Avenue mound measured 5 feet high, 40 feet long, and 25 feet wide. Whittlesey conducted a small-scale dig on this mound in 1870 along with partner Judge C.C. Baldwin where they both discovered copper artwork, clay tube pipes, and ornamental beads. The Slavic Village area mound was located along Mound Avenue near East 53rd Street. The mound inspired the name of both the street and Mound Public School, the precursor of today’s Mound Elementary School. The mound site was developed as a brick yard in the 1890s before being redeveloped as the school.
Unfortunately, not many of these mounds were preserved in the Cleveland area except for places such as the Lyman Site, located in the Lake Metroparks system, where Whittlesey documented and surveyed the area documenting earthworks of around 8 feet high. However, few saw these Native American discoveries as significant during the 19th century, which is why no efforts were made to preserve, protect, or interpret the mounds or their culture until much later. Any local interest in the Whittlesey culture and its mounds was overshadowed by the growing city and development of real estate. By the time Whittlesey was documenting earthworks in the 1830s, most of the Cleveland mounds were gone. An exception was the one on Sawtell Avenue, for it stood on land then owned by A. Freese, who told Whittlesey the mound was "one of the ornaments on his grounds," and he "did not wish to have it demolished." Even the much larger and more elaborate mounds located in Chillicothe, Ohio, were not studied until the early 1920s, when Mound City Group National Monument was established in 1923. From there, ancient Ohio mounds began to gain popularity, as the Chillicothe mounds attracted more federal investment in preservation and interpretation when the National Park Service redesignated the site as the Hopewell Culture National Historic Park in 1992.
Charles Whittlesey’s legacy lives on in many ways today in the Cleveland area and across Ohio areas. He provided one of the first geological surveys of the state in which he documented many ancient mounds, served in the Civil War, and helped create the Western Reserve Historical Society. Even though most of the Cleveland area mounds were flattened for urban development, they still live on in Ohio’s history, including in place names like Mound Avenue. Next time you find yourself in Cleveland, stop and look, you might see remembrance of the once great ancient mounds.
]]>On August 19, 1894, Immaculate Heart of Mary Church opened its doors for the first time to its congregation, all of whom had been recently excommunicated from the Catholic Church by the Bishop of Cleveland. Excommunication did not bother the ethnic Polish parishioners attending Immaculate Heart of Mary Church because the opening of an independent Polish-American church was a triumph they had waited years to achieve.
In the early 1890s, parishioners of the Polish Catholic Church, St. Stanislaus, became unhappy with the role of the Diocese of Cleveland in their religious affairs. Members of the congregation, led by Father Anton Francis Kolaszewski, demanded that St. Stanislaus should have a more autonomous role in the diocese as a separate Polish church. The congregation wanted to be able to select its own pastors, parish leaders, and manage church finances independently. Because the congregants were Polish, they did not feel comfortable being managed by an American diocese, and wanted church business to operate in a more ethnically and culturally sensitive manner. The Bishop of Cleveland, Frederick Horstmann, refused. Despite this rejection, Fr. Kolaszewski continued to preach his desire for an independent Polish church. In 1892, frustrated by Kolaszewski’s refusal to accept the authority of the Diocese and accusations of sexual abuse against him, Horstmann forced Kolaszewski to resign as pastor of St. Stanislaus.
Many supporters of Kolaszewski’s and an independent Polish catholic church met this decision with indignation. When the new pastor Benedict Rosinski arrived at St. Stanislaus to assume his duties, members of the parish greeted him with their broomsticks; they wanted Kolaszewski to continue as pastor and pursue a more independent Polish Catholic Church, and Rosinski represented a departure from that rhetoric. As news of the conflict spread throughout the Warszawa neighborhood, rival supporters of both the diocese and Kolaszewski arrived on the scene to participate in the brawl.
While violent scenes like the one that greeted pastor Rosinski did not occur with regularity, the Polish community continued to request permission to form an independent church from Bishop Horstmann. Again, Horstmann refused those requests. In early 1894, after two years of consistent denial, the St. Stanislaus parishioners called upon Pastor Kolaszewski to return to Cleveland. Kolaszewski returned to assist the community in fundraising and other planning related to the construction of the new, independent Polish-American Catholic Church. Despite threats of excommunication from Bishop Horstmann, Immaculate Heart of Mary opened its doors to parishioners later that year.
Immaculate Heart of Mary’s parishioners remained outsiders until both Kolaszewski and Horstmann died several years later. After both of their deaths, the Diocese of Cleveland accepted the church into its diocese and it continued as a regular member of the church district.
When Poles discuss the conflict today, they often characterize as a conflict between the diocese and Kolaszewski, rather than a major fracture in the social structure of Warszawa. This distinction is important, as the memories of the conflict passed down reflect a struggle of authority and a demagogue, rather than one that divided a community.
