Abstract
In this oral history interview, Walter Wright discusses his experiences as a long-time resident and commercial development director in the Tremont neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio. He provides a detailed account of the neighborhood's history, highlighting its transformation from an industrial hub to a diverse, revitalized community. Wright elaborates on the role of the Tremont West Development Corporation in fostering economic development, preserving historic architecture, and addressing challenges such as gentrification and the impacts of urban renewal. He also touches on the cultural and ethnic diversity of the neighborhood, the significance of local churches, and the ongoing efforts to maintain Tremont as a vibrant and inclusive place to live and work.
Interviewee
Wright, Walter (interviewee)
Interviewer
Laurenzi, Mark (interviewer)
Project
Tremont History Project
Date
10-24-2003
Document Type
Oral History
Recommended Citation
"Walter Wright interview, 24 October 2003" (2003). Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection. Interview 223051.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/crohc000/1285
Transcript
Walter Wright: Walter Wright, W-a-l-t-e-r, W-r-i-g-h-t.
Mark Laurenzi: Are you a current resident of, or have you ever been a resident of Tremont?
Walter Wright: I am a resident of Tremont.
Mark Laurenzi: Ah, for how long?
Walter Wright: I moved here, I bought a house here, in January of 1992.
Mark Laurenzi: Alright. Ah, do you work in Tremont and what do you do?
Walter Wright: I do. I work at the Tremont West Development Corporation and I’m the current commercial and development director. And um, do various things, according to that with the Restore Tremont program.
Mark Laurenzi: Overall, what’s the purpose of Tremont West?
Walter Wright: Tremont West is a non-profit community development corporation which started in 1979 and is dedicated to improving the living and working conditions of people who are in Tremont.
Mark Laurenzi: Ah, in your eyes what makes Tremont unique?
Walter Wright: I think there’s a couple of things that make Tremont unique. Um, first of all, the location on a bluff overlooking the Cuyahoga River, it gives it beautiful views of downtown. The fact that it had ah, Civil War encampment, left behind some interesting buildings, um, from that era. And the fact that the first university was built in Cleveland in 1850. The first gallery, first public art gallery, um, the only art gallery was, was opened there. Ah, the fact that mill owners, um, built impressive homes along Jennings Avenue, uh what is now West 14th Street. And then after World War I when most of the wealthy people had moved after the completion of the Superior viaduct, um, many Eu–, Central and Eastern European immigrants came to the neighborhood and built, ah, stunning legacy of churches that remain to this day. And then in the 70s artists moved in and, there was some renovation efforts, um, that, that we have assisted with and it’s become a very diverse, interesting, dynamic place to live, and work, and visit.
Mark Laurenzi: You, ah, kinda answered my next question. Can you give me a history of Tremont? And spare no detail.
Walter Wright: [laughter] Ok, well this is as I understand it. Um, the ah Kellogg family and the Branch family, and I believe there was another one whose name escapes me now. They were Connecticut Yankees and industrialists and farmers. They moved here in the 1830s and built their homes and their farms; the f–, the Kellogg farm was built around the intersection of Scranton Road and Starkweather. Scranton Road was the millionaires’ row of the day, so to speak, and there’s still some homes remaining there today. What’s now Liminus Theatre was the Emerson Casket Company which was built in the late 1800s for a wealthy family. Ah, the Kellogg family built a very impressive house and that house still remains to this day. Um, its, its near the intersection I believe of Scranton and Starkweather. Just north of that on the west side of the street, it was a brick federal building and set back a little farther from the others and in the late 1800s it was turned into an Italianette. It’s currently an apartment building but a lot of the details remain. Somebody should really research that because it’s a very interesting property and that was really one of the first families in the neighborhood. But um, the neighborhood stared to grow both ah, from, from Scranton Road over to West 14th Street where the Connecticut Yankees came in and built Pilgrim Church, um, as their sort of home church. There’s a long history on that but, what’s now St. Augustine was the, second Pilgrim church, the first one was in a home, private home, and they built what is now a really impressive church; to this day attracts people from all over the state to visit and to worship. And uh, the Connecticut Yankees built then their impressive homes, um, along West 14th Street. They owned, um, factories. There’s the Lamson and Session factories which is uh, uh, maker of auto parts to this day, I think of, of, you know, fortune 500, a publicly traded company. Um, they started as a carriage bolt manufacturer and that little complex of houses that today are called the, um, S-Lamson, Higbee mansions; there owned by Grace Hospital. And, also, the only gallery, which is a brick annex to the Sessions home, uh, that I mentioned previously. Anyway, that’s a fascinating history as well. But um, and then I mentioned after World War I, Eastern and Central Europeans started to really pour into the neighborhood. Um, the Ukrainian Archives Museum has a really interesting history of, people who came into the neighborhood. There was a gentleman who was a lawyer, I believe, and his son. And they operated out of what is today ah, the location of um, the uh, Shaker Cycle, which is in Tremont. Mitch Paul the proprietor of that and that building was, ah, the location of a lawyer and his son who brought many Ukrainians to, um, this neighborhood starting around the time of World War I and really accelerated through the 1920s. Ah, Poles came in, the Lemkovites— [Interruption]
Mark Laurenzi: Go ahead.
