Abstract
Marie McElroy, Marie DeCapiti, and Dorothy Ferencz share their respective experiences growing up in the Tremont neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio. Born in the early 1930s to immigrant families, they discuss their cultural backgrounds and the strong sense of community that characterized their upbringing. The trio reflects on their education, local social activities, and the influence of neighborhood churches in their lives. Their narrative also addresses the challenges faced during the Great Depression and World War II, as well as the changes brought about by urban development. Together, their insights provide a rich perspective on the historical and cultural dynamics of Tremont during the mid-20th century.
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Interviewee
McElroy, Marie (interviewee); DeCapiti, Marie (interviewee); Ferencz, Dorothy (interviewee)
Project
Tremont History Project
Date
2003
Document Type
Oral History
Duration
80 minutes
Recommended Citation
"Marie McElroy, Marie DeCapiti, and Dorothy Ferencz interview, 2003" (2003). Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection. Interview 223061.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/crohc000/1383
Transcript
Marie McElroy [00:00:00] My name is Marie McElroy. I grew up in-
Interviewer [00:00:04] Wait a minute. Just answer the first question [inaudible]
Marie McElroy [00:00:09] Oh, okay.
Interviewer [00:00:14] What is your name?
Marie Decapiti [00:00:16] My name is Marie Decapiti.
Dorothy Ferencz [00:00:22] My name is Dorothy Ferencz. You want to- We could answer in that order then too.
Interviewer [00:00:33] What are some of your childhood memories?
Marie McElroy [00:00:39] Marie McElroy? It was, well, let me say, it was a very quiet childhood. Remember, we didn’t have any radio, TV, any clubs to go, recreational clubs. All we had was school. And when we came home from school we had some chores and then we went to bed early because lights out at 9 o’clock and it was a very quiet life. And once, oh, once a week we would get to the movie house for 5 cents on Saturday and 10 cents on Sunday at the Jennings Theater on 14th Street, and you would see two big lines of kids going in because our parents wanted us out of the house so they could have some peace and quiet. And we wouldn’t stay for just one show. As we walked out the door you’d hear your mother or your father say, See it once and come home. We stayed for three shows and then we all walked home and we all tried to imitate whatever, if it was a Tarzan thing or a gangster, we’d always try to imitate the person. And I lived very close to the church. I belonged to St. Peter, St. Peter and Paul Ukrainian Church, so we could walk to church. And in those days everyone in the neighborhood went to church because if you didn’t go you’d get finger pointed. Hey, you weren’t in church Sunday, and I think we had a church just about on every corner. Different nationalities. I’m Ukrainian and I can’t think of anything else. Oh, we walked to school. No buses. You walked up the hill to Tremont and you walked down for lunch and you went back to school, walked back to school, and I can’t think of anything right now.
Marie Decapiti [00:03:12] I am Marie Decapiti, and actually, though we lived through the Depression I can say that it was a good childhood. We had several family, related families living in the area and many cousins. So there was always something going on within the family. We did have the Merrick House settlement house and there were-
Interviewer [00:03:54] What’s it called again?
Marie Decapiti [00:03:56] Merrick House, M-E-R-R-I-C-K. It’s still here. At the time, however, it was not in a brick building, it was in two old houses and they had various activities for youngsters. They had tap dancing, they had games, they had dramatic clubs and so we did participate in those activities. Lincoln Park was also a big playground for us. They did not have a pool, but they had a wading pool. And I remember my brothers, my brother, my older brother and his friends used that baseball diamond all the time. It was their favorite sport. And about the only thing that we had in a way of sports equipment, I had roller skates and not these rollerblades, roller skates. And eventually my younger brother and I were able to get a secondhand bike, but that was it. However, we never felt really deprived. It was, it was a good childhood. We did have- We belonged to the St. Augustine Roman Catholic Church and we even made use of their school building. They had a gym on the third floor, so we were able to participate in games there. I know basketball games, we girls played basketball there. And one of the nicest memories I have is of the great diversity in the neighborhood. Many different nationalities. Different churches. And I don’t recall there probably were problems, but I don’t recall that we did have- One nice thing I thought also was that we had neighborhood grocery stores, neighborhood banks. They knew our names, we knew their names, and it was just a very nice relationship. I know we lived right next door to- We lived between a barbershop and a bank. And on the other side there was a tailor shop and the dentist was upstairs. But so I look on that time with great affection. Fun.