The story of Immaculate Heart of Mary Church illustrates two major themes of immigrant Polish life: the importance of religion to Poles and the desire for an independent Polish-American rhetoric. Polish communities across the United States participated in squabbles over church ownership, resulting in myriads of independent Polish churches. The church's providing the grounds for this kind of conflict is also significant as it blatantly displays how central the church was and is to Polish life. Poles wanted independent control in their churches because in Polish communities, the church not only provides religious support, but also social and educational support. Control over their own churches therefore meant greater control over all aspects of life in a Polish community.
]]>Cleveland once ranked as one of the nation’s leaders in garment manufacturing, thanks in large part to the Cleveland Worsted Mills. An immense sight in its heyday, the plant suffered years of neglect and decline after its closure, until a fire destroyed much of the complex. Today the industrial giant is largely forgotten, but the impact it had on Cleveland and environmental laws has remained.
In 1878, Joseph Turner started the Turner Worsted Mill, renamed the Cleveland Worsted Mill in 1902. The Cleveland Plant, located at 5932 Broadway Avenue, handled every aspect of the worsted cloth process, from scouring and sorting wool to boiling the cloth. At the height of production in the 1920s, the mill ran more than 500 looms and consumed 25-35,000 pounds of wool daily.
As one of the leading employers of the area's large immigrant population, namely Poles and Czechs, the company expanded rapidly. In 1908 it completed a $200,000 addition, including a six-story brick steel factory building and a three-story office building. To ease employee concerns about safety, it constructed exterior stairways and elevator shafts in the new building and also added elevators in existing buildings. With the addition the facility became the second largest plant for worsted production in the country.
Despite its national recognition and financial success, the company had a difficult relationship with its employees. In 1934, the plant closed for almost three months due to striking over union discrimination. In 1937, complaints were made against the company for “terrorizing and intimidating employees” to keep them from joining the Textile Workers Organizing Committee and workers again went on strike for a few weeks. Striking broke out again in August 1955, brought on by a breakdown in talks between company officials and the Textile Workers Organization. Rather than continue talks, Cleveland Worsted Mills chose to liquidate its assets in January 1956.
Although the company was gone, disaster struck the plant again in 1993. In April, investigators found 100 barrels of potentially hazardous materials left improperly stored in the warehouse complex. The material was found to be flammable and reports state the building had no working sprinkler system. Investigators determined that the barrels would remain in the building until they knew what they contained and who was responsible for them as there was some dispute over who owned the property. While city officials were trying to determine who owned the property, an arson fire destroyed the complex on July 4. City fire officials were aware of the danger the barrels within the mill presented and had already devised a plan to fight the blaze they correctly figured was inevitable.
As a result of the fire, new laws were put in place with tougher punishments for environmental offenders. It became a crime for companies to walk away from a site without cleaning up contamination. Moreover, the courts could force them to pay for the cleanup, and any damage incurred was the company’s responsibility. Environmental nuisances were added to the state's nuisance abatement laws that allow the state to take over such properties.
The city spent $3 million to clean up the debris from the fire and fill in the land. A few years later, it became the Boys and Girls Club of Cleveland. The organization runs a recreational and educational site on more than five acres of the 12.5-acre complex.
]]>In 1938, Ben Stefanski and his wife Gerome started Third Federal Savings and Loan, with the promise of helping those in the community achieve the dream of home ownership and financial security. In addition to offering mortgage loans, Third Federal has long been dedicated to educating their customers on the requirements of home ownership beyond the down payment.
Through the years, Third Federal expanded far beyond its home office at 7007 Broadway Avenue. In 1957, the company opened a second branch in Brecksville and by the end of the 1960s had an additional seven branches. By 1983, the savings and loan had 16 branch offices and $1.08 billion in assets. Today, Third Federal has 46 branch offices in Ohio and Florida, and lends in 21 states and the District of Columbia, making it the largest Polish American-led financial institution in the country.
While the company has always dedicated itself to helping members of the Slavic Village community afford homes, they have also earned a reputation as a company devoted to giving back to the community through philanthropy. Ben Stefanski was a strong supporter of the arts movement, most noted by the commissioning of a mural by Peter Paul Dubaniewicz. The mural was dedicated to the public and depicts the building of America by men of many cultures.
In addition to the arts, Stefanski was a great supporter of education in the community. In 1965, he gave $1 million to the Catholic Diocese High School Fund for the building of 11 new high schools and expansion of seven existing schools. It was this extreme charity that earned him the nickname “Benefactor” Stefanski. Today, Third Federal still follows the example of Mr. Stefanski in their dedication to the education and health of those in the community. In 2007, the company created the $55 million Third Federal Foundation when the company went public through its IPO. The purpose of the foundation is to bring partners together in collaboration of programs that promote education in the community. The foundation’s initiatives include the P-16 program and a Service Scholarship program at Cleveland Central Catholic High School. The P-16 program works closely with the Cleveland Metropolitan School District to improve educational experiences for those in the Slavic Village through the implementation of tutoring programs, after school programs, and scholarships. They have also collaborated with Metro Health to put a clinic in a local school. The program has proven so effective that a mobile health clinic was added to service additional schools, more school-based clinics are planned.