Walter Wright: Ah, the Lemkovites were a group, which I understand, I believe were from Poland. They were a subset from a little village, they built Lemko Hall, ah, which is now condominiums and also commercial and residential and it was in the movie the Deer Hunter in 1978, um, for the wedding scene. But, anyway, those folks from Eastern and Central Europe built their congregations, they brought in relatives, they, they bought the old big mansions, they built, uh, workers cottages, they expanded so lots are typically built three deep in Tremont. And um, they were a really tight knit community but however, like so many people in, in Cleveland, ah, once they settled they began to want to move to a lower density neighborhood, so they, like the spokes on a wheel, they radiated out towards Parma, and, um, Seven Hills, and ah, let’s see, the area that’s now, I can’t remember the name, the name of it but its Spring Street off of now 176. Anyway, they radiated it out from there just as the wealthy people had several generations previous and there was a lot of vacant land. There was a lot of then, um, crime, ah, there was disinvestment, property values were falling, people were leaving the neighborhood, the crime rate had gone up, there were drug dealers on Lincoln Park, there was an arsonist who was active and in the late 70s, Tremont West was started in a partnership between Merrick House which had been operating in the neighborhood since I believe 1919 for immigrant, um, rights and education and so forth. And they got involved and formed Tremont West out of a partnership with a defunct, uh, housing organization. And uh, our organization was dedicated towards first, ah, finding the arsonist and putting him in prison, which was done, I believe he’s still in prison to this day. And then renovating homes, which we started to do and finally, uh, building homes. In the last four years we have built over 150 new housing units, some of those are selling for half a million dollars. Uh, we’ve also put in, ah, assisted a lot of business and opening and staying open, um, through the Restore Tremont, originally Mainstreet Program, but now called Restore Tremont. So we’ve really seen this renaissance but I’d like to take credit for it, for our organization, but it really has been driven just by, um, the uniqueness of the neighborhood, the beauty of the houses, and the fact that uh, it’s an interesting, uh, blend. One of the factors that I failed to mention was the freeways that came through in the 1960s, decimated the neighborhood and triggered this disinvestment. Um, the freeways crisscrossed through the neighborhood and probably eliminated about a quarter of the housing stock. If you look at a map, overhead map, you can see the deep rift that the freeways cause and Tremont became at that point a backwater, because a lot of the bridges and access points were eliminated and the freeways bypassed the neighborhood for some years. Those bypasses, uh, have been restored like the ninety ramp and the Abbey bridge and things like that have now created, um, a really truly accessible neighborhood that’s ten minutes from everywhere in the city. So when the artists came in, they recognized the value here and soon after it became restaurant, tours, and gallery owners, and … new residents, and, uh, we’re still preserving, ah, a diversity of economic, um, folks and we have everything from Valley View, ah, public housing which is slated for renovation, to half a million dollar, town homes. So it’s a very interesting, dynamic place to live.
Mark Laurenzi: So, you mentioned the neighborhood changed. Has this change, this change seems to be better, or for the better rather than for the worse?
Walter Wright: I’d say it’s largely for the better. I’m sure there’s always, there’s always people who object to change. Um, I know that there’s some artists who moved here in the 1970s and they could buy a house for, as ah, Jeff Chiplis says, whose a Tremont artist, he could buy a house for less than the cost of a used—
Mark Laurenzi: I’m sorry to interrupt you, can you just spell Chiplis for me.
Walter Wright: Oh yes. C-h-i-p-l-i-s.
Mark Laurenzi: Alright, thank you.
Walter Wright: And he’s one of the first, settlers if you will, one of the artists who moved to the neighborhood in the 70s and bought a house and settled down and made a studio and he claimed “hey, why not? I could buy a house for less than a used car.” And um, for some of those folks, Tremont was wide open, it was very affordable and that may no longer be true. It’s now a bit more difficult for a young artist to come in and purchase property in the neighborhood. You’d have to go to the outlying districts, like around maybe Metro Hospital where we’re at today along the southern part of Scranton road where there are still, um, bargains to be had and really beautiful housing stock. But, um, Tremont around the square, uh, although we’re still seventy percent, poverty rate for, uh, the majority of the neighborhood, a lot of the new folks who are moving in are, professionals and work downtown and have great incomes.
Mark Laurenzi: Now I, after my interview with, uh, Bernard Sokolowski, he told me the neighborhood used to be called the South Side and he said that Tremont is a recent name, where did that name come from?
Walter Wright: Well, actually Tremont’s had many different names. When it was first, um, when it first began, it was sort of part of the Brooklyn Township and it may have been, parts of it considered part of Ohio City. But, the first names I’ve seen it referred to were um, the Univer–, well it was called Cleveland Heights originally, believe it or not, it was called the Heights of Cleveland, Cleveland Heights. And then University Heights when the university, Cleveland University was built in 1850. And that went, that went out of business after four years because the Pelton family, uh, Mrs. Pelton died and there was no longer a source of funding. And it became then, uh, where Camp Cleveland was for the Civil War, and also a Civil War hospital and it started to get called then Lincoln Heights because of the, Abraham Lincoln connection through the Civil War. And then it became known as the South Side. When the immigrants moved in, they just called the area the South Side. So people who grew up here in the 30s, and 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s called it the South side, often they called it the bad old South Side cause it was considered a rough part of town. Tremont, elementary school was actually built, I believe in the 1910s or perhaps early 20s, I can’t remember the date. But um, it was called Tremont Elementary School I believe after an English author. And um, I’m pretty vague on that, but I know that it was called Tremont and in the 70s, I believe is when people first started to refer to it as the Tremont neighborhood because the Tremont school, is first of all is the largest elementary school in the State of Ohio so it’s a really big, impressive building. Um, and that’s the history of it as I understand it.
Mark Laurenzi: Ah, you mentioned ah, houses being rebuilt. When did Tremont start going through a process of gentrification or urban renewal?
Walter Wright: Well those are both loaded terms. Urban renewal refers to the, the ah, 1960s idea that if you tore down substandard or poverty housing that new development would ensue and of course, mostly in downtown’s, we’ve seen in Cleveland that there’s still lots of vacant land that are currently parking lots, which were part of urban renewal in the 60s. Gentrification is another loaded term because, what gentrification typically refers to is the wealthy people driving the poor people out. And um, it’s a loaded term because, uh, rising incomes may not drive everyone out. It will put upward pressure on rents, but it will also, for those folks who, uh, are homeowners in the Tremont neighborhood, they’ve seen a, real gain in their net worth, um, and so it, it’s, neighborhoods are always dynamic. They’re either in decline or their in a growth phase, they never just stay the same. And as much sometimes we would like to see things be stable, especially in our country, we’re such a mobile culture that people are constantly moving in and out, and this is what we see in Tremont. So gentrification is a loaded term. We’re seeing increasing property values but we’re still trying to um, uh, manage, uh, the change in the neighborhood, um. Our board is composed of residents, and business owners, and stake-holders in the neighborhood of all diversity of income levels and we manage also, almost 300 units of housing in this neighborhood, also in Ohio City and Clark Fulton that are subsidized for folks. We also have the Valley View housing projects, so we, and we have plenty of people who are living on fixed incomes, plenty of older folks. So, although there’s probably maybe a ten percent population shift where we have wealthier people moving in, we still remain, pretty much, um, uh, an old time, um, blue collar neighborhood at it’s core.
