tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2769885228921932304.post7412427844889215764..comments2024-03-22T09:41:39.091-04:00Comments on East Cleveland History: Caledonia - My second East Cleveland neighborhoodRobert Dreiforthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17587021860531915552noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2769885228921932304.post-21252212961696718962023-01-23T19:42:54.374-05:002023-01-23T19:42:54.374-05:00Hi Robert. A friend of mine just sent me this copy...Hi Robert. A friend of mine just sent me this copy of your blog. He was born in Little Italy. By the time I met him at Kent State he was in Mayfield Hts. I believe he was in E Cleveland for a bit as we both had stories about being around Nela Park.<br />I was born in Cleveland Heights and had lived in your Cleveland Heights triangle. Hampshire Rd just off Coventry. In 1959 when my sister was born and we needed a bigger space my parents moved to the 2nd floor of a duplex on Glenmont in East Cleveland. Superior playground was right across from Glenmont and a favorite place to go.<br />I started school down the hill at Superior and remember the long walks up and down the hill. Since we'd go home for lunch and it was a long walk I'd take the bus for 10 cents unless I wanted to save the dime or 20 cents for myself. I attended Superior from kindergarten to 4th grade and I do remember bicycling up and down the hill on an old single speed bike. I loved sledding down "the big hill" in Forest Hills.<br />I believe we probably moved to Glenmont because my mother didn't have her driver's license at the time so we could still walk to Coventry and I remember always walking there for everything.<br />Looking back I'm very glad for growing up where I did. The school at the time was probably an even black white mix and I had many black friends as well as my parents. It taught me at such an early age not to look at people differently because of our skin color.<br />Many of my friends moved to "the other side of Avon" ( I think that was the E Cleveland/ Cleveland Heights border). Since the times back then were so safe even as a 7 to 9 year old we could still bicycle back and forth to visit each other. I remember my mother walking us up Superior to Cleveland Heights at Superior and Mayfield for social services such as school vaccines.<br />In 65 we bought a house in Cleveland Heights where my father still still lives. Cain Park became my new Superior Park, I could still bicycle back to my friends in the old E Cleveland neighborhood. We also had a ravine to play in which I believe is part of the same storm system you refer to.<br />You are right that the E Cleveland triangle on top of the hill did seem to relate more to Cleveland Heights then E Cleveland. I tjink even back then the Cleveland Heights Police and fire responded in that area because of closer proximity to the stations. Shopping and city social services were closer. Coventry provided about everything (at least for my family). About the only time we needed to ho down the hill other then school was if we were taking the Rapid or needed to go to Huron Rd Hospital for any reason.<br />The 6 years we lived in E Cleveland (59 to 65) seemed to be a very important time in my families life. It created lifetime friendships with neighbors who became our extended family. To this day I'm still friends with the kids of my parents friends as we all grew up together.<br />As I went through the Cleveland Heights/ University Heights school system I ran across more and more of my early childhood friends. Many I didn't cross paths with until high school. We nay not have rekindled that childhood bond but we knew each other.<br />To this day I still think about some of my Glenmont friends I lost touch with. I've tried to find them on Facebook but some have to common a name to find them through Facebook or other search sites. I would so like to locate several. The ones I do still know that never became my close friends, through school reunions or Facebook. We still reflect on our old youth playing together on Glenmont and bring up old friends names that have vanished from all of us. There are even a couple of friend that became part of my high school 'click' who had been my old E Cleveland friend either through Superier School or because my parents knew their parents. One I know even before kindergarten and we're still friends today meaning we've known each other for 65 years.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2769885228921932304.post-50263217898258621422023-01-23T18:42:49.825-05:002023-01-23T18:42:49.825-05:00Hi Robert. A friend if mine still in the greater C...Hi Robert. A friend if mine still in the greater Cleveland area sent me your blog. He was born in 55 or 56 in Little Italy and later when I met him in college he lived in Mayfield Grs so I'm not sure if he's connected to E. Cleveland.