Abstract

Barb Emery, Vice President of Human Resources at Applied Industrial Technologies, discusses the history and role of the company in Cleveland's Midtown Corridor. Originally known as Ohio Ball Bearing Company, Applied Industrial Technologies became one the largest industrial distributors in North America. Starting her career with the company in the late 1970s, Ms. Emery explains the atmosphere around East 34th Street and Euclid Avenue (restaurants, companies, and the Carlin House). She also discusses the company's transition of leadership, the growth of the company, new facilities, and the company's name change. She discusses the company's role in the Midtown area and its contribution to the Cleveland area. The interview concludes with a discussion about the continued presence of Applied Industrial Technologies in the Midtown area.

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Interviewee

Emery, Barb (interviewee)

Interviewer

Souther, Mark (interviewer)

Project

Midtown Cleveland

Date

7-24-2007

Document Type

Oral History

Duration

34 minutes

Transcript

Mark Souther [00:00:02] Today is July 24, 2007, and I would like our interviewee to introduce herself.

Barb Emery [00:00:09] My name is Barb Emery. I’m the Vice President of Human Resources at Applied Industrial Technologies at East 36th and Euclid.

Mark Souther [00:00:18] Great, thank you. My name is Mark Souther and I’ll be conducting today’s interview. And we’re at Midtown Cleveland Incorporated on Prospect Avenue just east of East 40th Street. So thanks again for agreeing to be interviewed today. I wondered if we could start by maybe. I’ll get a little bit of your personal background in a second, but I’d like you to start by maybe telling me a little bit about the history of Applied Industrial Technologies back before it was called that and take me back to the early years of the predecessor company.

Barb Emery [00:00:47] The company was founded in 1923 by Joseph Bruening and he had worked for another gentleman selling bearings. And he ended up starting the business with some help from the gentleman from the Invitech company in Michigan. And he started out, it was called Ohio Ball Bearing Company and had one location. He would drive out and sell products right out of his car and eventually opened up another location in Cincinnati. When I started with the company - it was in the late seventies - the company had grown to just a little over 1,000 employees and the name was called Bearings Incorporated. We also had a division called Dixie Bearings Incorporated, which was in the southern US, and Bruening Bearings Incorporated, which was in the Kentucky area. So we’ve grown to become one of North America’s largest independent industrial distributors, and we sell bearings products, power transmission products, fluid power components. We have rubber products, we have some shop services and we’ve grown to about 4,600 employees in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico.

Mark Souther [00:02:17] Wow, very large.

Barb Emery [00:02:19] Mm hm.

Mark Souther [00:02:20] How did you get your job at Bearings Incorporated?

Barb Emery [00:02:24] Well, my sister was interning at Bearings Incorporated at the time through high school. And they said that they needed some help in their personnel area. So I went in and interviewed and they gave me the job. They gave me a chance, and I just had graduated from high school, didn’t have any college education and started working on insurance claims. So it was an interesting company, small. We were at East 36th and Euclid and we had a branch that was at 3634 Euclid. And everyone knew each other. It was fun, a lot of fun times.

Mark Souther [00:03:03] You said they have a branch there. Where was the actual headquarters?

Barb Emery [00:03:07] The headquarters was actually at East 36th and Euclid.

Mark Souther [00:03:10] Right on the corner?

Barb Emery [00:03:11] Right on the corner. That would be the southwest side. And we’ve since moved out of that building.

Mark Souther [00:03:20] When you were there at that time - this would be 1977, I guess, when this started - what was the neighborhood like? If you think about the few blocks around here or even the immediate block on Euclid.

Barb Emery [00:03:34] You know, when I started there, the Arena was gone. I know I asked questions of other people that had worked there longer than I have. And they remember the Arena being right across from 3634. And people that would go to the Arena for events would actually park in our parking lot. And, you know, Hatton’s restaurant was there, the deli, Fine Arts Deli was there. The Masonic Temple across the street had a restaurant in the basement. Grand staircase we would walk down and go to a restaurant for lunch. And the Al Koran was across the street from us.