Mark Laurenzi: The process of gentrification alone, is that more helpful to the neighborhood or more harmful?
Walter Wright: It’s helpful in the sense that when people, we have, we do have an affordable housing crisis in Cleveland. Um, housing is expensive, but we’re cheap, um, compared to most cities. Uh, so what we really have is a depressed income problem in Cleveland, maybe a jobs, um, we’ve lost our blue collared manufacturing jobs to a large degree, other than still, you know, that’s a big component of our economy. But, as we loose those good stable, middle class jobs, people can no longer afford rents, or home ownership. So, that’s bad, um, the good part is that, as property values increase, people can borrow money to do renovations, they can ask for higher rents, um, so property owners in the neighborhood have benefited by upward prices. Renters, by and large, there are still a diversity of rentals, around the neighborhood and as I, I said, we do have some subsidized, rental units that we can offer, but not enough for the need, um, there’s never enough for that. But really, I think the problem is, is less the rental rates, um, although there’s, you know, an absentee landlord problem and people who are not investing in the neighborhood but are, skimming profits off of housing stock. But really, the problem is an economic one, of, of jobs.
Mark Laurenzi: Generally speaking, how many people were displaced when p–, when gentrification began here?
Walter Wright: Well, Tremont West had a goal of non-displacement. In other words, there were lots of vacant lots in the neighborhood, because of the arson of the 1970s and so, houses were built along existed lot lines on vacant, vacant lots. Now, there have been some homes that have been acquired by developers and, and renovated, um, and perhaps rents have increased, I, I mean I’m sure they’ve increased in those property units but whether that’s displacement. Whether we’ve had a net displacement or not, we’re a very dynamic thing but we’re still, according to 2000 census, we’re still seventy percent poverty so I would say that we’re not seeing wholesale gentrification. What we have seen is along the commercial strip. Um, new tenants for what were vacant buildings. New restaurants, new bars, new retailers, galleries; and the interesting thing is a lot, a lot of those are not chains, they’re not national chains that are local retail. A lot of them are owned by people that move in the neighborhood, buy a house or rent, start a business, live here, contribute to the neighborhood, the money stays in the neighborhood, they hire local people to work in the bars and the restaurants, and the galleries, and there’s a net gain in the jobs, opportunities, and the income levels with that.
Mark Laurenzi: So there’s, there’s goods and bads about gentrification? Its not all good and its not all bad?
Walter Wright: Yeah. And again, gentrification is a term that, has specific meanings to different people so I ‘d say there’s, there’s, there’s a, there’s gains and losses when property starts to appreciate and investment takes place. I think its preferable to live in a neighborhood where investment is taking place, than it is to live in a neighborhood where there’s disinvestment cause typically then, there’s no money to reinvest in the neighborhood, the housing stock, and, declines, the, uh, commercial spaces are vacant. Then you get broken windows, you get trash and crime and, you get um, all the urban ills of, no place to work, nothing to look up to, you know, I mean that’s, that’s, that’s something that we don’t want to see. When we talk about increasing property values, we try to make sure that, um, people have access to sharing that as much as they can through, through, retaining local business, local young business and, that provides jobs to residents.
Mark Laurenzi: How would you rate the quality of civil services such as police and fire, for example, in Tremont? And what effect does that have on how the neighborhood has grown?
Walter Wright: Well, I remember reading a study some years ago that um, police nation wide, were about a quarter of the level per capita that they were in the 1950s. So, if we remember, sort of, the good old days, which people like to think about, and you think about the beat cop whose walking around, swinging a nightstick, and whistling and talking to the kids, we don’t see a lot of that. We do have a mini-station, we do have a really great relationship with the second district but their staffing levels are much lower than they used to be. Um, the city of Cleveland as a whole, is in some economic straits so there’s not as much, um and there may be some further cuts. We have a good relationship with them and their, their great people to work with. We have um, police friendship days with our community organizers who, try to get residents and police to interact on a friendly basis that they know one another. And that’s sort of old-fashioned community policing. But, I would say that, in general, um, the less eyes on the street, ah, the less police presence you have, the less resources you have, um, the harder you have to work to use those resources, um, efficiently. So, it’s a, could be a problem, if we see more cuts in, in police and, um, and fire, staffing.
Mark Laurenzi: You think maybe the police cuts are because the crime rate has went down?
Walter Wright: Well, it’s an interesting thing. Crime rates are really hard to measure, and crime rates have gone down in the neighborhood, um, tremendously compared to the 1970s, and even maybe the past ten years. But, there somewhat hard to measure. Um, once in a while there might be a crime like a smash and grab or a car theft, something like that, that’s mostly what we see. There is some low-level drug dealing, uh, mostly on the margins of the neighborhood but we’re, like every other urban and even suburban neighborhood now, there, there is some, some of that present. But um, basically, we, I feel, that um, residents in general feel safe. When there is a crime, it tends to be something that gets the community together, um, they tend to pull together to try to solve it, uh, we have a court watch program. Often when there is a crime, it might be someone who lives in the neighborhood, whose juvenile, and identifying who that kid is and what their up to and then trying to get them through the court system, um, maybe get them hooked up with some social services that they have some other options besides, um, smash and grab crime or, whatever you, what have you, um, that’s what we try to do.
Mark Laurenzi: Would the, the new residents, the more upper-class residents have anything to do with the lower crime rate, because their money, they can have more influence?
Walter Wright: I don’t know if that’s true. Um, certainly I think it helps to have people who have connections, and power, and money in your neighborhood. But um, let’s face it, the police force are, these are neighborhood people, their blue collared guys. I think their, their more informed by having regular dialogue with the residents and we do have people from really diverse economic backgrounds here. They tend to get involved, go to their, uh, block club, we have, I think nine functional block clubs in the neighborhood. People go, we go to, rep– we send representatives of our board and of our block clubs to the second district police community relations committee. So, its really more that kind of like, on the street, kind of presence. Um, when we have problem in the neighborhood, we encourage people to develop a relationship with the detectives whether it’s a vice-detective or, Fresh Start program or something like that so, input from the residence directly with the police is the most important factor.