Dorothy Ferencz [00:07:16] My name is Dorothy Ferencz. We lived at 755 Starkweather, which is a block next to the St. Theodosius Cathedral. And my parents, my father and his, his mother and dad were founders of the church. And I went, but not because I had religious needing, because I was told to go. So I went and I used to go to Russian class there. And my fondest memories of that church were Father Capernazzi. He was a priest from Georgia, Russia. And he had the most magnificent voice you ever wanted to hear. White beard, a big wonderful man. And the Russian music was just wonderful. But anyway, back to my- To me. We had a dry goods store. It was in the middle of the block. One end of the block was a- [crosstalk] A dry goods store. It sold material, socks, notions, that sort of thing. And. Well, you don’t have that. Well, I don’t know. Like what’s it like? [crosstalk] Socks and thread and material and some clothing, some clothing. And our store was in the middle of the block. It was up and down. It had a basement and the store was on the first floor and then the living quarters, kitchen was in the back. The bedrooms were upstairs. And I helped out in the store when I could. And I used to read a lot because the store had a wooden floor. And I remember getting hell because some kids had come in on roller skates. And I didn’t even know because I was reading. And I was so wrapped up in what I was reading, I didn’t even know they were there. But anyway, so. And then my father had a job downtown. He worked for a firm called Kloppers. And they were very good to him. He also did all kinds of manual work. He could fix wiring and wallpaper and all that sort of thing. And he did flowers. This was during the Depression time. And he did everything. He even made sprays and this sort of thing that you get a florist to do today. And my mother died when I was just about 14. So the only other thing I remember that always stands out in my mind when Kirk Douglas wrote the book about his father, Paper and Rags, or whatever the title was. And I thought, oh, my God. I remember as a kid, the guy used to come down with a cart and a horse and he’d yell, Paper X. Paper X. And that was just a thing to me. Word. And it’s paper and rags. And the man, whoever was on driving the truck was foreign, and he said, Paper X. Paper X. I remember that. They bought paper and rags from whoever was willing to sell them. And he put them on his wagon and dispose of themselves, sell them to somebody else. He would just drove with this horse down the street. And if you had paper and rags you wanted to sell, you brought it out, he bought it, threw it on his wagon and went, Paper X. Paper X. I remember that. And we had a cold stove. And remember when the guy delivered coal, I don’t know why I remember this. He dumped it on the sidewalk right in front of the store. And I had to shovel it in the- We had a small wheelbarrow and take it in the back between the two houses, dump it in the barn, which was in the back of the store. And then when you wanted it, take it back to the house. But the happiest memory, next door to the house, my aunt and uncle lived upstairs. And she was quite a hefty woman. I take after her. And she liked to eat, and she liked hard salami. And I remember I’d sit upstairs by the window, and she, you know, there was a division, like a walkway between the two houses. And she’d make a hard salami sandwich and put it on a broom and reach out with the broom and give it to me, and we would talk. But then my mother died, of course, and we had to move to 14th Street for a while. Then my dad, of course, subsequently remarried. My outside activities are kind of limited because the fact that my mother died and then he remarried, I was so- It’s a traumatic condition and I was more at home than I was out. And she evidently had two, two boys who were the light of my life. And so we, as I said, we moved to 14th Street and eventually the city or the state bought the house because they were putting in what, 70, 71. And we had to move. We lived next to the funeral director and they took everything and we moved to Castle, which was about a block from the school. And of course, with the two young babies, most of my childhood years or my teenage years were more homebound than I would ordinarily have spent, you know, going places.
Interviewer [00:12:44] Alright. Your question is, when did your parents move to Tremont and why?
Marie McElroy [00:12:54] I’m Marie McElroy. My parents came from the Ukraine and they lived in Cleveland. I can’t tell you where they lived in Cleveland, but they bought a home on West 7th Street because my dad worked in the steel mills and you just had to go down the hill to the plant. And we lived there till I was 7 years old. And then I moved, we moved to West 15th Street. It’s near Lincoln Park. Just remember the activities at Lincoln Park. And we used to spend our summer days in Lincoln Park and playing baseball and doing all kinds of things in the park. And our winters, they made an ice skating rink. You had to bring your own ice skates. It was freezing to skate out there. No shelter, just skated and ran home. And Marie brought up about Merrick House. We used to go over to Merrick House to learn various things.