Mark Souther [00:04:10] What was the Fine Arts cafe?

Barb Emery [00:04:11] It was a deli, and I think it’s still actually there. It may be called something different, but we used to go over there and get hamburgers and sandwiches. You know, we liked to walk around and find different places to eat.

Mark Souther [00:04:21] And that’s in the building that’s called the Fine Arts Building?

Barb Emery [00:04:23] I believe so. It would be- I think the office is next door to it right now. I don’t know if it’s even functioning anymore. But there is a deli there, right across from us.

Mark Souther [00:04:33] And so there was a place to eat as well in the Masonic?

Barb Emery [00:04:37] The Masonic Temple, yes. We used to go down the basement. I just remember, you know, the stairway curved as you went down, you know, very grand. The building is just beautiful inside. But, yeah, they served lunch, just, you know, sandwiches. Older ladies were the waitresses. You know, they knew us all by name. They never wrote anything down. They would just remember what you ordered. And the Al Koran also opened up and we would go over there for lunch also.

Mark Souther [00:05:02] What was the Al Koran?

Barb Emery [00:05:06] I think that’s the Masons. They actually moved out to Brecksville. They do the circus for the burn victims. But that was the Al Koran mosque across the street. I don’t know, they wear the red hats with the tassels, you know?

Mark Souther [00:05:19] Yeah.

Barb Emery [00:05:19] Yes.

Mark Souther [00:05:20] Okay. I wasn’t sure if there was a connection. I’ve heard of it, but I wasn’t sure it that was connected to the Masonic-

Barb Emery [00:05:28] I know the one other thing that I had mentioned to you earlier was the Carlin House, one of the [Millionaires Row] mansion houses was actually on the property that we currently have our building on. And it was just a huge building, you know, with the big front columns, you know. And I heard that the third floor had, you know, a ballroom. It was supposed to be really grand. When I started, it had a huge front lawn, and a garment worker union was in there. So they were making garments at the time. And we would walk by, and the workers would be sitting outside on the lawn eating lunch. I understand it turned into a halfway house at some point. When we built our new building, several people wanted to try to move the Carlin House from its original location, but it would cost over a million dollars just to move it, and then it needed to be refurbished.

Mark Souther [00:06:17] So it was actually a garment factory?

Barb Emery [00:06:22] Garment workers, right. I’m not sure what the company was or what products they were making, but garment workers were in there, from what I recall.

Mark Souther [00:06:31] Wow. And what about then, on the other side of Euclid beyond 36th a little farther? What was it like between, say, 36th and 40th? Do you remember any places along there?

Barb Emery [00:06:48] Well, let’s see. Well, the Masonic Temple had a travel agency on the first floor. I remember that, but I don’t remember anything being in between there where, like, the Red Cross is now, I don’t remember anything there other than the University Club, which is another [Millionaires Row] mansion. I think it’s called Stager-Beckwith. They were the owners, and I have some information for you on that. We used to go there. They had a restaurant down in the basement also. I don’t know if you’ve been in that building? Myers University owns it now, but they also had, you know, the parlors with the fabulous woodwork and the library. And then you’d walk down a big, grand staircase, and they had a restaurant down on that lower level, and there were fireplaces on both sides. And we used to go in there at the holidays for lunch, and it was just gorgeous.

Mark Souther [00:07:34] Were there any other Millionaires Row mansions that were within a short distance? Not so far as Mather Mansion on CSU’s campus, but were there any others besides the Carlin House and this University Club that were still standing in 1977?

Barb Emery [00:07:50] I don’t recall. Yeah, I can’t remember, but I do have the information with the dates they were built and when they were torn down, so I do have that.

Mark Souther [00:07:58] What was your first- You mentioned your first position was as an insurance-

Barb Emery [00:08:02] Insurance clerk. Right.

Mark Souther [00:08:03] What did you do after that?

Barb Emery [00:08:06] They gave me the opportunity to do the payroll taxes. They said if I could use a calculator, if I could learn that I could do the payroll taxes. It was my boss at that time who said that it would be helpful if I took a couple of accounting classes to help move me ahead.