Mark Laurenzi: I wanna go back to the interbelt bridge, uh, again, what specifically did it do to the neighborhood? It really benefited Cleveland, but what did it do the Tremont?
Walter Wright: Well, I don’t really know if it benefited Cleveland. It may have benefited the suburbs in the near short-term but it allowed, people to move further from the downtown core and jobs moved with them. Of course this is a process that we’ve always seen. Um, when the Superior viaduct was, bridge was built; I mean Tremont grew up independent of downtown because there was no way to get, from the east side to the west side except, you know, um, taking a ferry across the Cuyahoga River or float bridge … both of which took a long time, maybe half a day to get from downtown Cleveland to what’s today Tremont. When the bridge was built in 1881 I think and a trolley that crossed it, people were then enabled to move out and some chose to, people always do. Same thing when the freeway was built, it enabled a lot of people to leave and that created disinvestment. But what we’ve seen now is kind of a, a return investment that the freeways may be having a good affect, uh, because people choose to live because we’re a very easy commute from anywhere in the neighborhood. You can jump on … you can jump on 480, 71, 90, 490, 176, um, all of these freeways connect right here and so, you can jump on them and you can be anywhere in the city within about ten minutes, except maybe the Cedarview Theatre. Um, so anyway, it’s a, it’s added to our, our value I think. We are working now, there’s a plan to redevelop, the interbelt, so we’re working very co—carefully with the uh, Ohio Department of Transportation to make sure that no houses are torn down, no churches are torn down, that their working closely with the residents to preserve the neighborhood fabric. Because before, I believe uh, transportation planners, um, saw this as an opportunity where there would be very little resistance to, freeway going through. It was mostly poor people, it was older people, it was people who were not, politically savvy, and um, that’s no longer the case, today.
Mark Laurenzi: Sorry, I just, can’t find my next question.
Walter Wright: That’s alright.
Mark Laurenzi: The, how would you rate the leadership in the community and, what have they done to improve it, or, what haven’t they done, whatever the case may be?
Walter Wright: Well if you’re talking about political leadership, we have two council people, um, Nelson Cintron for ward fourteen, which is along the Scranton Road cours–
Mark Laurenzi: I’m sorry, if you say a name could you please spell it for me?
Walter Wright: Oh, I spell it, sure. Cintron, C-i-n-t-r-o-n. Nelson Cintron, he’s the first Hispanic councilman in the city of Cleveland and who was elected, I believe, uh, six years ago. Um, and then, in the same class would be, Joe Cimperman, um, C-i-m-p-e-r-m-a-n, and he’s the ward thirteen councilman. So these two councilmen were split-ward neighborhood, which has some difficulties. It means that, there may be some duplication of services, it means that there maybe some, um, ward services that are, um, not equally divided. Also, Joe Cimperman is the downtown councilman as well so he, he has to fund, a lot of different, um, non-profits and a lot of different neighborhood groups and, just attending neighborhood meetings for him is, is , is pretty, big part of his job. So, he has a really large ward, everything from downtown to, to us, the small neighborhood, we’re one mile square by the way. And then we’ve got Nelson Cintron, and, right over here, our neighboring resident, uh, our neighboring, um, neighborhood would be Clark-Metro, Clark-Fulton neighborhood. Uh, Clark-Metro Development Corporation. That’s one of the largest, populations of Hispanic people between New York and Chicago and primarily Puerto Rican. And, so that’s a, a r-, really emerging strong, um, base. Um, and so that’s Nelson Cintron’s, ward, the heart of his ward and we sort of share a common boundary. West 25th street sort of forms the boundary there on Scranton, road, um, over on this side. So it’s very interesting but, we’ve worked together, on terms of community development corporations, Tremont West Development Corporation and Clark-Metro, have worked together to, uh, on different projects. The leadership in the CDC’s, have joined together to develop, co-develop, the uh, Metro lofts project, which is a um, uh, uh, new housing in a historic office space on Scranton Road. And, uh, we helped a private developer, um, get some funding and, assist him in doing that, this beautiful, beautiful loft space in a, fantastic historic building where they kind of anchors us, in the southern portion, we’ve joined together on that. Um, in terms of the city of Cleveland, we’ve seen a lot of renovations in, the neighborhood through the Storefront Program, which has, uh, money, um, limited money right now especially with federal cuts, but money for storefront renovations in both a loan and rebate, and so that’s been helpful. We have seen, like most neighborhoods, um, not enough services. We, we would request more police coverage, uh, trash removal, street cleaning, graffiti abatement, um, lighting, street lighting, all those things that there’s always demand for, there’s never enough of that I think from a neighborhood perception. The city is doing it’s best to supply those things in the limited, um, time of limited, economic resources, but the neighbors always advocate for more of that because those would, things that make uh, neighborhood really safe and clean and livable.
Mark Laurenzi: So, but, the services are better today than they used to be, in the 70s let’s say?
Walter Wright: Um, I would say some are probably better, some are probably worse. I would, say that, probably, Cleveland is more response, the city of Cleveland is more aware of the neighborhoods. I still think there’s a tendency to put more resources into the downtown, downtown definitely needs a lot of resources right now. But I think the city of Cleveland historically has a bias towards large projects, large corporations, big downtown projects and the neighborhoods, for instance, there is not really a good program for a small business owner that I can guide them to in terms of a, a good loan program that’s accessible for them through the, economic development department of the city of Cleveland. I can send them to the small business administration and then they can maybe get some funding through that route, but there’s really not enough sort of, small micro programs for, um, business owners, especially um, in neighborhoods and I advocate for that. It’s also difficult for business owners and, property owners and, and home renovators and contractors to work through the bureaucracy of the city. They’ve worked very hard to streamline this, but it still is difficult to get a permit, um, to get a license, um, the city of Cleveland is trying to upgrade, couple of years ago they didn’t even have e-mail. They now have, um, uh, they’ve modernized they have e-mail and web presences which makes it more convenient. But there’s still a lot of work to do especially from the perception of neighborhood folks.
Mark Laurenzi: You mentioned a CDC, what is that?