Interviewer [00:14:10] But you got to tell me why they moved to Tremont from the Ukraine.
Marie McElroy [00:14:14] Oh, I can’t tell you that. [crosstalk] Well, my dad came here when he was single to for better living. And then my mother came with her two cousins and my mother met my dad-
Interviewer [00:14:31] For better living?
Marie McElroy [00:14:32] Yes. Oh, yes. They lived on a farm in the Ukraine. And besides, there was, I think the war was coming, World War I. And they came and they stayed.
Marie Decapiti [00:14:50] Marie Decapiti. I’m not sure exactly where my parents lived when they were first married. I know my grandparents, my mother’s parents, came to this country in about 1880 and they lived in the Haymarket district, which is downtown where you now have Gund Arena. And, you know, that area. So they may have. My parents may have lived there for a while. They moved to Tremont when I was about two because my father worked on the Nickel Plate Railroad and he was able to walk to and from work. And I remember as a child sometimes waiting on the sidewalk for him. He would be coming up the hill with his crew because he was the foreman. And he never drove a car. I mean, we never had a car until my younger brother was older.
Interviewer [00:16:05] Okay, well, you say they came here in 1890, right?
Marie Decapiti [00:16:07] 1880.
Interviewer [00:16:08] 80. Sorry. Why?
Marie Decapiti [00:16:10] Well, for the obvious reason. They came from Italy, and they were very, just poor peasants in Italy, and they were coming for a better living. And my grandfather was able to support his family of five daughters and one son, but he was just a laborer. I mean, it wasn’t anything special. [crosstalk] My grandfather who came here, yes.
Interviewer [00:16:38] Right. So he sort of sent for people or-
Marie Decapiti [00:16:43] He came with his wife and two children. Now, my father came when he was 14, came with an uncle, and he stayed. His uncle returned to Italy. My father eventually sent for his sisters, but they did not settle. One of them settled in Cleveland, but the other two did not. They married and moved elsewhere. But I’m blank for a minute here. Okay.
Dorothy Ferencz [00:17:27] Dorothy Ferencz. When, I don’t know. Why, I don’t know either, because I’m assuming they came over like everybody else for a better life.
Interviewer [00:17:37] From where?
Dorothy Ferencz [00:17:39] Well, Czechoslovakia, that area, because that was made up of, what, about 18 kinds of places, and they spoke Slovenian or Slovak or- My mother was Bohemian, but my father was born here, and my grandparents, of course, came from-
Interviewer [00:17:58] Was he born in Tremont?
Dorothy Ferencz [00:18:00] I would assume, yes, he was born here. I think it’s St. John’s Hospital. But so other than the background of the grandparents I’m not familiar with, I never inquired. And just one of those things. [audio issues]
Interviewer [00:18:23] Speak. And what languages do you speak?
Marie McElroy [00:18:27] Well, my mother and father spoke Ukrainian and Polish because they came from the area of the border of Ukraine and Poland, and they used to fight each other so, yes, my dad and mother said that the Poles would burn the Ukrainian books in school. Yeah, it was. It’s rough, but-
Interviewer [00:18:52] Was the books in, like, either language, or English?
Marie McElroy [00:18:56] No, always either. The Polish books were- When you went to- When the Poles took over in Ukraine, they burned the books and put in the Polish books. And then when the Ukrainians were free, they had the Ukrainian books, back and forth. And when they came here, I went to Ukrainian school at the church. We had school after the American school. And you learned to read and write in Ukraine, and we had nuns, and they were tough. You really- At 3:30, you left Tremont and you went down to the church, church school, and there you stayed for two hours.
Interviewer [00:19:43] So you speak Ukrainian?
Marie McElroy [00:19:44] I did. I have no one to speak to.
Interviewer [00:19:49] But did you ever learn Polish?
