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CLEVELAND IN THE 50's

By Anton Zakelj, translated and edited by John Zakelj

Photographs by Anton Zakelj

Translator's note: My father wrote this article in 1998 (at the age of 91) to provide background for people in Slovenia for his diary of our first years in Cleveland. My parents and I came to Cleveland as immigrants from Slovenia in 1950. This article not only provides some interesting facts about Cleveland, but also describes impressions of Cleveland through the eyes of a new immigrant.

In our first two years in America, we did not become part of broader American life to any significant degree. We were fortunate that we found housing close to St. Vitus, the largest Slovenian parish in America. At that time, everything around St. Vitus was still Slovenian, not only the church, but also the stores in the surrounding neighborhood. There were many small grocery stores that were called "corner stores", because you could find one on almost every street corner. They sold all kinds of things, including meat, tobacco and alcohol.

Some immigrants moved into "American" neighborhoods and had to learn English much sooner than we did. That was hard at first, but it also meant they got more opportunities for better jobs - if they also had the courage and perseverance to go after those jobs.

The best known Slovenian in Cleveland at that time was Anton Grdina. He had a store for brides, a store for children, a hardware store, a bank, a funeral parlor, a bowling alley and more. His motto was "Everything from the cradle to the grave."

Once Mr. Grdina told us how he started his stores. When a new immigrant came to tell him he needed a hammer and a pair of pliers, Grdina went downtown and bought two of each, one for the new immigrant and one for somebody else who was yet to come. Grdina repeated this every time somebody needed some tools. That was how his hardware store started, and the other businesses followed after that.

Another time Mr. Grdina told us about the time he took the wrong man to his funeral home. He was called to a boarding house to pick up a man who had died. The boarding house was so full that some men were sleeping in chairs around a table and some were on the floor. He picked up a "dead" man from the floor and carried him out to his wagon. On the way to the funeral home, the dead man woke up and Grdina had to take him back to the boarding house. He found the real dead man among the group seated around the table.

I also remember how Mr. Grdina would come open his bank doors and give advice to people as they came in, usually good advice. Once he advised me not to sell the house I had bought because he expected our neighborhood would become very valuable because of the new Cleveland Harbor being built on Lake Erie.

Mr. Grdina was an enthusiastic traveler. He would take pictures of interesting places all over the world and then show them to people. He inspired us to travel as much as we could. He said, "Money spent on travel is not money wasted."

The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, available free on the Internet at http://ech.cwru.edu/, has the following article about Mr. Grdina:

GRDINA, ANTON (27 Apr. 1874-1 Dec. 1957), businessman and leader in the Slovenian community, grew up in Ljubljana, Yugoslavia, son of Luka and Marija Grdina. He arrived in Cleveland in 1897 and worked various jobs before buying a hardware store on St. Clair Ave. in 1904. He also sold furniture and became an undertaker, incorporating Anton Grdina & Sons, home furnishers and funeral directors, in 1928, and serving as its president until his death. Grdina helped organize 2 banking institutions for the Slovenian community: Slovenian Bldg. & Loan Assoc.(1916), which became St. Clair Savings Assoc.; and North American Bldg. & Savings Co.(1919-20), later North American Bank, of which Grdina was president from 1939 until his death.

Grdina helped rebuild that part of the St. Clair neighborhood destroyed by the East Ohio Gas Co. explosion and fire on 20 Oct. 1944, organizing St. Clair-Norwood Rehabilitation Corp. and giving $5,000 to the effort. The corporation bought sites of destroyed houses and built and sold 16 new homes. Grdina was also treasurer of the Cleveland Cultural Garden Federation from its founding in 1926 until 1957; president of the Yugoslav Cultural Garden; organized the Grand Carnolian Slovenian Catholic Union; was a founder of the Natl. Slovene Catholic Union; and held memberships in 16 Slovenian lodges. Grdina was the first U.S. Slovenian to receive the Third Order of the Yugoslav Crown, awarded by King Peter in 1938. In 1954 he became a knight in the Order of St. Gregory by papal decree. Grdina married Antonija Bizelj in 1899. They had 6 children: Anthony, Frank, Catherine, James, Mary, and Joseph. Grdina died in Cleveland and was buried in Calvary Cemetery.

