East Cleveland History: 12/09/19

YOU CAN’T GO HOME AGAIN

My home from 1940 until 1953 was located at the corner of Shaw Avenue and Plymouth Place in East Cleveland, Ohio. Those were the first years of my life. That house was a very important part of that life. Some of my earliest memories took place there. I can remember sitting with my Mom listening to Bing Crosby on the radio while Dad was working the night shift. I also remember standing in the front yard and asking my dad why all the people were blowing their car horns and seemed so happy. He told me it was because the war was over. It was VJ day. Most of all I remember the people, my friends and neighbors. They were all important to me.

My home was a three family house located at 1719 and 1721 Shaw Avenue. It was a three family because my dad, my grandfather, my uncles and other family members converted the third floor to a full rental suite when he bought the house in 1940. They added a dormer, which included a full kitchen, bathroom, and extra bedroom making it a full two bedroom apartment. Dad did this because it was the only way he could afford to buy a house for his family. It was still the great depression in 1940. Dad was a young father with a family to support. He was working the night shift at National Acme Co. He didn’t have a car so he walked to work. The idea was that we would live on the third floor and rent out the suites on the first and second floors. The City of East Cleveland required that Dad obtain a rooming house permit for the third floor suite. The permit required that the suite meet city requirements and be renewed periodically. As far as I know we were the only legal three suite house in the neighborhood.

The house was built at the end of World War I making it about 20 years old in 1940. We lived on the third floor until my sister was born in 1944. We then moved to the first floor and rented out the third floor. The new tenants were a widow lady named Mrs. Hastings and her daughter, Grace. Mrs. Hastings worked in the home decorating department of the Higbee department store on Public Square. Mrs. Hastings died sometime after we moved; but Grace stayed until she moved in 1962. Over the years we had a couple of different tenants in the second floor apartment. Russell Neff and his wife were there when we moved. Russell was a World War II veteran, who served in the South Pacific.

The first floor apartment had two bedrooms and by 1953 became too small for our family. Dad found a nice three bedroom house on Nela View Road in Cleveland Heights. He chose that house because it was in the East Cleveland School District. Moving day was very traumatic for me. I remember standing in each room of the empty apartment and remembering all the things I had experienced there. That included things like the penciled messages I put on the plaster walls before Dad put up the wallpaper. It also included the basement where I had my model train set and in which we had many parties with my neighborhood friends.

Dad kept the house as a rental property for several years after we moved to Nela View. When Jean and I got married in 1962, Dad rented the third floor apartment to us. We only stayed for several months, because I got my first post college job in Chicago in June of 1963. That brief stay at 1721 Shaw Avenue was an example of going home again. After we left, Dad sold the house. It was becoming a burden to hold a full time job and maintain his rental.

Without Dad to maintain it, the house fell into decline. At one time, I did some research on the ownership of the house. It had transferred owners frequently, often with banks holding title and taxes being delinquent. The tax value of the property continued to drop as time went by. It has been vacant and vandalized for many years. Finally it happened. I was taking a friend on a tour of East Cleveland last spring. We went to see his old house on Brunswick near the old observatory. I then took him down Taylor Road on the way to see my old house. As we turned onto Shaw from Euclid Avenue and drove toward Plymouth, I started to say there is my house. The shock was that the house was not there. East Cleveland had recently received some funding to tear down vacant and vandalized buildings. All around town you can see vacant lots with 4X4 posts around them. One of those is now at 1721 Shaw Avenue.

Over the years I have gone back to that house in my memories and in my dreams. A few days ago I had a dream in which my mother and I were inside the Shaw Avenue house. I don’t remember any details about the dream except the end. At some point I said to my mother, “We can’t be here. We have to get out”. At that point I ran out the front door. When I turned around, the house was not there. It was a vacant lot with 4X4 posts around it. Tom Wolfe was right. You Can’t Go Home Again.

Here are some pictures of my house over the years

I tried to find pictures with a full view of the house with no luck. I guess we never took pictures of the house, only pictures of people around the house mostly in the front yard. I was able to find a picture on Google maps taken in 2014 after it had been vacant and vandalized.