Mark Souther [00:08:21] Where did you do that?

Barb Emery [00:08:22] I went to Tri-C in the Parma campus.

Mark Souther [00:08:25] And did they pay for it?

Barb Emery [00:08:27] They did. The company has an education reimbursement program, so they paid for the majority of my bachelor’s degree. I went to Tri-C, and then I actually went to Myers College to finish up my bachelor’s.

Mark Souther [00:08:40] Was that where it is now, or did that move?

Barb Emery [00:08:42] I actually went to a facility in Brecksville for Myers. They had an accelerated program that I attended. So it was a great opportunity for me to be able to go to college because I came from a family of five, and the boys usually went to college. My older brother did, but nobody else did. So, you know, Applied gave me the chance and had several people. I had a female boss at the time who also suggested that I should take more college courses. My husband at the time was going to school, and we could only afford him to go to school at that time. He was going to Cleveland State. He’s an engineer, so he graduated from Cleveland State.

Mark Souther [00:09:19] How did you get to and from work?

Barb Emery [00:09:22] I actually took the bus to work because I didn’t have a car. And as I was telling you, the bus used to be really packed with people. You know? I would have to take a bus to the Terminal Tower and then transfer onto the 6th bus to come down to work. Quite crowded on the way home at night, it was very crowded. Standing room only. And at times I would try to. I would walk from Euclid to Lakeside to try to get a seat on the bus. But I also was telling you that I used to go shopping. You know how it is. I would go shopping at- There was a Gray Drug store or go into Higbee’s at the time. You know, that was really nice. Or May Company was downtown.

Mark Souther [00:10:05] So you’d take the bus?

Barb Emery [00:10:07] I would take the bus, yes. I did take the rapid transit for a while, too, but I found that the bus was much nicer.

Mark Souther [00:10:16] Where did you take the rapid transit?

Barb Emery [00:10:17] The Triskett station. After I got married, we moved over to Cleveland near Lakewood by the Triskett station, so I used to walk over to the rapid transit and take that and then catch the bus. I would go through Terminal Tower, which had more shopping opportunities too.

Mark Souther [00:10:33] What was the like before they did- I know they created a mall and became Tower City Center. What kinds of shops were there prior to that?

Barb Emery [00:10:43] You know, mostly Higbee’s is what I recall, being able to go right from Terminal Tower into Higbee’s.

Mark Souther [00:10:49] So there were no small stores then?

Barb Emery [00:10:50] I don’t remember. Yeah, it’s been a while ago.

Mark Souther [00:10:56] Can you describe a little bit about the growth of the company from, say, 1977 to 1997 before it moved to the new building?

Barb Emery [00:11:07] Okay. After Mister Bruening, he was getting older. He had founded the company. He determined that John Cunin would become the next successor to him. And John Cunin had worked his way through the company. Great guy. He knew everyone’s name in the whole company. Everyone just loved him. He ended up passing away. George L’Amour actually took over for him. He also grew up working in the company doing odd jobs to start out with everyone, like homegrown almost. After that, Jack Dannemiller came in and worked for us. He was, you know, came from the outside. Somebody new and different. Everyone was a little bit leery of it. During Jack Dannemiller’s time, the culture of the company was solidified. You know, the core values of the company, honesty, integrity, the strategic priorities of the company. And we also had some acquisitions that we had done. And we bought a company out on the west coast called King Bearing Incorporated. And so that brought in quite a few more employees. So a few more acquisitions after that. We had an acquisition in Puerto Rico in 1998. Canada was 2000 and Mexico was 2001. And we’ve continued to acquire other companies along the way including our fluid power division. So along with that, every acquisition- What amazed me most was that everyone was just like the people that I already worked at Applied or Bearings Inc. at the time. Everywhere I’ve gone, the people are all the same. You know, hardworking individuals care for each other and help each other.

Mark Souther [00:12:47] Whose idea was it to build the very large building that is now the headquarters at East 36th and Euclid?