Most recently, Third Federal developed Trailside Slavic Village. A neighborhood of new construction, affordable housing, built on the site of former light industrial buildings. Beginning construction in 2013, Trailside is located along the Morgana Run Trail and is adjacent to the Third Federal headquarters. Currently in Phase 1, the development offers two different style homes, each with three bedrooms and open floor plans. All of the homes meet or exceed Cleveland’s Green Energy standard with down payment assistance and tax abatement.
Third Federal is committed to benefiting not only the surrounding community, but also the associates who make the company as successful as it has become. Third Federal has been featured on Forbes' list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For, and the company boasts that it has not had a single layoff in its history. Associates are cross-trained to assist in other areas as needed. Third Federal offers a number of training opportunities, tuition reimbursement, and throws annual appreciation events.
In its 77 years of operation, Third Federal has become a crucial piece of the Slavic Village neighborhood through its continued dedication to the betterment of the community as a whole. The company has long lived up to its mission of “helping people achieve the dream of home ownership and financial stability, while creating value for our communities, our customers, our associates, and our stockholders.”
]]>In the early 1880s, an idea arose in the Lodge Bratri v Kruhu of the Czech Slovak Benevolent Association that people of Bohemian nationality needed a community building dedicated to their societies and culture. In August 1887, Bohemian representatives met to discuss the possibility of creating such a space.
The cornerstone for Bohemian National Hall was laid on December 20, 1896, and was dedicated the following September. During the dedication ceremonies, all local Bohemian communities and societies were invited to participate, but every other ethnic group was excluded to make this a distinctly Bohemian celebration. Bohemians attended the celebrations from Chicago, Detroit, Pennsylvania, Toledo, and even New York. The hall served as a meeting place for over 40 lodges, societies, and clubs. In 1911, classrooms were added to teach language skills.
In the late summer of 1900, the Bohemian National Turners Association held their annual convention in Cleveland. A number of tournaments took place at area locations such as Forest City Park and Central Armory with about 400 members in Cleveland alone and 800 visiting delegates. On August 23, the award banquet for the convention was held in the Bohemian National Hall.
The hall also brought large crowds for its annual celebration of Jan Hus Day. Hus was a Bohemian reformer burned at the stake on July 6, 1415, for heresy and is considered a national hero. The Bohemians would have large celebrations including plays and various performances. In 1915, events at Gordon Park brought 20,000 Bohemians to the area with many attending later events at the hall.
Also in 1915, representatives for the Czech and Slovak people met in the hall to discuss the need for a common sovereign state. This meeting, now known as the Cleveland Agreement, sparked the idea of creating what would come to be Czechoslovakia. On May 10, 1945, celebrations were held for the liberation of Czechoslovakia from German occupation with speeches by Louis Krch, president of the Slovak National Alliance and Joseph Novy, of the Czechoslovakian Consul. The celebration called for unity among Czechs and their European neighbors--Poland, Hungary, and Austria. Cleveland area Czechs also began a collection drive of clothing and household goods that would be dropped off at the hall and later sent to war torn Czechoslovakia.
In May 1975, Bohemian National Hall was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The next month, the hall was sold to the American Sokol Inc. Sokol is a program dedicated to the idea of a strong mind and body, emphasizing the importance of physical fitness. After the sale, the hall continued to host Sokol meetings, gymnastic events, lodge functions, Czech classes, and other Czech-oriented cultural events. A major renovation and restoration project in the early 2000s added an athletic facility and museum, now used as the Czech Cultural Center.
Today, the hall still teaches classes, holds events and meetings, and serves as a source of information and pride for the Cleveland Czech population.
]]>At the turn of the 20th century, Cleveland already had its own version of today’s Donald Trump. Oliver Mead Stafford may have come from money, but he also had a talent for making and raising it, while he ceaselessly strived to keep up with the Joneses—or more precisely, the Rockefellers, Wades and Hannas of the city. He led a range of successful businesses, sat on many influential boards, and was always a prominent, if not extravagant, philanthropist. Despite his efforts, some rather questionable, he never quite rose to the lofty heights of Cleveland’s more famous business elite. His family proved frequent sources of disappointment and concern for him, and soon squandered the fortune and sullied the legacy he diligently created. Today, his name still graces a successful insurance firm he started, and a work of art he proudly commissioned remains on the wall of a Cleveland church, but the driven and successful Cleveland businessman never quite emerged from the shadow of his illustrious neighbors, and he is now largely forgotten.