Marie McElroy [00:19:52] No. Well, living in this neighborhood, you learn to greet them in their Polish. And you always, the elderly people, you would say, panya this or something. [crosstalk] Is it still? Oh, I thought. My voice is so loud. I thought it would- You learn a few words throughout the neighborhood. And let’s see, what else I can’t think of.
Interviewer [00:20:31] And what languages did your parents speak, and what language do you speak?
Marie Decapiti [00:20:34] Marie Decapiti. My parents always spoke English to us. My mother was born in Cleveland.
Interviewer [00:20:42] What part?
Marie Decapiti [00:20:44] Well, probably the Haymarket district. She attended Brownell School, which is off 9th Street, or was. I don’t know if the school is still there. My grandparents spoke Italian and of course my mother could speak and understand and my father could speak and understand Italian. After all, he was born in Italy. But we always spoke English in our home. Even talked English to my grandmother, who understood us but would respond in Italian. That’s- And I’ve had a smattering of German and a smattering of Spanish and I don’t speak anything except English.
Dorothy Ferencz [00:21:41] Dorothy Ferencz. My grandparents spoke Bohemian on my mother’s side and my father’s parents were Slavish or Russian because everything was a mixture over there. But at home it was always, in our house it was always English. But when they spoke to their, my parents, when they spoke to my parents, it was Russian or Slavish. And I went to Russian school and I did really well, but that was it. After I left, I didn’t do anything and I took some German and French in school. I, you know, can understand a little bit of both, but I wouldn’t be able to hold a lengthy conversation with anybody.
Interviewer [00:22:29] Okay, your next question is, can you describe what dating was like as a teenager?
Marie McElroy [00:22:42] Dates? Yes. Well, that- We have to go-
Interviewer [00:22:48] And, and within the same question, tell me, where did teenagers go on dates?
Marie McElroy [00:22:54] Okay, dating as a teenager. I, when I was in Lincoln High School, that’s already high school. And we, we went to St. Michael’s, that’s on Scranton and Clark Avenue. St. Michael’s Church on Friday would have their gymnasium open to the public. And they had a record player and you pay 10 cents and you could dance. And believe it or not, it was a full house. The boys and girls met there. And of course you had to be home at 11:00 or 10:30. 11:00 for sure. And it was very, very nice. And on Friday-
Interviewer [00:23:38] What time did it start?
Marie McElroy [00:23:39] Oh, at 7:00, because at home you had to make sure the dishes were washed, the kitchen floor was swept and the rubbish was taken out. And then you could go. And you walked- I lived on 15th street and I walked all the way over to Clark and Scranton Road. [inaudible question] Well, that’s past Lincoln High, so I don’t know, that was about a 20-minute walk. And with your dime in your hand because if you lost it, they wouldn’t let you in. And we also went to football games and so they weren’t there every Friday. So the Fridays that we didn’t go to the game, we went to St. Michael’s and we all went together. We went as a group. I can’t say I went singular with- I didn’t have, I didn’t go with a date. You met them there because you got to remember the boy couldn’t pay your way and his way in, so he only had one dime. So therefore you- We went dancing. And then when we went to the football game, the boys we went dancing with were football players. And so when they were playing the football, we’d be sitting in the audience. And you didn’t get popcorn or hot dogs or anything like that when you sat at the game, you know, you didn’t have money to buy it. That was it. And when we went to the movies, it was self treat. You met your date. He came to your house and then you walked to the Garden Theatre on 25th Street. You paid your way in, he paid his way in, and then you sat and watched a movie and then you went home. Nothing like it is today. I’m shocked, you know, when I see what the kids-
Interviewer [00:25:55] So you met at the movies?
Marie McElroy [00:25:57] No, he came over to your house because your mother wanted to see who you were going with. And by the way, before I forget, when you had a friend, whether it was a female or a male, come to your house, they got the third degree, which all of us used to resent. My parents would ask, what does your father do? What church do you go to? Where do you live? And they knew all about the fellow. And all he was doing was going to walk you to Scranton to dance. He got the third degree. And my father would say, Why aren’t you home? When we went to- We also went to the YMCA for big dances. And that’s when other schools participated in this dance. And you’d have maybe two or three schools there on west, off of West 25th on Franklin Avenue. And we’d, by the way, we’d walk there too, which is really far. Otherwise you had to take two streetcars and that you just didn’t want to waste Your time. So we, my dad said you have to be home at 12 o’clock and at 12 o’clock in the living room by the door with the clock. We had the clock we had, you know, turned with the clock and he opened the door and say, okay, come on in, bye to the little fellow, and shut the door and that was it.