<br />I was born in 56. At the time we lived in the apartments on Cedar Hill in Cleveland Heights. From there we moved to Hampshire in the Coventry area of Cleveland Heights. <br />When my sister was born we moved to Glenmont on the E Cleveland side in the triangle area you mention that should become Cleveland Heights. I started school down the hill at Superior. I remember the long walks up and round the hillAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2769885228921932304.post-57092539125062307142022-09-29T11:37:23.339-04:002022-09-29T11:37:23.339-04:00Nela Park contained a factory, the Cuyahoga Lamp P...Nela Park contained a factory, the Cuyahoga Lamp Plant, where the first fluorescent lamps were manufactured. It was later converted to a laboratory building - this involved removing most of the soil surrounding the building because it was so contaminated with mercury from fluorescent lamp manufacturing.dweebhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03595317228230788966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2769885228921932304.post-85543474801823738692019-02-10T16:43:12.685-05:002019-02-10T16:43:12.685-05:00Nancy: My uncle, Ralph Dreifort, lived on Caledoni...Nancy: My uncle, Ralph Dreifort, lived on Caledonia for a while. He had three children, my cousins, Ronald, Cathy, and Jonathan. Before moving to Caledonia, they lived in the Chambers School area. I'm not sure if all three of them attended Caledonia. They all attended Kirk and Shaw. Thanks for reading and commenting.Robert Dreiforthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17587021860531915552noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2769885228921932304.post-22781198954615747122019-02-10T12:19:04.558-05:002019-02-10T12:19:04.558-05:00Thanks for the great memories of EC. My brother E...Thanks for the great memories of EC. My brother Erwin and I are wondering if you have some Dreifort cousins who were a bit younger than you. The 5 Shrader kids of Brunswick Rd. were born 1944-1953.Nancyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05905036317162443376noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2769885228921932304.post-47147581728276082392018-04-13T09:24:39.921-04:002018-04-13T09:24:39.921-04:00Ceray: Thank you for your nice comment. I hope my ...Ceray: Thank you for your nice comment. I hope my memories of East Cleveland continue to stir up your own memories. Keep on reading.Robert Dreiforthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17587021860531915552noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2769885228921932304.post-14794710986965190662018-04-12T14:27:17.502-04:002018-04-12T14:27:17.502-04:00What a thoughtful and glorious account of many sta...What a thoughtful and glorious account of many staples of my childhood. I also grew up on Nela view and attended Caledonia Elementary School. Thank you for this. I needed it today.Cerayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17033101610448306561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2769885228921932304.post-91344065976075162982016-01-24T12:58:53.308-05:002016-01-24T12:58:53.308-05:00Yes, I think the house still belongs to the person...Yes, I think the house still belongs to the person who moved in when we left in 1971. Also, I made a mistake in the comment about the years my dad was police chief. He got the promotion in 1964 or 5 and retired in 1972. (I hate to mess up history!)M. O'Malleynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2769885228921932304.post-37069283232479437362016-01-24T11:09:53.386-05:002016-01-24T11:09:53.386-05:00M. O'malley: It is good to hear from you. I ...M. O'malley: It is good to hear from you. I know that my parents sold that house to the East Cleveland Chief of Police. I am happy that your family had many happy years in that house. I sometimes drive past it today and am pleased to see that it is one of the best maintained houses in the neighborhood. Thanks for you comments and keep reading. Robert Dreiforthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17587021860531915552noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2769885228921932304.post-75063621771511787092016-01-23T11:53:37.079-05:002016-01-23T11:53:37.079-05:00So glad I just found your posts. My family purchas...So glad I just found your posts. My family purchased your Nela View home when your family moved away. I was three years old at the time, so it's especially enlightening to read about the home and neighborhood in the years before we arrived. That was a great house! The third floor was my last room there--we changed rooms often as my brothers and sisters grew up and got married--but I still remember the built in wooden bookcases and under-eaves storage up there. My dad served on the East Cleveland Police force for many years and was chief from 1962 until 1971. Then he moved on to Nela Park after retiring from the police force due to a heart attack. That was a wonderful neighborhood and a terrific house! Thanks for writing about