Barb Emery [00:12:55] I’m not sure of the specific person. I think it was a joint decision. We had outgrown our building. We were actually at 36th and Euclid. We put some people down above our branch location at 3634 because we had outgrown it. And then we bought the building at 40th and Euclid. We also had a shop in the parking lot behind 3634 and kept growing by leaps and bounds. Couldn’t keep up with it. Larger finance it as technology increased. No longer had the key punch operators like we used to. And we just needed one facility to get everyone together. We actually had a van that would go around in circles all day long taking people to each of the buildings. The thing was falling apart by the time we ended up moving into our new place. But a way of getting everyone together in one location was nice.

Mark Souther [00:13:46] Once the building was planned, do you recall if there were any different, any discussions about different designs that it should, how it should look? Well, for one thing, it’s on a historic street that had Millionaires’ Row and Euclid Avenue is sort of the “Main Street” of Cleveland. So I’m sure there are all kinds of discussions about what the building should look like.

Barb Emery [00:14:10] The thing I remember most was that the design originally was supposed to be an “X” design, so that the building would look the same both on Chester and on Euclid. And I think that we wanted the building to be a little bit more modern. I know with the Masonic Temple being next to us, that’s such a big brick building. It was very different. We didn’t always have praises about the building, you know, being so different, but we wanted to utilize some of the products that our customers sold. PPG glass or the Milliken for the carpeting and things like that.

Mark Souther [00:14:44] And what for the carpet?

Barb Emery [00:14:45] Milliken. Milliken carpeting.

Mark Souther [00:14:48] Oh, I see.

Barb Emery [00:14:48] Right. But, yeah, we try to utilize some of the products that our customers sold, the people that we sell to, the products that they would sell. So PPG glass that the building was used. We used the PPG glass with blue color. The design of the building was supposed to represent taking everything from the past and moving into the future. You know, you look at the side of the building, it has, like, white fins on the side. It’s supposed to represent that the movement towards the future. The actual design ended up being set up kind of like a bearing, a ball bearing, where the center- That’s our- The center core, the atrium of our building, and then actually taking the bearing instead of being in a round shape to turn it outside. So if you were to look from up above, you would think that it represented movement or, you know, the bearing.

Mark Souther [00:15:42] What about the circular-

Barb Emery [00:15:43] Rotunda?

Mark Souther [00:15:43] Okay, rotunda.

Barb Emery [00:15:44] I guess we could call it rotunda. The idea was to have an ability for employees to walk across the bridge, to be able to see views of either side of town. It has a gorgeous view of downtown from the third floor. Even from the first floor, you can see the Key building. It’s quite lovely.

Mark Souther [00:16:05] What about the- People had had a nickname for the building for quite some time. Could you discuss that a little bit?

Barb Emery [00:16:17] A lot of the comments looked like the Jetsons. You know, very futuristic, especially with the center rotunda with the crown at the top. It actually is meant to hide some of the heating and cooling units, but it looks like the Jetsons’ Spacely Sprockets. You know, we always say, that’s the heliport.

Mark Souther [00:16:38] Were these comments, do you think, in good fun, or were they derisive comments or some of both?

Barb Emery [00:16:45] I think that we had some negative comments about the building in the very beginning, about the fact that our entrance to our building doesn’t face Euclid Avenue. But I think people were just being fun. As you said, you drive by it and you’ve always wanted to go into the building. We had a lot of comments like that. We actually hosted tours in the building after it was first opened. Groups would bring buses, busloads of people into our building to tour it.

Mark Souther [00:17:11] Why did that end?

Barb Emery [00:17:13] You know, I mean, we’ve been there almost eleven years. I think the novelty of the building probably wore off. When you look at the Cleveland Clinic, they have some beautiful buildings also. But we’re always welcome to show people around. You’re both welcome to come in.

Mark Souther [00:17:28] We talked on the phone earlier about this, that there were some- There was some public art throughout the building and different motifs, and you’ve mentioned some about using the materials that your customers have made. Could you say a little more about some of the themes or motifs that appear in different parts of the building in as much detail as you can?