Interviewer [00:27:35] Okay, alright. Where you go on dates and tell us what it was like dating as a teenager.
Marie Decapiti [00:27:46] Marie Decapiti. I have to say that most of our activities were group activities. We didn’t sort of pair off until much later, but we certainly found it enough to do as a group. And I mean, some of them, sometimes there would be picnics and you would walk to Brookside, which is now a metropolitan park, and we even walked to Edgewater from the Tremont area. But it was always usually as a group activity.
Dorothy Ferencz [00:28:38] Dorothy Ferencz. Like I said, most of my teen years were home-centered. I was in the band, I played the trumpet. [laughs] You don’t see me on TV much, do you? And so it meant playing at the football games or concerts or whatever. But like I said, at home, my stepmother was there, which was always a kind of, for me, that seemed to change my whole life and she had the two babies. So most of my young years were school and home and we did group things, like Marie said. So that’s about it.
Interviewer [00:29:23] This question here is, did you marry someone from the neighborhood? Where were you married? It also says if you had a reception, where it was. So just tell me about your whole married, all the married things. Where were you married? Did you marry someone from the neighborhood? If not, why? Where did the marriage take place? And then get to conception.
Marie McElroy [00:29:50] Okay, I was married. Oh, Marie McElroy was married in Cleveland. My husband. [crosstalk] Oh, no, no. When I went to high school, I was away from Tremont. I married Mark McElroy and he lived on the west side, but on Broad- West 65th and Detroit, near Lake Avenue and Detroit. And I was married, though, at the St. Peter and Paul Ukrainian Church.
Interviewer [00:30:30] Is that in Tremont?
Marie McElroy [00:30:31] Pardon?
Interviewer [00:30:32] Is that in Tremont?
Marie McElroy [00:30:33] Yes, that’s in Tremont. And we had a reception, our wedding reception we had in Springfield, Ohio, because Mark’s mother was ill and she was staying there with her daughter. And I don’t have- I just had my brother and my sister living in Cleveland. So the reception was really on my husband’s side. And let’s see, it was a small private wedding.
Interviewer [00:31:11] So was the reception in Tremont too?
Marie McElroy [00:31:13] No, the reception was in Springfield. It was at a hotel, Indian Hotel. And we had 30 people there and it was very nice. It was a very nice event.
Interviewer [00:31:29] So you never married anybody from Fremont?
Marie McElroy [00:31:32] No, no, no.
Marie Decapiti [00:31:35] Marie Decapiti. I never married.
Dorothy Ferencz [00:31:40] Dorothy Ferencz. I’m also one of the lucky ones. [laughs] I never married and got to- Didn’t have any of the problems associated with marriage.
Interviewer [00:31:48] Go back, go back.
Marie Decapiti [00:31:49] Alright.
Interviewer [00:31:50] Say your name again.
Marie Decapiti [00:31:51] Marie Decapiti.
Interviewer [00:31:52] Why didn’t you marry any of the guys in Tremont? I’m just curious.
Marie Decapiti [00:31:57] Well, I don’t know. I- It’s- It’s- You know, the- When we got out of high school, the first thing we knew is the war. [crosstalk] So you- You know, the young men were gone. Most of the young men were gone. And so in the meantime, I just went to work, went to college, and, you know, took up all of those years until they came back.
Interviewer [00:32:27] Okay, same question.
Dorothy Ferencz [00:32:29] Dorothy Ferencz. Well, pretty much the same thing. You get out of school. You got a job, which I did, and I did that for 44 years. So here we are. [laughs]
Interviewer [00:32:43] Okay. Alright, next question. What was Tremont like when Carl Strokes was elected mayor of Cleveland in 1967?
Marie McElroy [00:32:54] Well, I voted for the man, so we were politically interested in things like that. I don’t- I couldn’t tell you what the Tremont area was like because I just didn’t participate in anything in Tremont. I-
Interviewer [00:33:19] Because you had moved out by then.