Walter Wright: A CDC, I’m sorry for using, uh, an abbreviation, is a community development corporation and, they were, started by, um, Bobby Kennedy’s vision in the 1960s, it was an idealistic vision of giving the power back to the people. So instead of just having big city governments and small neighborhood, and maybe a city councilperson, you start to empower residents themselves, to have, access to, um, federal and local money with which to renovate property, buy property, um, assist, uh, um, the elderly and so, Tremont West as I said is one of those community development corporations that were started based upon empowering local residents to, do the work of helping their community thrive and grow.
Mark Laurenzi: The renewal process, is there, does, is there a drive to kind of renew the past, rebuild the churches, the old, I, you know, gentrification is obviously rebuilding homes but, is there, a desire to make Tremont look like what is used to, perhaps in the 30s and 40s?
Walter Wright: Well, to some degree but you can’t really do that. We’re a very different neighborhood, everybody, we have now, I guess, more cars than people in the United States. We have to accommodate for, automobiles and, um, it used to be that you had a stay at home mom and you had dad at the mills, it’s a very different kind of environment today. Our churches are very vital. Some of them have changed over from, um, what they traditionally were to other congregations. Um, for instance, we have a growing Hispanic church presence in the neighborhood. We have over, I think we have nineteen historic church buildings in the neighborhood and then we have some storefront churches so we have the largest concentration of churches of any, neighborhood in the city of Cleveland. Uh, except for perhaps Kinsmen neighborhood which may have more churches, but we have more historic church buildings. But, some of those congregations are very actively restoring their church buildings, building up their congregations. Some of them are, are um, just hanging on, you know trying to keep the lights on and, and, and, nourish their, congregations. But um, the churches are a big part of it and I would really like to see sort of an interfaith council with the churches that they can start to cooperate. It’s really a great resource and under utilized in the neighborhood, there’s so much that they bring to the neighborhood that, coordination of what they do, I think, is really important. Holiday concerts, rummage sales, fund raising, things like that to strengthen the community. By and large, the churches pull from a suburban, market now. Um, many of their congregants are from the suburbs or from other neighborhoods. Um, Mega Church up the road here on Scranton is an large, African- American, um, church, a very upscale, I believe, you know, evangelical, church that um, folks it pulls from, from all over Cleveland is my understanding and um, very few of those congregants actually live in the neighborhood. St. Michael’s church has a very large Hispanic population based upon the neighborhood. Um, Lutheran, Emanuel, Emanuel Lutheran church on Scranton Road still conducts services in German. Um, you’ve got St. John Cantius, which still conducts services, uh, its, has a, large Polish congregation, that’s one of the Polish mother churches. St. Theodosius, a Russian Orthodox church, um, Church of the Enunciation, Greek Orthodox church, um, Saints Peter and Paul Ukrainian Catholic, we’ve even got a Korean Catholic church on Scranton Road. So there’s real diversity here, plus there’s, El Carv–, El Calvario, um, Iglesia de Dios, um, Hispanic congregations so its really, really vital but, I can see, greater efforts towards, revitalizing those churches, those community asset.
Mark Laurenzi: What are some of the historical highlights in the community? If you, I, I understand you take tours, what kind of historical sites, sites do you take people to?
Walter Wright: Well, I love to show them, the Gospel Press building, which is currently being renovated. It’s on Jefferson, I believe its 719 Jefferson off the top of my head. But it’s a complex of buildings that goes back to, perhaps, to the Cleveland University which was, on or near that location, parts of it may exist. People tended to build and add-on to stuff back in those days, or move things rather than tear them down. Uh, that’s a, fantastic complex of buildings, um, that was acquired by the Gospel Press Company in the early years of the 20th century and that was uh, a Mennonite preacher who, had left, um, his, he was an elder, he left that position in the church that he could minister to his, the gospel to folks, it, it became the largest publisher of, of uh, church materials worldwide is my understanding. And, it was this gentleman, and some women who lived sort of a, cloistered, almost like a nun’s existence. They were missionaries of the Gospel Press, and um, that, corporation exists today on Brookpark and I believe some of the women still live in uh, assisted living facility that’s funded by the Gospel Press corporation, I’m not sure about that. But anyway, it’s a fantastic building. That and the only gallery, which I mentioned. There’s also, of course, the churches that I mentioned There’s the bath house, which in the early days of the neighborhood, the immigrants did not have access to hot and cold running water so there was a bath house that was built, which is now housing and condominiums. It has a men’s entrance and a women’s entrance so people, come home from the mills and wash up before they went home. Those are some of the highlights, uh, there’s, really there’s so many highlights. There’s an interesting story about Lincoln Park in that, it was, Pelton Park was a private family park, built by the Pelton’s and it had a fence around it, for their use only, and residents in the neighborhood tore down the fence three times protesting its exclusion. And, the third time the Pelton family gave in and said “you know what, were gonna make this a public park, but you can never build anything upon it accept, facilities for recreation.” So, we’ve got some beautiful pictures of the park at the turn of the century with a band shell, and with a fountain. And the park, believe it or not, talk about restoring things, um, is uh, Friends of Lincoln Park is an organization that’s worked with, uh, Cleveland Parks Department, Parks and Recreation, Councilman Cimperman, and there’s plans to do, uh, tremendous capital improvement project on the park.
Mark Laurenzi: How do you spell the name Cimperman?
Walter Wright: C-i-m-p-e-r-m-a-n.
Mark Laurenzi: Alright, thank you. Just gonna flip the tape over now.
Walter Wright: Okay.
End of Side A
Mark Laurenzi: Uh, going back to the innerbelt again, I was told, that the houses that were destroyed were really old and they should’ve been destroyed anyway, is that true or don’t you know?
Walter Wright: Well, I’m sure there were houses that were dilapidated but there were many people who lived in really fine housing stock. Where we’re sitting today, 1728 Brainard Avenue, my home, um, the freeway is five houses to the east here. The f–, the big ditch that the freeways in, took down hundreds of homes, um, we’re sitting across from the Hildebrandt Mansion here, which is the corner of West 17th and Brainard Avenue and that’s Hildebrandt, H-i-l-d-e-b-r-a-n-d-t.
Mark Laurenzi: Thank You.