Around 1950, the Slovenian part of the St. Clair neighborhood (from E. 55th St. to E. 79th St.) had about 20 grocery stores, even more saloons and taverns, some hotels, 6 hardware stores, 3 bakeries, 3 drug stores, 3 shoe repair shops, 3 funeral homes, and 3 or more furniture stores.

There was a streetcar that ran on St. Clair. At that time, Cleveland had almost a million people, and a cheap streetcar ride could take us to most parts of a huge metropolis.

The factories were the economic foundation of the St. Vitus neighborhood, especially the "dratovna", a factory that made wire. Another wire factory was the foundation for a Slovenian neighborhood in the suburb of Newburg, and a huge railroad shop was the foundation for a third Slovenian neighborhood in Collinwood.

On October 20, 1944, a gas explosion in the northern part of the St. Vitus neighborhood claimed about 140 lives and destroyed many homes. I heard that it was so hot and smoky that pigeons flying overhead fell dead from the sky. That area was rebuilt with a number of nice new brick homes.

Further north and west, there was an area between the railroad tracks and the lake that was designated as a dumping area. In the 50's, that area was covered with mountains of debris from houses and buildings that had been torn down. East 55th Street was like a country road in a valley between the mountains of debris. At the end of E. 55 was Lake Shore Boulevard, which was much smaller and not as straight as the freeway we have now.

Among the mountains of debris you could also find little shacks, made of old boards and covered with sheet metal. America is the greatest industrial power on earth, but it doesn't have universal health insurance and, at that time, many people were still not covered by Social Security retirement. There were a number of old bachelors who had no savings and were forced to live in those shacks. They had little or no money and would look for food in the garbage.

West of E.55, there was an area called "kurja vas" or "chicken village". Through the 50's, there was a sign there that said that. There were a number of people living there who raised chickens and rabbits.

The St. Vitus neighborhood had many places to eat and drink. In Slovenia, we would call them all "gostilna", but here they call them saloon, inn, tavern, bar, restaurant, hotel and Lord knows what else.

At the northern end of E. 55 was a harbor where ships would bring new automobiles and paper from Canada. There were also many factories (besides the wire factory) around E. 55 and E.63 and on Lakeside. On St. Clair and E. 48 was Cleveland Twist Drill, a large factory that produced steel drills. One of their workers was the great Slovenian writer, Karel Mauser. He worked full days in the factory, and wrote his novels at night.

South of St. Clair on E. 55 was the large Richman Brothers factory for men's suits. Many Slovenian women worked there. Now, in 1998, the factory has been vacant for many years, but the owners still remember their workers on Christmas and New Year's.

I need to also mention the very important St. Vitus parish school, built in 1913. At one time

, the school had about 2,000 students, mostly Slovenians. The teachers were Notre Dame sisters, who were the parish's largest benefactors since they basically toiled for free. They say that the principal herself once taught 100 children in the first grade. The parish did not charge any tuition.

Coming from Slovenia, it seemed strange to us that so many schools, including high schools, were named after a saint. In the refugee camp, I happened to see a newspaper ad (maybe a copy of the Domovina?) inviting people to a St. Vitus dance. In Slovenia, that had a completely different meaning. What seemed even stranger was when we heard about St. Joseph fighting St. Ignatius. Why were the saints fighting with each other in America? We learned that the high schools with the saintly names were the best schools and they had the best sports teams. For many years, St. Ignatius was first in the state in a number of sports.

The same is true for colleges and universities. Notre Dame, the Jesuit university in Indiana, is one of the best, both academically and athletically. However, I was a little suprised when I saw that their team, called the "Fighting Irish", now has so many black players.

We learned that, in America, somewhat different rules apply as far as support for schools and churches. Instead of the five church rules we had, there is a sixth one here: support your church and school.

A large source of income for the church and school was the annual bazaar. There were many booths where you could gamble for prizes (we won a live turkey once), there was a large stage for dancing and, finally, the drawing for the raffle. The main prize was an automobile - some years, two automobiles. I heard that, one year, the church bazaar brought in $40,000 in profit, and that's when the dollar was worth five to ten times what it is today.