Marie McElroy [00:33:20] Yes, yes. And- And when he- In fact, when he became mayor, I’ll- I was living on Edgewater Drive. All my life I wanted to live there, and I finally succeeded.
Interviewer [00:33:40] Right, but did you ever come back to Tremont during that time?
Marie McElroy [00:33:43] No.
Interviewer [00:33:44] Okay.
Marie Decapiti [00:33:47] Well, I lived at - Marie Decapiti - I have lived in Tremont most of my life, longer than either of these young ladies. And I think, yes, I voted for Carl Stokes. Cleveland- We were very upset by what happened when the Innerbelt and 71 were built because it really, I think, spoiled much of the neighborhood.
Interviewer [00:34:24] Let’s talk about that, too. We’ll get back to you on that, too. What are some of the memories of the construction of the Interbelt project? And mix that in with the Carl Stokes. Go ahead and tell me about that whole thing.
Marie Decapiti [00:34:34] Well, it was just that- It was just that they had to take down so many buildings, homes, church, and it just sort of made this a pocket. You know, we were isolated, really. [crosstalk] Right. And we were. Yeah. Isolated from the rest of the city. It was a problem getting to town during that construction, you know, and I think we felt that- Well, we thought perhaps something better could have been managed, you know-
Interviewer [00:35:28] Did that happen-
Marie Decapiti [00:35:29] That happened before the Stokes, I think. That happened before Stokes. Yeah.
Interviewer [00:35:36] So he couldn’t have did nothing about it?
Marie Decapiti [00:35:38] No, he couldn’t either. I don’t know whether anybody could once they- In fact, they’re concerned now in the Tremont area about these new plans for redoing the Innerbelt because- I would hope that they would not further decimate the, you know, the area.
Interviewer [00:36:00] Okay, I’m getting- While you’re there, tell me a little bit about Clark Road Bridge, Abbey Road Bridge.
Marie Decapiti [00:36:11] Well, that was another sorry, sorry situation. You know, they took down the Clark Bridge because it was dangerous, supposedly, and that cut us off. Then, of course, the Abbey Bridge came down.
Interviewer [00:36:27] Right.
Marie Decapiti [00:36:28] And it took them ages before they got around to rebuilding it. And so you would have to go down to Jennings Road, Scranton, and around, you know, to get anywhere. It was just a terrible time, really. And it just happened-
Interviewer [00:36:52] So, like, every day you woke up and there was this construction everywhere.
Marie McElroy [00:36:57] Right.
Marie Decapiti [00:36:58] And how am I going to get there from here?
Interviewer [00:37:02] Routes were kind of misdirected.
Marie Decapiti [00:37:03] Absolutely. And it. And-
Interviewer [00:37:06] how long did it last?
Marie Decapiti [00:37:07] It lasted a long time. They went-
Interviewer [00:37:09] Ten years, five years?
Marie Decapiti [00:37:11] Oh, I think at least ten. They didn’t build that Abbey Bridge, you know, it was a- You know, finally they did. By that time, they already had the Innerbelt.
Interviewer [00:37:21] Okay.
Marie Decapiti [00:37:24] Clark Bridge has never been rebuilt.
Marie McElroy [00:37:26] Right.
Interviewer [00:37:27] Oh, okay.
Marie Decapiti [00:37:29] So that’s something they ought to think about once, you know.
Interviewer [00:37:33] Alright. We wanted to hear about the Carl Stokes, Innerbelt, the Clark Road Bridge, and Abbey Road.
Dorothy Ferencz [00:37:44] Dorothy Ferencz. I don’t remember much about Stokes because we had to move after I was 14 and politics was the last thing on my mind. And we moved to 14th Street. We were there not terribly long because the only bad thing about that, they took down such beautiful old homes, the woodwork and everything, and they just obliterated everything. And then we had to move to Castle Avenue, which kept us out of all this construction work because we were like a block away from Lincoln High School. And the only thing about the Abbey Bridge, I remember, we used to walk to the market [West Side Market] and you couldn’t do that anymore because it wasn’t there. So I missed all that construction work because we were living on Castle.