Stafford was born February 7, 1851, at the family house on the corner of Broadway and Forest Street (now East 37th). Although he would never serve, there was always a strong commitment to the military in the Stafford family. His father, Jonas, was a veteran of the War of 1812, and both of his uncles lost their lives in the Civil War. Stafford’s wife, Maude Evelyn Frankland Fish, was even a cousin of Lincoln’s irksome general, George McClellan. His youngest son Frankland left college in order to enlist during World War I, and Frankland’s own son would later be captured by the Japanese in the Second World War and spend the entire war as a POW at a camp in Java. The family’s strong military allegiance surely played a role in the discipline and mental toughness Stafford displayed in his own business activities.
Always an elitist, Stafford disdained higher education for mere commoners, and believed the path to success was found through experience, dedication and hard work. He arrogantly proclaimed these attitudes in a page-long ‘how-to-succeed-in business’ article for the Cleveland Plain Dealer in February 1912. Although he felt very few would benefit from extended education, he sent both of his own sons to Yale--ostensibly to capitalize on the connections they would make there.
As a young man, Stafford ventured west for a short time to serve as a teacher on the frontier, but soon returned to Cleveland where his father installed him in menial positions throughout the real estate firm, E. Fish & Company, hoping Oliver would work his way up and succeed him in the organization. This is a practice Stafford took to heart, and he later did the same with his own sons. He certainly benefitted from the head-start his father’s success provided him, but by the time Jonas had died in November 1873, in the same house Oliver was born in almost 23 years before, he was already establishing himself as one of the city’s up-and-coming businessmen.
Stafford had already struck out on his own by 1883, when he conducted a succession of real estate deals where he seems to have been uncannily proficient at buying properties at relatively low prices and quickly selling them for substantial profits—some might say, too uncannily, but nothing illegal was ever proven. He is perhaps best remembered as the president of the Cleveland Worsted Mills Company. He was instrumental in re-organizing the then, Turner Worsted Company in 1895, when it was valued at just under $43,000. He took over the company by 1902, and just a decade later Worsted Mills was worth $5 million. His tenure there often demonstrated the power he had attained and his willingness to wield it, sometimes questionably. In 1909, Cleveland’s reformist-minded mayor Tom L. Johnson accused him of stealing thousands of dollars of the city’s water to supply the factory, but the lawsuit was dropped when Herman Baehr defeated Johnson in the ’09 election and somehow agreed with Stafford that, though the city water supply had been tapped, it was for emergency purposes only, and was therefore acceptable. Stafford also threatened to close the hugely successful enterprise immediately if the woolen duty was lowered, as congress proposed, in 1905. The tariff, and the company, remained.
Besides running Worsted Mills, Stafford started the insurance firm OM Stafford, Goss & Bedell. When it merged in 1920 with another firm to become Brooks & Stafford Company, still operating in Cleveland today, it was the largest insurance business between Philadelphia and Chicago. He founded and served as vice-president of both the Broadway and the Woodland Avenue Savings and Trust banks, was a director of Canfield Oil Company, president of Market Street and Storage, president of the Cleveland Public Library, treasurer of St. Alexis Hospital, and was a charter member of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce. He was also the long-time superintendent of the Broadway United Methodist Church. In 1924, he commissioned the artists, Armando Vandelli and Vittorio Guandalini, who had just finished restoring Leonardo’s Last Supper in Milan, to recreate the masterpiece on the wall behind the altar of the church. It was the only life-sized replica in the United States, and Stafford clearly intended it to be the enduring stamp of his legacy.
By the time of his death, just eight months before the stock market crash in 1929, the hopes of that legacy enduring were dim. His beloved son and chosen successor, Oliver Jr, had died in the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1919. Frankland replaced him in the family business, but would scandalize the city when his first wife divorced him on January 12, 1934, and he immediately remarried a former Worsted employee less than two weeks later. Although Stafford left an estate appraised at $886,313, little of it was left after a long probate battle finally ended in the 1980s. His Last Supper sits in the now-shuttered church, almost as ignored as he is—an ignominious end to Cleveland’s version of The Donald.
]]>The area around Broadway Avenue and East 55th Street was originally developed by Irish and Welsh immigrants, but in the 1880s large groups of Polish, Czech, and Slovak newcomers moved into the area for work in the Cleveland mills and steel yards. With this ethnic shift, the area took on a Slavic identity that has remained to this day.
The Broadway-55th district had a number of businesses and institutions that paid homage to the roots of its inhabitants. One of the earliest Slavic establishments of the area was Our Lady of Lourdes Church, showing the central role that religion played in the lives of settlers. Established in 1883 by Rev. Stephen Furdek, the current church was built in 1902. The church functioned as more than a religious center; it also provided a safe haven for incoming immigrants and a social hub with events to bolster community relations. For decades, Our Lady of Lourdes was the largest Bohemian parish in Cleveland and remains an integral part of the neighborhood.