In the 50's, there were 3 Slovenian and one Slovenian-English parish in Cleveland. Each one had its own grade school and its own choral group. These schools were very important in the assimilation of new immigrants. The children grew up, learned English, and became succesful citizens, but they didn't forget their origins. In my various jobs I met a number of foremen who were second generation Slovenians but still knew Slovenian well and liked to talk with me in our native language.

Besides the 4 Slovenian churches, there were also 9 Slovenian national homes in Cleveland. They deserve much of the credit for preserving Slovenian language and culture in Cleveland. Each national home had its own choral group and most also had their own drama group. Most new Slovenian immigrants, especially the younger ones, joined existing Slovenian organizations - or, if they were not well received, they founded their own organizations.

Much of the credit for a healthy Slovenian community also goes to the fraternal organizations, which were almost all Catholic. We are grateful to our sponsors, who were active in fraternal organizations and helped us obtain health and life insurance through them.

Of all the people who helped and supported us, we'll never forget Mr. James Debevec, the owner and editor of Ameriška Domovina, Mr. Ivan Rai, the editor of Ameriški Slovenec, Anton and Joseph Grdina, and the other sponsors who made it possible for hundreds of refugees to settle in the land of freedom. They supported us even though many others mistakenly thought of us as "Hitler's collaborators" and did not understand that Russian communism was the real reason we had fled from our homes. Some people even believed in the good intentions of communism and did not understand that communism was the greatest enemy of America and the free world.

When we arrived in Cleveland, most of the streets were paved with bricks, many of them made by the Vidmar brickmaking factory in Collinwood. About 50 years earlier, Cleveland's most beautiful avenue (Euclid) was paved with wooden logs, laid across the marshy grassland. At that time, the streetcar was pulled by horses.

Many of Cleveland's churches and even some of the bank offices downtown were constructed of bricks without any covering. In Slovenia, such buildings would normally have a stucco covering the bricks.

Most of Cleveland's smaller buildings, including almost all the houses, were built with wood. America stands on millions of two-by-fours. In Slovenia, most houses were made of brick. Here the wooden houses last almost as long, but you have to paint and fix them quite often.

Newcomers to Cleveland often have a hard time orienting themselves, partly because they become confused by much larger house numbers than we had in Slovenia. But the house numbers are actually determined in a much more practical way than in Slovenia. The rule here is that the first two or three numbers of a house address refer to the street, and the next two numbers are the house numbers. There is also a rule that the east/west streets have names, for example, Lakeside, St. Clair, Superior and Euclid, while the north/south streets have numbers, beginning with the smallest downtown. Unfortunately, there are exceptions to every rule: for example, instead of E. 62 we have Norwood, instead of E. 65 we have Addison, and so on. There are also a number of streets that have identical names, as there are cities and towns in America with identical names. That's why we have to add the name of the state to the city or town.

Cleveland was founded 220 years ago and got its name from a surveyor, Moses Cleaveland. He surveyed the land in what was then America's western frontier, called the "Western Reserve." Cleveland is located along the Cuyahoga River (an Indian name meaning crooked river), which flows into Lake Erie, one of the five Great Lakes. This location, accessible to iron and coal mines, made it possible for Cleveland to become the second or third largest industrial city in America (behind New York and Pittsburgh). Cleveland has often been called "the best location in the nation." It had the country's first oil refinery, many automobile factories, steel mills, breweries, wire factories and others. At its peak, Cleveland had almost a million people. In 1937, the first skyscraper outside New York was built in Cleveland.

Strong unions often had the unintended effect of forcing factories to move to the south, where the labor was cheaper. Now the city has hardly more than half a million people. Cleveland has been transformed from an industrial center to a city of banks and offices, and appears headed for better times. Its inhabitants come from about 50 different nationalities. Blacks have now become the majority.

Cleveland is surrounded by an "emerald necklace", a series of parks which run from Lake Erie on the west side of Cleveland around to the south and back to Lake Erie on the east.