Interviewer [00:38:35] Alright. How has the neighborhood changed? And probably already answered this, but when did you move out and why did you move out?
Marie McElroy [00:38:49] You know, I- Well, I was gone for right after I graduated from- Oh, Marie McElroy and I graduated from high school. The following year I moved out and I lived in Pasadena, California. So. And then from there I started to work for Uncle Sam and I traveled with-
Interviewer [00:39:15] So when you come back now what?
Marie McElroy [00:39:17] Oh, okay. Then I changed.
Interviewer [00:39:19] Oh, well, I mean, what hits you the first, like, I mean, boom?
Marie McElroy [00:39:25] The- The isolation of Tremont. Because it was easy to walk wherever you wanted to go. And now they changed the streets. Some are one way, some they just blocked off. And you- You really felt like you were in a foreign area.
Interviewer [00:39:49] Now you do?
Marie McElroy [00:39:51] No, now I’ve gotten used to it because I- But I came back years ago.
Interviewer [00:39:58] Okay- [audio cuts out briefly]
Marie McElroy [00:40:02] Marie McElroy.
Interviewer [00:40:04] And Mrs. McElroy is finishing the question of how the neighborhood has changed because she moved out and has moved back.
Marie McElroy [00:40:17] West 14th Street was a beautiful street. We used to take an evening walk. You could walk down and you could see the Terminal Tower lit up at night. Lit up at night. And the personnel in Tremont started to move out. Most of the old people, the old ethnic people were moving out. They were too old and they either moved into nursing homes or passed away and they moved out. And then we had a different class of people moving in and they came from the South. And I just never felt friendly there after a while. Oh, once in a while I’d stop at St. Augustine Church.
Interviewer [00:41:08] You still feel that way now?
Marie McElroy [00:41:10] No, no. Now-
Interviewer [00:41:12] More homey?
Marie McElroy [00:41:12] Yes. And in fact-
Interviewer [00:41:15] What made that happen? The transition?
Marie McElroy [00:41:17] Well, I guess looking for something that reminds you of your childhood. I took some- I used to color Easter eggs, Ukrainian Easter eggs. And then I forgot all about it while I was away from the city. You just didn’t do it because you couldn’t find the dyes. When I came back, the first thing I did was go to Merrick House. I noticed in a paper that there was a young lady who was teaching Ukrainian egg decorating. So I sent there. Yes. And I spent a whole year going there in the evening. Well, twice a week to learn how to do that. And that’s- Then you got interested in the area as they started to improve it. And I didn’t like I-71 moving either, because that disrupted-
Interviewer [00:42:12] I didn’t give you that question.
Marie McElroy [00:42:14] I know.
Interviewer [00:42:16] Okay.
Marie McElroy [00:42:17] But I, you know, it did cut up- I know it did cut up the streets because Scranton Road, which we used to go, I would go through 15th Street and when I got to Starkweather, which was two blocks, it dead ended. It didn’t go into Scranton. You had to come back out 14th Street. Then you went down in Auburn was another. And you, you know, as I said earlier, it’s isolated. You- You felt like, wait a minute, what are they trying to do? Before the streets were like this, you know, east and west and north and south. And now they’re, they’re just disrupted.
Interviewer [00:43:03] How has the neighborhood changed?
Marie Decapiti [00:43:06] Marie Decapiti. The neighborhood has really changed in the last few years.
Interviewer [00:43:12] You mean 3, 5, 10?
Marie Decapiti [00:43:15] Well, I think maybe it’s about 5, 10 years.
Interviewer [00:43:18] For the better or worse?
Marie Decapiti [00:43:20] Well, it depends on your point of view. It is better. Houses have been renovated. Construction has been going on. New housing has been developed. The old bathhouse is no longer a bathhouse. It’s luxury condominiums.
Interviewer [00:43:50] What was the bathhouse?
Marie Decapiti [00:43:51] It was- That’s just what it was, a bathhouse. You didn’t have bathtubs in your houses. You went to the bathhouse for a bath. Not all the houses had indoor plumbing. [crosstalk] They now have trendy restaurants in the area. They have art galleries. Lola’s, Sage, Costa’s, and there are several others.
Interviewer [00:44:25] Do
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