The First Catholic Slovak Union was created by Stephen Furdek in 1890 to provide insurance and benefits to immigrant Slovaks living in America. As the organization grew it became obvious that larger offices were necessary. In 1919, the FCSU purchased a large house in Slavic Village at 3289 East 55th Street where it continued to serve the Slavic community for decades.
A few years later, Broadway Savings and Trust opened. Owned by Oliver Mead Stafford and Caesar A. Grasselli, it primarily served the financial needs of the Polish settlers and became a mainstay of the area. In the mid-1900s, the business was sold and the building became Fisher’s Dry Goods, catering to the needs of the neighborhood and selling products needed to make traditional Polish meals. While the building changed hands again in 1958, it maintained its Slavic roots. Yaros Podzimek, who emigrated from Czechoslovakia in 1950, opened Hubcap Heaven in the historic building, and the business still operates there today.
The area of Broadway and East 55th was also a central location of ethnic entertainment. In 1913, the Olympia Theater opened as a vaudeville house and in 1918 was renovated to operate as a movie theater. In addition to the movies shown, the theater was home to a number of performances by the Polish Opera, Polka performances, and local bands. Also in the area was Bundy’s Music Center. In addition to hosting performances by a number of polka performers and opera singers, the center was where Chester Bundy, who recorded polka music for Bravo, Dart, and Columbia Records in the 1950s, began his career. A block away was the Hruby Conservatory of Music, which operated from 1918 to 1968. Today it is the Broadway School of Music & Art.
More important than the businesses of the Slavic Village neighborhood is the sense of community and deep connection to traditions. Beginning in 1978, the area started an annual Broadway Fair and Street Sale. Businesses would have sidewalk sales, live music, and plenty of ethnic food such as kielbasa and Hungarian horns. Around the same time the area began hosting an annual Harvest Festival, the majority of which took place on Fleet Avenue but was celebrated throughout the entire area. There is an annual Polish Constitution Day Parade, a celebration of the 1791 creation of the Polish Constitution.
Over the decades, many changes have been made to the Broadway and East 55th neighborhood; businesses have come and gone, the population has declined with suburban migration, and other ethnicities have moved into the area. Despite these changes, Slavic pride and traditions have remained strong and show no sign of disappearing.
]]>In 1888, Charles Eisenman and Jacob Kastriner pooled their resources to create a company that would provide boys with quality shirts and washtogs. The company was originally named the Kastriner and Eisenmann company but underwent a number of name changes before finally in 1914 settling on Kaynee, a phonetic spelling of the founders' surname initials.
From the very beginning Kaynee offered employees a number of benefits and services that are unheard of in most companies of today’s world. There was a staffed day care free for all employees and workers could visit the children on breaks. In addition to a large cafeteria and kitchen for employees, there was also a recreation room for various indoor games and activities, most notably exercise. A large area was used primarily as a dance floor but could also be transformed into a motion picture theater. The company used this area to host a number of dances and concerts for their employees in efforts to promote company loyalty.
The company also invested in improving the welfare and education of all employees. Medical and dental offices were located on the premises, providing inexpensive and convenient healthcare for employees and their family. Employees could choose to participate in continuation school, the expense taken care of by the Kaynee Company, in order to further their education in avenues related to the business and work they were performing.
In 1915, the company donated a play area to the neighborhood, equipped with tennis courts, a baseball diamond, and sand boxes for younger children. The company looked to improve conditions under which children in the district grew up. This generosity was not altruistic as much as it was a strategic business decision. A company representative stated, “All that Kaynee does is done in the cause of better business. Children who are brought up in the open grow into better men and women, and the better men and women are, the healthier they are- the better employees they will make.”
Kaynee was also able to find a way to promote itself while simultaneously supporting children’s education and astuteness. From 1940 to 1953, Quiz Kids was a popular weekly show in which a panel of children were asked a series of trivia questions and gave very detailed answers without the help of calculators or notes. Kaynee used the show to promote their line of boys clothing in commercials and started a new Quiz Kids line. Kaynee also sponsored a contest for boys to write in why they wanted to be a quiz kid and the winner would be featured on the show.
Despite the plethora of welfare programs available to employees, problems arose. Workers began pushing for unionization at the behest of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. On November 8, 1934, workers began a strike for unionization. A majority of the employees refused to strike or join the union and was thus susceptible to attacks by strikers. Despite what union leaders claimed, a large number of employees did not walk out; the plant entrances were barred by the picket line and they were unable to begin work. On November 12, Kaynee announced the closing of its Cleveland plants and cancelled all orders placed for delivery. The decision came in the wake of brutal attacks on their employees when riding to and from work and even at their homes. The strike ended January 1935 when the two entities reached an agreement that provided collective bargaining, reinstatement of workers without discrimination, equalization of work, and a reconsideration of wage rates.