At St. Clair and E. 82 is the beginning of a narrow valley which is called Rockefeller Park and which leads to the south to the Automobile Museum, the Art Museum and the Natural History Museum. Between the two World Wars, the Cultural Gardens were developed in this valley. Most of Cleveland's 50 nationalities each had their own section, where they erected monuments to their heroes. The first garden south of St. Clair was the Polish garden, then the Slovenian. The Slovenians were joined by the Serbs, so this was called the Yugoslavian Garden. The Croatians did not participate.

When we came in 1950, many nationalities had cultural programs in the gardens each year. We often walked there from our apartment on E. 63 St. When the blacks moved into the neighborhood, the monuments began to disappear, including large bronze monuments that weighed tons. For example, there were particularly large monuments for the German poets and writers Goethe and Schiller. I assumed they were melted down somewhere for the metal. But now I've learned that, according to the Cleveland Cultural Garden Federation, the "statuary was removed for safekeeping."

The lakes and rivers used to be full of many kinds of fish but, 30 years ago, they were dying off because of industrial pullution. Someone wrote, in large letters on an embankment on Lake Erie, "Help me! I'm dying!" The lake has now been cleaned up and is again full of fish. The formerly abundant yellow perch have been replaced by walleyes, which are somewhat like the trout we had in Slovenia. Fifity years ago, Slovenian immigrants often caught sheephead, which would grow to 50 pounds and more, and which they would use for fertilizer in their gardens. They say that the Indians used to place a fish with every grain of corn they planted. We would sometimes see such enormous numbers of dead shad that the lakeshore would be all white. We would take buckets and use shovels to fill them with fish, which we then used for garden fertilizer.

In Ohio, fishing is free for children and seniors, while others have to pay a minimal annual fee. The state uses the fees to maintain fish hatcheries. A Scottish minister told me that he came to America just because he had heard that the fishing was free. In Europe, fishing rights were owned by a few people; most people were not allowed to fish or hunt.

There are also many deer, rabbits and raccoons in America. The raccoons survive by eating the food that people throw away. (We were shocked by the amount of food people throw away in America!) In the suburbs there are so many deer and rabbits that it doesn't pay for people to have gardens. A city council decided to allow the harvest of 500 surplus deer, but a society for the protection of animals convinced them to work out a more humanitarian solution.

Much of the credit for America's economic success should go to the Protestant faith. Cleveland's steel, oil, coal and shipping magnates gave millions for universities, museums, churches, hospitals, libraries and other charities. They didn't do that out of love for their neighbor, but out of love for themselves. Protestant ministers preach "If you want to be saved, work hard! If you have a dollar, give a dollar! If you have a thousand, give a thousand, if a million, give a million! You will receive it all back twofold."

If you were to ask me, "What's changed from 1950 to 1998?", I would say: Technology has changed more in these years than it has in the previous thousand years. Airplanes, space exploration, computers, TV, new methods of communications - all use microchips that are completely beyond the understanding of my generation. We can be proud that our new homeland, America, is the leader in all this progress.

But, as is true elsewhere, all that glitters is not gold. For example, think about health care: while the price of food, clothes, housing, automobiles and other necessities has increased five to ten-fold since 1950, the cost of health care has multiplied by 50. Part of the reason for this is the same as the increase in the cost of parochial schools: we no longer have as many nuns who are willing to teach children or care for the sick for almost nothing. We now have teachers and health care workers who have specialized and organized, so they get paid a living wage. Various religious orders used to own and operate hospitals out of love, but now the hospitals are owned by profit-making companies.

Probably the biggest reason for the rise in health care costs is modern technology. There's constantly newer and more complicated diagnostic equipment, often costing in the millions. The religious orders simply could not afford these kinds of investments.

But if it weren't for all this expensive technology, I probably wouldn't be writing this for you today. For some years now, I have been almost blind, so I do all my writing and reading with the help of an electronic reading machine. And two years ago, I broke my neck and my hip in separate accidents. The hospitals and doctors put me back together and now, at the age of 91, I'm again able to go for walks in our St. Clair/St.Vitus neighborhood.

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