Walter Wright: They were uh, they owned a, a factory in the neighbor–, in the neighborhood I believe over on Clark-Metro. It’s a beautiful mansion, there were beautiful mansions along this street, and, it had been a very wealthy neighborhood at the turn of the century and was still, even in the 50s and 60s considered the place to move up to. When you really made it in the immigrant community you could buy, a house, along, along Scranton Road down here and um, so, I would say that, at least in the southern part of the neighborhood, um, the streets that connected across here were, Holmden, and uh Brainard, and, those houses were, fantastic. So a lot of terrific houses were lost. Yeah, some might have been run down, but I think there was prob–, my neighbor here, uh, his family, they were Greek immigrants, they lived in a beautiful home here, he still talks about, it was taken down by the freeway. There, I’ve heard a lot of people reference the beautiful homes that they lost when the freeway went through.
Mark Laurenzi: What kind of ah, is, is there a lot of ethnic–, eth, ethnic, uh, variety here like there used to be?
Walter Wright: Yeah.
Mark Laurenzi: What kind of races have moved in?
Walter Wright: Well, for instance, Brainard Avenue right here, we have uh, an African American family, a Greek family, a Middle-Eastern family, uh, a Mexican American family. We have uh, an, an artist … family, uh, uh husband and wife who are, you know, kinda your typical artsy types, he’s a musician, she’s an artist. We have a uh, a lawyer who grew up in Parma, um, we have, let’s see, what else do we have, we have um, a Puerto Rican family, um, we have West Virginian Appalachian, family, all on one street and I’m talking about like one block. Um, so we have real diversity right here in this little part of Tremont, southern part of Tremont off Scranton Road. Around the square t–, historically was white, ethnic, Eastern and Central European, somewhat insular. The Valley View homes were built, I believe in 1939. They were, mostly white, Ukrainian, um, Central and Eastern European immigrants who came here, um, who were lower income and I believe there was, pretty much, uh, uh, public housing, and was pretty much white up until the late, um, 1970s and 80s. So, the southern part of the neighborhood, uh, is next to the, Puerto Rican center, of Cleveland. The African American, um, contingent is more recent and historically tends to be more East siders. Uh, so, we’ve recently seen more African Americans moving to the West side. But, we’re, basically a melting pot, I bought my house here because I wanted to live in a neighborhood that had a lot of different ethnic groups that were living together, that were working together, and we’ve pretty much seen that to be the case, there’s still of course, there’s tensions between different ethnic groups, historically. It was interesting to read the old book, Between Spires and Steeples, I think, it was a, a socioeconomic study of the neighborhood that an, an academic did in the 1930s and they talk about the gangs, that were in the neighborhood, they talk about, uh, drug dealing, they talk about, but the gangs they were talking about were Polish gangs, and Russian gangs, and Irish gangs and so, you know, those problems, ethnic tensions have always existed but, I think we see most recently, more people are trying to work together. What tensions exist tend to be more about socioeconomic group and maybe cultural things than, skin color or family background.
Mark Laurenzi: So, there’s more class conflict than there is racial conflict?
Walter Wright: I’d say not so much conflict as maybe, misunderstandings, cultural differences, um, different expectations, uh, all those things that can lead to conflict.
Mark Laurenzi: Is the, of course you weren’t around at the time, but would you, the community life that used to thrive, with the ethnic enclaves, that just, that doesn’t exist to the extent that it did, does it?
Walter Wright: Not to the extent but you can still see it. Um, I’ve got a neighbor, I’ve got some neighbors who’ve lived in this neighborhood for over fifty years. Um, life long parishioners at St. John Cantius church. Uh, so there’s still like little pockets of ethnic communities here, there’s parts of Tremont that are really like West Virginia, um, Appalachian and, pretty hard core, you know, the families have lived there … um their whole lives like third generation, people who came in ah, people who came in the 1930s, 1940s looking for good jobs in the mill and settled here. So we’ve still got that and we are more mobile but there are old timers. When I first moved in the neighborhood, uh, you know over ten years ago, there were a lot of little old ladies pushing carts, wearing babushkas, who were from the old country, and you don’t see as much of that anymore and I can’t spell babushka for you.
Mark Laurenzi: That’s alright.
Walter Wright: But um, anyway, there has been some change but there’s still a lot of continuity and what we see now actually is people, who grew up in the neighborhood moving back into the neighborhood. One of our board members, I think was born here, and then his family left, and, uh, he, is married, raised a family else, elsewhere and when he and his wife were looking for a new townhouse, they, they came back to Tremont. So that’s happening quite a bit, people reconnecting with their past here.
Mark Laurenzi: So more people are, coming back to Tremont than leaving?
Walter Wright: I think that if you look at the census data there’s still a slight decline overall in population in Tremont as well as in the city of Cleveland overall although its slowing. But, I think what were seeing is maybe, a, change from, really large families living in Tremont, to more empty nesters. Most of the, the upper income people who move in are, are um, empty nesters, um, alternative lifestyle, people, people who are like maybe two people in a household instead of having a large family from, Central Europe. It’s a different kind of, population growth.
Mark Laurenzi: So would you say, today, that the neighborhood is a good place to live?
Walter Wright: I think it’s a great place to live, I think it’s one of the best places in Cleveland to live, one of the most interesting, um, one of the most diverse, and I also think it’s a neighborhood that’s interesting cause it really tells the story of the city of Cleveland in a microcosm. It’s like a small, walkable slice of our history. And, we’re gonna connect with the, uh, towpath trail, hopefully which will go all the way from … historic Zoar, and maybe all the way to Cincinnati. Um–
Mark Laurenzi: Historic Zoar, what’s that?
Walter Wright: Yeah, uh, it’s a neighborhood in, in, southern Ohio, um, along the towpath, its Z-o-a-r. It’s a small, German community that was built here in the 1800s, or maybe late 1700s, I’m not sure. But anyway, when the canal came through in 1830, this is the reason why, all of our neighborhoods are here, along the canal, because it really stimulated trade and it was the main route for, people to travel and for goods, to move along um, this area until the railroads came up twenty or thirty years later. So the towpath trail and visitor center currently ends around, Harvard and East 49th, they’ve gone a little bit north but we’re hoping that they come up, they’ll come up along the Cuyahoga River along the old towpath trail and go through a vacated street in Tremont, which is West 4th street I believe, and will eventually be able to connect with downtown, um, so you can hike or ride a bike all the way from, I believe Settler’s Landing or Whiskey Island and go all the way to uh, wherever the trail ends.