The company quickly resumed production and continued operations peacefully until the 1950s. Aetna International bought a large share of stock in 1952 and later sold it to Piedmont Shirt Co. of Greenville, South Carolina. Piedmont bought out the company in 1958 and soon closed both plants (the other being in Williamsburg, Kentucky), putting around 600 employees out of work. The company is still in operation today but is known as Rifle Kaynee and is based in New Jersey.
]]>One could easily mistake the recent proliferation of microbreweries and brew pubs springing up on what often seem to be every other block in Cleveland as a modern and unique phenomenon. All of this has occurred here before, however, and with even more vigor and success than today’s upstarts are enjoying. With the influx of beer-loving immigrants from Germany, Bohemia and Ireland after the Napoleonic Wars ended in 1815, Cleveland was a big, and expanding, beer-drinking town. Just as IPAs fuel the burgeoning beer market today, at the end of the 19th century it was the new German lager that was all the rage, and most of the two dozen breweries then producing upwards of half a billion barrels of beer, switched from ale to lager brewing. Ironically, the shift today is back in the other direction, from the now disdained lager, back to ale. In an attempt to take advantage of the huge profits being raked in by beer barons of the day such as Isaac Leisy and George Gund, in the spring of 1904 a grocer and tailor pooled their resources and built a state of the art brewery on Union Avenue and East 69th Street, and the Forest City Brewing Company was born.
Michael Albl was brought to America by his father in 1850, leaving behind his handicapped mother in Stenovic, a province of Pilsen in what was then Bohemia. Arriving in Cleveland, like many Czech immigrants of the time, Albl quickly found work as a cooper in Rockefeller’s refinery. In the winter of 1873 he opened a grocery at 4950 Broadway that would grow to become one of the largest in the area. By this time Albl was trusted and admired by his community and was often called on to serve as executor of estates and to offer business advice to his neighbors. He dabbled in real estate and the insurance business, and was elected to a string of political offices after garnering the support of the community. He was appointed judge on April 1, 1887, and waterworks trustee in 1890. In 1904 Albl teamed with fellow Czech Joseph Troyen to build a state of the art brewery just a short walk from Albl’s successful grocery and Troyen’s clothing shop. They recruited Vaclev Humel from the Pilsner Brewing Company on Cleveland’s west side to supply the beer brewing expertise they lacked.
The enormous building at 6920 Union Avenue was designed by Mueller & Mildner, a team of architects from Detroit who specialized in breweries throughout the Midwest and Canada at the turn of the 20th century. This was a hulking industrial building built more for function rather than form, but was described as, “the most distinctive and unusual industrial architecture to be found on this continent” by the journal Historic Preservation in 1975. The brewery was among the first to switch to steel fermenting tanks, vats and kegs, and coupled with the steel supports of the brewery itself, made it far less prone to fire than previous breweries. It opened with a brewing capacity of 50,000 barrels/year to serve a mostly local market, and is estimated to have cost $220,000 to construct.
Although the brewery was successful from the start and was featured in many of Cleveland’s saloons in the early 20th century, several difficulties had to be confronted by Albl and his team. A worker named Emil Kohlt was severely burned on July 16, 1909, when scalding wort was accidentally spilled on him. Just two years later Jerry Mrazek was the subject of the most grisly event that occurred at the brewery when his body was found boiled at the bottom of a huge brewing vat. Newspaper accounts vary, with one claiming he fell into the boiling liquid after fainting due to illness, while another maintains that it was suicide. Despite these accidents, the brewery was constantly expanding during these early years, and in 1913 a $25,000, three-story bottling line was planned. With construction nearing completion the night of December 17th of that year, and despite the brewmaster, Marian Hansky, living in a house directly across the street, two men armed with sledgehammers did extensive damage to the new addition and parts of the existing brewery. The men, who were never apprehended, were suspected of belonging to the Prohibition movement, which would be the biggest and most constant threat to Forest City Brewing.
Prohibition began in Ohio in 1919, a year before it became law across the United States. Forest City was one of the very few breweries in Cleveland that attempted to remain open during this period. Michael Albl’s son Frank attempted to keep Forest City afloat by producing Zem-Zem grape juice and XLNT De-Alcoholized beer, but was rumored to have continued supplying local speakeasies with the fully-alcoholized, illegal variety. After numerous lay-offs, Prohibition won and the brewery finally closed its doors in 1930, leaving only Pilsener Brewing Company operating in Cleveland by the end of Prohibition.