it! M. O'Malleynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2769885228921932304.post-70124154520616195162014-07-19T15:41:29.390-04:002014-07-19T15:41:29.390-04:00Bill: This is a labor of love for me. There is a...Bill: This is a labor of love for me. There is a lot more for me to write about. It is good to hear that some folks enjoy reading this stuff. I started doing this after my parents died and I suddenly realized that I couldn't ask them things anymore. My kids and anyone else who is interested will have access to my memories, whether they like it or not.Robert Dreiforthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17587021860531915552noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2769885228921932304.post-16710305278202919772014-07-17T17:40:20.894-04:002014-07-17T17:40:20.894-04:00Keep up the good work, writing about East Clevelan...Keep up the good work, writing about East Cleveland. My family was living there when I was born in 1946 and while my parents moved downtown a year or so later, we visited my grandparents on Elm Avenue regularly until the '60s, when grandmother died and my aunt's company moved to Jefferson and she followed, taking her dad with her. I've lived mostly in Lake County and in Tucson, AZ, but since 2000 have been on Randolph, in Cleveland Hts, apparently coming almost in full circle. I agree about the upper section of East Cleveland joining CH and the ECPL becoming a CCPL branch, but I have no vote.Bill Barrowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04136167037678615423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2769885228921932304.post-61913467715897485062014-02-19T21:31:05.764-05:002014-02-19T21:31:05.764-05:00Bob: You are correct about the manufacturing base...Bob: You are correct about the manufacturing base within the City of East Cleveland. I was referring to the manufacturing base of employment adjacent to East Cleveland. The source of employment for a lot of East Cleveland was the manufacturing in the Collinwood section of Cleveland and the City of Euclid. Those factories were within walking distance or accessible by street car or bus. My father is good example of that. He worked at National Acme at 131 st and Coit and later Parker Appliance at Euclid and London Road throughout WWII. He walked to National Acme and took the street car to Parker Appliance. East Cleveland was more viable when people lived near their work or could take public transit to areas like University Circle or downtown for their employment. The changing economy and collapse of the manufacturing base caused people to move to be closer to employment, which had become disbursed. All of that alone would not have sealed the fate of East Cleveland; but it was an important factor. You could write a book about that. I don't believe East Cleveland is a good case study for the question,"can a black majority city survive and thrive?" I'm sure we could find an example of a majority black municipality, which has been successful. Shaker Heights and, to an extent, Cleveland Heights have been fairly successful integrated cities for some time. They also suffer from some of the economic factors, which led to East Cleveland's downfall. It wasn't white flight which led to East Cleveland's problems; it was the flight of the middle class. It has gone from a stable middle class community of 40,000 people to a city of 17,000 populated by the poorest people with the least economic resources. Many people, including me, believe that the only solution is incorporation with Cleveland and its broader economic base. Thanks for your comment. Robert Dreiforthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17587021860531915552noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2769885228921932304.post-1534228392199691252014-02-19T20:32:32.782-05:002014-02-19T20:32:32.782-05:00Bob,
In both blogs you state "The manufactur...Bob,<br /><br />In both blogs you state "The manufacturing base, which made East Cleveland successful in the past, has disappeared. " <br /><br />I think that this needs clarification. I do not recall that there was any significant manufacturing activity within the boundaries of East Cleveland. Essentially everything was residential and commercial. Factories existed in Cleveland (Eaton, Foote Burt, GE vacuums, etc.) and other suburbs like Euclid (Thompson products etc.). All of the people I knew worked outside of East Cleveland (my father in the Buckeye road area).<br />Nela Park is not a factory.<br /><br />Thus, the taxes from the "manufacturing base" were not directly paid to East Cleveland. Workers in these factories lived, shopped, etc. in East Cleveland.<br /><br />The families from "down the hill" moved there (from 1900 to 1950) in the first place because it was an affordable place to escape Cleveland schools and to live in a safe and orderly place - not to get a factory job.<br /><br />Bob AlbrechtAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com