Mark Laurenzi: I wanna talk about some of the business now, what types of businesses are prevalent in Tremont and how are they doing?
Walter Wright: Well their doing very well. As you know we’re, in a, some pretty big economic, problems, um, world wide, country wide, statewide. But we have some of the finest restaurants you can find in Cleveland located here. Um, we have, there are over 350 businesses in Tremont proper, some of those are industrial, commercial; but we have a nice core of, about thirty five different restaurant and food services mostly concentrated along Professor Street and around Lincoln Park and to some extent up West 14th street and uh, scattered along Scranton Road. We have an emerging boutique kind of retail of clothing and gifts. We have X-ray, we have a Banyan Tree. Um, we have, uh, galleries like Pavanna Gallery and, um, Smart T’Art Gallery, Eye Candy, Kelley Randall Gallery on West 14th Street so we’ve got a heart, nice core of galleries–
Mark Laurenzi: Pavanna, could you please spell that?
Walter Wright: Yeah, P-a-v-a-n-n-a. And Banyan Tree is B-a-n-y-a-n. Smart T’ART is S- m-a-r-t, capital T-apostrophe-capital A-R-T. We’ve got two coffee shops. We’ve got Lucky’s at seven, seven, seven Starkweather hence, the name Lucky’s. We’ve got Civilization, uh, right on the park. We’ve got Tremont Scoops, on Professor Street, which is ice cream. We’ve got, uh, La Bodega, which is take out sandwiches. We’ve got Substance, which is next to the Flying Monkey. Uh, Edison’s, next door, and Edison’s. We’ve got the bars. Edison’s was one of the first bars to open up here, in the uh, in the, in the 1980s early 90s there started to be some bars, there was, there’s been Sokolowski’s for a long time since 1923 and Dempsey’s since 1938. They were family run, ethnic, businesses bars and restaurants but uh, in the late 80s we started to get things like, um, Miracles Restaurant, which is now Sage. We got uh, what’s now Lola, um, was um, oh my goodness, Bohemia, and uh, that really triggered something. Edison’s Bar, that triggered a lot of new investment and now you can just see we’ve got the Treehouse, 806 Wine Bar, um, Grumpy’s, I’m sure I’m leaving many out. But anyway, we’ve got a large portfolio of bars, restaurants, galleries, boutique clothing, and giftwares; it’s an emerging market here in the neighborhood.
Mark Laurenzi: This is a personal question. Where would you go, if you were interested in wine?
Walter Wright: Where would I go for wine?
Mark Laurenzi: Yeah, if I, if you were a wine enthusiast like myself.
Walter Wright: Um … 806, 806 has great wine and they have great wine events. The Velvet Tango Room, which is on the border of, it’s sort of a Tremont, Ohio City business, um, is well known. Uh, Duck Island, is known for their wine, I’m trying to think who else. In terms of wine with a meal, I would recommend … the Lava Lounge, which is great, small place, nice wine. Lola, of course, Fahrenheit, um, it’s hard to recommend one over the other, they all have slightly different wine lists. LaTortilla Feliz is very interesting, Central American food—
Mark Laurenzi: LaTortilla?
Walter Wright: LaTortilla Feliz.
Mark Laurenzi: Can you spell that?
Walter Wright: L-a-T-o-r-t-i-l-l-a F-e-l-i-z, which is Central American foods and wines.
Mark Laurenzi: So that would, did they show up with the, the Latin American influx?
Walter Wright: Well actually its somewhat different. They were started, we used to have uh, um, a uh, neighborhood organization that was dedicated towards Central American culture and political issues called Escuela Popular, E-s-c-u-e-l-a P-o-p-u-l-a-r. And LaTortilla Feliz was first started as a project of theirs which was a cooperative restaurant, it uh, Escuela Popular, Popular, shut down, and LaTortilla Feliz was purchased by, a group of in, investors who wanted to, really keep the restaurant as it was, serving really great Central American food which is different from Mexican food. It’s lighter, it’s more European influence, um, have, light sauces, and fresh seafood and avocado, and, and um, and so they, they wanted to maintain it as it was. But they renovated the building, and upgraded, extended their hours and put in a patio and it’s uh, really nice addition to our, neighborhood mix.
Mark Laurenzi: Is there, is there any retail in Tremont, other businesses that thrive here?
Walter Wright: Oh yeah. Well, I mean, I would say, our biggest sector is the restaurants followed by the bars. Secondary in terms of square footage would be galleries. Then third would be gift, housewares, um, which kind of overlaps to some degree, with, with the galleries. And then, coffee shops, ice cream, and, some smaller boutique, um, retailers, some artists, some things like that who work out of their homes. But we’ve also got office space. We have uh, some, some, pretty, emerging, some nice emerging firms like SEK Design, which is a web design and print company, they’ve located their offices in Tremont. Mary Hall Mortgage, um, Tremont Technologies, Tomsik and Tomsik architects, T, that’s spelled T-o-m-s-i-k, Tomsik and Tomsik. And um, so we’ve, we’ve got offices located in the neighborhood. We’ve got a really, really broad, diverse portfolio of businesses and offices in addition to the non-profits that we’ve had here for a long time like Merrick House, Tremont West, and some of the, uh, social service organizations of the Catholic church and other churches.
Mark Laurenzi: So these businesses do well here?
Walter Wright: I would say most do very well. Um, the lifespan of a restaurant is typically, five years or less. Many of them close within one to two years. We’ve had restaurants that have stayed open for fifty or more years like Sokolowski’s or Lola’s that’s been, one of the cutting edge restaurants for the past, over five years. Um, and so, the, what turnover there is in the neighborhood of businesses tends to be more a management issue, than it is a turnover because business is poor. Um, this neighborhood, people who open up a business in this neighborhood, I always tell them that they have to market because we’re not a neighborhood with a lot of, uh, foot traffic or people driving through. You have to really capture the people who come here, we’re a destination, neighborhood.
Mark Laurenzi: Over the years, what kind of aid has Tremont West given business? Ah, Sokolowski told me that Tremont West is fostering incoming business with loans or what not.
Walter Wright: We are–
Mark Laurenzi: What kind of things have you done over the years to foster business?