Barb Emery [00:17:50] Okay. I did bring a booklet for you with all the artwork, so I can share that with you. But we hired someone to come in and take a look at what artwork would fit best in the building. And they found artwork from local artists, national artists. There’s a wide variety. A lot of floral scapes. It’s just so beautiful. You have to see it. Pictures of maybe the mills, the steel mills, and, you know, showing the rail cars. Pictures of, you know, like the West Side Market and boats and representative of the area to a certain extent. And, you know, we have the- We talked a little bit about the sundial. We have the sundial sculpture. It’s one of the largest working sundials. And now that the sun is out today, maybe we can check out and see if it’s really working. And that is where it became- We wanted to show the history of the [Millionaires Row] mansions. We had hoped that at the time the Carlin House was being torn down, it had the front columns. We were hoping to save some of that, to use it as sculpture. But whenever they went to tear down the building, they found out that it had deteriorated and it wasn’t what they thought it would be. So instead, the artist designed pedestals with marble etchings of the [Millionaires Row] mansions so that it would be around the sundial. So it looks quite nice.

Mark Souther [00:19:13] How many of these are there? The etchings. Are there a lot of them or several?

Barb Emery [00:19:18] It’s each of the houses. So I would- I don’t know if I’ve ever counted them. There’s got to be more than ten, I would think.

Mark Souther [00:19:26] And these marble etchings, are they sort of, if you look down on them, are they in relief?

Barb Emery [00:19:33] Yeah, it’s into the marble, and it’s black marble with white etchings. And then it’ll show the date that it was built and the date that it was destroyed, if it was.

Mark Souther [00:19:43] Are there any other pieces to this sundial that are symbolic?

Barb Emery [00:19:50] There’s also drawings inside of our cafeteria of the [Millionaires Row] mansions that are very nice, too. Outside in the flag court, as we call it, we have the world, a sculpture of the world. And that was donated to us by SKF, which is one of our Swedish suppliers. And the name of the sculpture is Vänner, which means friends in Swedish. And there’s water jets that bubble up underneath it, and at night it’s lit up in blue. It’s very pretty. And the sundial is lit up at night also.

Mark Souther [00:20:23] I’m trying to remember, is this all visible from the street?

Barb Emery [00:20:26] It is. I think the flag court may be a little bit more difficult to see, but this is the sculpture here. I know you can’t see it on the recording. This is the booklet of all the artwork. And I also have a booklet of the sundial. Back in August of ’97, the building, there was a dedication ceremony. And inside of the sundial is a time capsule that is supposed to be opened up on Cleveland’s tricentennial. This is the booklet of the sundial information. And that was what was passed out during the dedication.

Mark Souther [00:21:11] What was in the time capsule, or what is in the time capsule?

Barb Emery [00:21:16] What I recall is there is a picture of the employees of Applied at the time, and there’s also information about the businesses in the area. And I believe there’s a plan for the Midtown area in there also. And Jack Dannemiller put a Bible in there, too. He felt that that would be important, but it had information about what was going on at the time and about the building.

Mark Souther [00:21:40] Oh, I see. I’m looking at the picture of the Carlin House here. So that was the building that was the building that was here-

Barb Emery [00:21:46] Was demolished. Right.

Mark Souther [00:21:50] With the large columns in a semicircular manner. Where there was the lawn, pretty much intact as it was in the picture. Were there trees and the lawn?

Barb Emery [00:21:56] There were some trees. I remember smaller trees. And then the vast green lawn. When you would walk on the sidewalk, you would just see the lawn. It just seemed to go forever. You know, compared to everything else around here, it was all cement. It was beautiful.

Mark Souther [00:22:11] Can you tell me a little bit more about- The company of course is called Bearings Incorporated, and so ball bearings always been a big part of the business. How did it diversify? Can you tell me a little more about the business and what does it do?