With the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, Forest City immediately went back into production. Hansky was still the brewmaster, brewing the famous Samson Ale—named after the brewery near Albl’s hometown in Bohemia that produced the original Budweiser. Forest City, better suited than most Cleveland brewers to resume production, accounted for 25% of the beer sold in the first year after Repeal, but soon struggled financially once the new beer conglomerates got up to speed. The brewery was purchased by the Carling Brewing Co. in 1944 for $477,000, but they would consolidate their production facilities four years later and the brewery on Union was closed and the equipment sold. The building was not well-suited for other businesses, and after a short period as Distributors Furniture Warehouse in the 1970s, the building was demolished in February 2012. Of all the many breweries that once proudly called Cleveland home, the Forest City Brewing Company's building on Union Avenue is the only one that has ever been named to the National Register of Historic Places.
]]>In this age of faster, higher coasters and parks like Cedar Point and King’s Island within a few hours drive, it is easy to forget some of the early amusement parks that once populated Northeast Ohio. The first such attraction for the city of Cleveland was Forest City Park in what is now the Slavic Village neighborhood.
Opened in 1883, Beyerle Park drew its name from its first operator, George William Beyerle, who envisioned a summer resort where people could get away from city life and enjoy themselves. Early versions of the park had picnic areas, a manmade lake, a boathouse, baseball grounds, a pavilion, and a small zoo.
Though the park was initially successful, within a decade of the park opening Beyerle was facing a number of financial problems. His business partner, J. Sykora, was signing checks without authorization. This coupled with a large number of lawsuits of patrons who were injured when a bridge collapsed on the lake forced Beyerle to sell the park.
Although the park was taken over by A. B. Schwab et al on May 5, 1889, and its name was changed to Forest City Park, no great change would occur until 1902. It was at this time that Dudley Humphrey assumed management of the 65-acre park and transformed the mode of operation. Humphrey believed Forest City Park, as well as Euclid Beach Park, which he also managed at this time, were places of immoral influence that he needed to purify. Guests would be turned away at the gates if dressed inappropriately and removed from the park if they acted in a way not to Humphrey’s standards. Under his control, the park removed its beer garden, stopped serving alcohol, and cut down on vaudeville and sideshow acts. In place of these corrupt forms of entertainment, Humphrey added rides and family friendly attractions- a shooting gallery, merry-go-round, a theater, and a “switchback” roller coaster. Under his management the two parks were on a system called the “Humphrey Park Plan”; this allowed guests to buy multiple tickets at a cheaper price and could use the tickets at either park.
Despite the numerous attractions that Humphrey brought to the park, attendance suffered. The large immigrant population in the neighborhood surrounding the park disliked the lack of alcohol on the grounds, whereas the people living further out found it easier to spend the day at Euclid Beach Park or Luna Park. At this time, Cedar Point was also growing in popularity; by the end of the decade, it added additional roads for easier access and opened the classic Cyclone roller coaster, the fastest and tallest in the world at this time, along the beach.
With the increased popularity of the automobile, Forest City Park faced a new challenge; built in the era of railroads and streetcars, the park had no parking spaces and showed no intentions of adding them. Without this access, patrons were left with the options of parking farther away off grounds and walking back to the park entrance or paying to take the street car. Without a suitable option for driving customers, attendance at the park continued to fall.
The final straw came in the early 1920s, when a fire damaged part of the park. The park closed for good soon after. In the 1930s, the city sold the westernmost part of the park to the steel mills to dump slag. By the 1960s, the rest of the park was filled in and houses placed on the empty fields, covering what little remained of the Slavic Village’s amusement park history.
]]>April 21, 1909 started out like any other day in Cleveland but that was quickly to change. Around noon the sky over the city darkened and the temperature dropped rapidly. A few minutes later at 12:36, wind speeds increased rapidly, creating a deadly tornado that would tear a path through Cleveland and bring tragedy to the Broadway (Warszawa) neighborhood, known today as Slavic Village. Although the storm only lasted five minutes, it left behind a wake of death and destruction.
A number of industries were impacted and forced to halt production for days following the storm. Leisy Brewing Company, 3400 Vega Avenue, was heavily damaged when the roof was blown from the building. Rain damaged a number of machines and spoiled the beer that was brewing as well as the entirety of raw supplies kept on hand. Initial estimates of the damage were a little over $100,000.
After carving a broad swath of the city's Near West Side, the tornado bore down on the Cedar-Central neighborhood to the east. Standard Tools Company’s roof was also blown off due to the high winds, injuring three employees. Fire walls were broken and the blacksmith and finishing areas sustained heavy water damage that destroyed machinery. The company, located at 2250 East 71st Street, suspended work for two days in unaffected areas as workers attempted to repair what they could and prevent further damage. The roof of Standard Tools was blown onto the building of Williams-Seaver-Morgan causing that roof to cave injuring 15 workers. Homes in the vicinity near the three companies were damaged from the flying debris, particularly from the roof of the brewery, forcing families from their homes.