Walter Wright: Well the biggest thing financially has been the Storefront Program. We’ve, we’ve um, uh, over the past three years, we have returned, um, over, 250,000 dollars in cash rebates to businesses that have renovated through the Storefront Program. They have then done renovations through the Storefront Program, design assistance, using that money and their own money, for a total investment of over a million dollars. Um, this is equal to all the investment that took place in the previous ten years. So from two, the year 2000, 2003, we have equaled all the investment from, uh, 1990 to the year 2000. The other thing is that this is leverage, that’s just one city program, this is leverage private, private investment of well over two million dollars, of people who didn’t use city money and just came in and renovated properties on their own. We do business support and marketing efforts like a business brochure, we passed out 10,000 of those city-wide, nation wide, we, we’ve mailed them out, we pass em’ out, we give them to, um, different marketing events, um, they list every business and service in the neighborhood and, their hours and phone numbers, so we get the word out that way. We have a website, mainstreettremont.com. We have a web site that we use to try to fill vacant spaces, it’s called retailspacescleveland.com. And if you go there, you click on the neighborhood page, you look up Tremont, you can find out what’s available, in the neighborhood to lease or for sale. Uh, we, uh, we also do business support events like the Taste of Tremont, which was a hugely successful event this last year, which brought lots of people to the neighborhood–
Mark Laurenzi: Did that go with the Taste of Cleveland, or was that separate?
Walter Wright: It was independent. We were completely separate from that, it was our own event. Uh, we used the name cause it’s sort of a recognized name, people know that when they go to a taste of, their going to get a little sampler plate of, one of the restaurants. But, people were very excited because they could come down and try, um, Lola’s macaroni and cheese, or, or some, um, sushi, um, sampling from Theory Restaurant, or they could try uh, um, they could, they could, um, you know, try a sampling from, from Fahrenheit, a beef role from Fahrenheit. So they came down here to do that as well as having pierogies from Sokolowski’s and a gyro from, uh, um, The Original Greek Gyro Company. So they could really come down here and get a sampling of what the neighborhood has to offer.
Mark Laurenzi: Uh, going back to Tremont West, I was told you have, hold monthly meetings. Uh, what do you do at these meetings?
Walter Wright: Well, way more than monthly. Um, we have nine different, we have nine different, neighborhood, block clubs that meet monthly. I have several committees of, business organizations that meet at least monthly. We have the marketing events committee that meets on Thursdays, we have the economic restructuring committee that talks about filling vacant space and supporting neighborhood businesses, that meets on Tuesdays, the third Tuesday of the month. We have the Tremont Wireless Committee, or Twifi, which meets every other Tuesday at three. And, um, they, they are bringing wireless to the neighborhood. Um, oh, there’s many, many other meetings as well, but that’s just a sampling.
Mark Laurenzi: Compared to the past, do you think Tremont is moving in a positive direction or a negative direction?
Walter Wright: Very positive, um, I think we’re moving in the right direction. We are trying to start, uh, Seed, a merchant’s organization, which will be independent of us that will support merchants, um, in much a way that block clubs are independent but are assisted by our organization. We’re also, we’re, we’re at a very low vacancy rate, so we wanna see, um, um, our remaining businesses, um, healthy and strong. Uh, we want to see, uh, the remaining vacant spaces, or large vacant industrial buildings, either used for housing or for retail. So we really see that we’re, we’re close to, uh, sort of a peak here, and we hope that we can sustain this growth.
Mark Laurenzi: Uh, what, do you think, uh, it would be more beneficial if manufacturing returned to Tremont on the scale that it used to be? I know there’s an asphalt plant down there and there was a run-in with that a while ago.
Walter Wright: Well, it’s interesting, if you look at a map of Tremont you’ll notice two things. One is the huge swath that the freeways cut through the center of it, a giant x. Tremont’s kind of a diamond shape neighborhood so there’s a huge x going through the center of it. The other thing that you’ll notice is that if you look at a GIS map, that’s Graphical Information Systems, you can see, an overlay of all the industrial, it makes a big horseshoe around the neighborhood, so we’re surrounded, completely surrounded by, industrial. There’s still a lot of industrial here. Down around Quigley where the railroad tracks are, there are many, there’s, um, lots of companies down there. There’s Stripmatic on Abbey, uh, there’s Osterland, um, Nuckley Packaging, uh, Fiesta Guatalahara, Tortilla Rilla, tortilla manufacturer. So, there’s lots of manufacturing here, and they do supply jobs. Uh, their good neighbors by and large. When there is an issue, and the issues would be, um, vibration, heavy truck traffic, um, pollutants, the block clubs tend to, work through their community organizer with the business to try to, settle some of those disputes. It’s kind of an uneasy alliance to have residential and factories right next to each other. But this is the way that things developed in the old days, so it’s probably the way it’s going to be for a long time to come.
Mark Laurenzi: What do you think could be done to make Tremont more attractive to people and businesses?
Walter Wright: I think basically when you mentioned the, city services. Uh, I think, if we can have really strong city services. People want to live in a clean, safe, well-light environment where the buildings are maintained, um, I think we need more assistance with housing code enforcement, with the city, especially with absentee land lords. We also need more assistance, loans and grants for older people or, people on lower incomes who own homes. We also need programs targeted towards renters to help them, um, uh, live, uh, a good, a good life and their, their rental property, um, advocate for, advocate for that. So, some of the really basic needs, if we address those basic needs, I think a lot of the other needs of this neighborhood, I’m not gonna say their gonna take care of themselves, but they need just little encouragement at this point. People wanna come to Tremont to visit, they wanna come here to open businesses, they wanna buy homes here, its attractive, its, its, safe, its beautiful. So I think we just have to really focus on, um, the details, the bottom line stuff that would keep people happy here.
Mark Laurenzi: Alright, uh, last question. Uh, is there anything you’d like to add to this? The overall theme of how the neighborhood has changed, improved, uh, the processes involved.
Walter Wright: I think anybody who wants to study the processes of neighborhood change, immigration patterns, historic preservation, community input, ethnic churches, um, migration patterns, the differences between wealth and poverty, um, the uh, resettling of neighborhoods by artists and by, gay and lesbian people in the 1990s. If you wanna study any of these things, Tremont is the place to do it.
Mark Laurenzi: Alright, thank you very much.
Walter Wright: Your welcome.
End of Interview
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