Barb Emery [00:22:26] Well, the one thing I forgot to mention was the name changed in January of ’97 to Applied Industrial Technologies. And there was actually a contest that was held, and the employees were asked for suggestions of, how can we describe our company? It is no longer just a bearings company, which was the bread and butter of the company, basically. You know, we were into fluid power, power transmission, linear products. We had the rubber, you know, the conveyor belting products. So how can you describe it? You know, that things are moving, or how can you say that? We do more than that. And so the name, it was determined that Applied Industrial Technology, we take technologies and we add value for our customers. We take a look. If there’s a food plant that’s down, you know, we go in, our sales rep will go in and take a look at what is wrong and try to make a recommendation for a product so that they could get back up and running. So. And that’s, the name came about just that way. The only problem that we had was a lot of people thought we went out of business. My husband’s an engineer, and, you know, he’ll say, my wife works at Applied. And, you know, it used to be Bearings Incorporated. And they’re like, oh, I thought that went out of business. So we tried to show our names, you know, Bearings Incorporated, we try to leave that there for, you know, communications and marketing.

Mark Souther [00:23:48] Is the company a publicly traded-?

Barb Emery [00:23:51] It is a publicly traded company. AIT is the stock symbol.

Mark Souther [00:23:55] Is that on the New York Stock Exchange?

Barb Emery [00:23:56] New York Stock Exchange. Right. And I do have a timeline here of information for you also. And I understand there are pictures that will be coming your way eventually, too.

Mark Souther [00:24:11] Good.

Barb Emery [00:24:12] That’d be good. [recording is paused and resumes]

Mark Souther [00:24:15] Okay, we’re resuming the interview. I wanted to ask you a little bit, as I said, about the connection to Midtown Cleveland Incorporated, and also get you to talk a little bit about the Innerbelt and what it means for the company.

Barb Emery [00:24:30] Okay. Applied has always been a part of this area for so many years, and many of our employees actually still take the bus to work, or we have people that work east side, west side, south side. So for us, you know, having great transportation via the highways is important to us to make sure that, you know, people can get into work safely. Mike Coticchia, our chief administration officer, has been part of Midtown for several years and has been part of the Innerbelt project. We feel that, you know, they would like to, ODOT would like to cut off some of the exit ramps, which would cause some problems for us to try to get to work. You know, you look at, I don’t know if any of you take the Innerbelt to work or to Cleveland state. You know, they cut off one of the exit ramps, Ontario, and the backups are just crazy. So for us, it’s really important. We want our employees, as we call them, associates, to be able to get to work and not feel stressed out by the time they get there.

Mark Souther [00:25:31] So how much leverage do you think that the company can exert with ODOT? I guess it’s federal money backing the Innerbelt project. How successful is this thus far in terms of getting ramps left in place rather than taken out?

Barb Emery [00:25:52] You know, it’s been a long process. From what I understand, Mike could probably fill you in a little bit better. But it seems like every time you seem like you’re getting so far with the whole situation, then something else happens. You know, ODOT seems like they’re receptive to what our needs are. It’s not just Applied. It’s, you know, Central Cadillac, the Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals, Cleveland State. But there have been a lot of roadblocks along the way.

Mark Souther [00:26:22] What connection does the company have with Midtown Cleveland Incorporated? How are the two working in tandem?

Barb Emery [00:26:31] We’ve always been a supporter of Midtown. I believe Mike has been on the board, and we hold the safety fairs at our company every year. So there’s one coming up on August 24. I believe that’s the date. So we bring in, you know, the firemen, the police, and we try to distribute information about safety to other companies here in Midtown. Mike is probably a little bit more aware of midtown than I am.

Mark Souther [00:26:58] And to what extent- Where do your employees or associates work, or where do they live? Do they come from all over Greater Cleveland, or is there a particular area that more of them come from?

Barb Emery [00:27:15] We have several Cleveland associates that live in Cleveland, but they come from all over. We have somebody that drives in every day from Canton, which is, you know, an hour and a half, two-hour drive, but east side, west side, all over.

Mark Souther [00:27:29] How many people work in the headquarters?