Although the Broadway (Warszawa) neighborhood stood well away from the largest concentrations of damage, it bore the worst single outcome on that April afternoon. The greatest damage sustained during the storm was to St. Stanislaus Church on East 65th Street. High winds toppled the steeples of the church, causing debris to fly in all directions, some of which caused damage to the nearby St. Stanislaus School. One boy, Arthur Neibralski, died when a brick fell from one of the steeples and struck him. The damage to the church was estimated at $125,000, over half of what it initially cost to build the church.
While St. Stanislaus suffered the most damage, it was not the only church affected. St. Wenceslas’ steeple broke, landing on two homes and reducing them to rubble. Immanuel Church’s steeple did not fall but was loosened and had a large crack running its entire length.
Despite the amount of destruction the storm left in its wake, the city reacted swiftly and was able to restore power and telephone lines to most of the city within four days. Following the storm, new policies and regulations were put into place in attempts to prevent such extensive damage in future. Immediately after the storm, city leaders looked to pass an ordinance that would forbid the building of high steeples. While the regulation was not passed to the extent originally intended, an ordinance was approved that prohibited roof structures to be more than 70 to 150 ft. above the grade (ground) depending on the classification of the structure. If a steeple's height exceeded 100 feet, the supports had to be carried down to the ground. This ordinance limited the height of future steeples and effectively halted efforts to rebuild the damaged ones.
Prior to the storm, tornado insurance advertisements show its being purchased solely as part of a package with fire insurance, and the amount of coverage was limited. A number of insurance companies did not even advertise tornado insurance as it was not a prominent concern in the city. In the immediate aftermath of the storm, this practice was revised and tornado insurance advertisements brought attention to the purchasing of tornado coverage as a separate plan, and almost twice as many companies began to advertise their coverage.
The storm left a six-mile-long path of destruction estimated to be over $2,000,000 in damages, halted production throughout the city, and left many without power or even homeless. Nevertheless, the storm also showed the resilience of Cleveland – within days the power was back on, the streets were cleared of debris, most businesses had reopened, and repairs were underway.
]]>If you are driving south on East 55th Street near its intersection with Broadway Avenue, you will notice on the left at 3289 East 55th Street a beautiful art-deco style grey limestone building that seems oddly out of place with the single family houses that surround it. The building, which has above its front entrance the single word "Jednota," was built during the Great Depression as headquarters for the First Catholic Slovak Union, one of the largest and oldest ethnic fraternal organizations in the United States.
Founded in Cleveland in 1890, the First Catholic Slovak Union ("FCSU") is often referred to as the "Jednota" which, in the Slovak language, means "Union." The original purpose of the organization was to provide insurance and other benefits to immigrant Slovaks and their families living and working in America, especially in and near Pennsylvania's dangerous mines and Cleveland's factories. In 1892, the organization also began publishing a newspaper in English and Slovak--similarly called "Jednota." It continues to be published to this day as a bi-weekly newspaper with a masthead motto: "Za Boha a Narod"--for God and Nation.
From its very beginning, the First Catholic Slovak Union has had strong ties to the Roman Catholic Church. Its founder, Father Stephen Furdek, was a Slovak immigrant priest and long-time pastor at Our Lady of Lourdes parish in Cleveland. Father Furdek founded the organization because of his concerns that the National Slovak Society ("NSS"), founded in Pittsburgh earlier that same year, was too secular in its approach to addressing issues and problems in the American Slovak community. More than a century later after he founded "Jednota," Father Furdek is still respectfully referred to in the Cleveland Slovak community as the father of their community.
Incorporated with the State of Ohio in 1892, the FCSU grew quickly and by 1928 had 58,000 members nationally, as well as an additional 38,000 members in its junior organization. By the early 1930s, membership in the national organization exceeded 100,000. Meetings of the organization were originally held and the organization's records and files were originally kept in the homes of its officers who lived in the lower Buckeye Road area of Cleveland. But as the organization grew as above noted, it soon became apparent that the organization required larger and more professional administrative offices. In 1919, a step was taken in that direction when the FCSU purchased a large house in Slavic Village at 3289 East 55th Street. The house both served as the residence of its president and provided the organization with the additional space it needed for its growing business.
In 1932, while the United States was in the depth of the Great Depression, the FCSU undertook a major renovation of the house at 3289 East 55th Street, converting it from a single family residence into the art-deco style office building, which is the centerpiece of this story. Cleveland architects Warner, Katonka and Miller designed the new structure to have "mankato hone-finished stone of golden tint" and increased the floor plan of the building to 51 feet by 57 feet. The interior of the new addition, which was labeled "modernistic" by the news media, featured marble floors of two alternating colors and walls, ceilings and cornices made of American walnut.
The art-deco style renovation and building expansion was completed in 1933 and the new headquarters was dedicated by Cleveland Bishop James A. McFadden in September of that same year. The building served as headquarters for the First Catholic Slovak Union for the next half century plus-- from 1933 until 1988. In that latter year, the FCSU sold the building and moved to a new headquarters building located in the Cleveland suburb of Independence, Ohio.
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