Barb Emery [00:27:32] We usually run around just over 300 people. About 315, 320. But we also have contractors. We have a cafeteria, so we have outside contractors working that. We have the cleaning staff and IT consultants, temporary. So probably about 350. It depends. We also hold a lot of our training for all of our locations. We have over 400 facilities in 48 states, and a lot of the training is done at our headquarters. So on any given day, there could be quite a few people there.

Mark Souther [00:28:08] I know this is a national, even really international company based in Cleveland. For people in Cleveland, what has Applied Industrial Technologies done that would be visible besides the building? What’s the history, I guess, of its involvement, its contributions in Cleveland that you could point to that would be of interest to people?

Barb Emery [00:28:33] We’re a big supporter of United Way, Harvest for Hunger. We also have associates that would mentor students at the Alfred Benesch School, the grade school, which is no longer there. So now we mentor at Carl Stokes. So we raise money for them to be able to go on field trips and at holiday times we try to make sure that the kids get their something, whether it’s socks or mittens. We have quite a big community involvement. Our employee associates are wonderful at raising money, dedicating their time. Part of the mentoring program is to help those students pass their tests, their proficiency tests.

Mark Souther [00:29:15] What about in terms of business in Cleveland? What are some of the tangible results of Applied’s presence? Or is that a tough question?

Barb Emery [00:29:27] Maybe more tough for me, yes. You know, we’re a big company. We’re committed to employing associates. When we took a look at moving, there were actually discussions about moving to Cincinnati area, North Olmsted, and North Carolina even. And the company chose to stay here in Cleveland because we’re committed to the city.

Mark Souther [00:29:58] Were there discussions, many discussions of moving to suburban Cleveland? You mentioned North Olmsted-

Barb Emery [00:30:03] Independence, North Olmsted. Right. I mean, you look at Moen’s out there by Great Northern. It was enticing. We actually don’t own the building that we’re in. We’re leasing it for 20 years from pretty much the Port Authority. There’s several individuals, and it’s probably in the documentation I gave you. But we’re leasing the building.

Mark Souther [00:30:23] And are there long-term plans to stay right where you are?

Barb Emery [00:30:28] As far as I know. Right now, yes.

Mark Souther [00:30:32] So what kept Applied in the city of Cleveland as opposed to the suburbs since there were these enticing offers from suburbs, why Midtown?

Barb Emery [00:30:45] I think the local government worked closely with us to try to make it beneficial for us to stay, you know, to help us build this beautiful building. You know, I think that was a big plus. And if we were to move to, say, Great Northern or to Independence or wherever, you know, since this is centrally located, our employees would have an easier time of getting to work, and we didn’t want to lose any of them. Plus the public transportation. Like I said, we still have people that take the bus to work.

Mark Souther [00:31:18] It seems like there was a real effort to make it a symbolic sort of part of the business, having it centrally located, having this impressive building.

Barb Emery [00:31:30] Mm hm. Oh, yeah, definitely. It was important to the company.

Mark Souther [00:31:33] Is there anything else that you would like to add that we haven’t covered from your experience? Maybe not just about the details of the company, but about what it has been like working there or anything interesting that’s happened along the way that’s noteworthy from your perspective.

Barb Emery [00:31:53] I checked with a few people before I came down here because I’ve been with a company only 30 years, just about. So there have been people there for 40, 45, 50 years. So I wanted to ask them, you know, what did they think about the company back then? And they said it was a fun and friendly place. They liked the neighborhood, no matter what any outside situations were. They enjoyed being able to walk, to go to find a place to eat. Just a lot of good times, a good place to work, you know? I don’t know if that answers your question enough, but are there still lots of places to eat?

Mark Souther [00:32:28] Do you find that it’s still easy to find places to eat, or- I’m guessing some of them no longer exist, but I don’t know the area well.

Barb Emery [00:32:36] Right. And we still have a group of five gentlemen that go to Hatton’s every day for lunch. And if they don’t make it or say the weather’s bad, you know, then the owner is asking, calling up, are you guys okay? You’re coming? You know, we’re gonna close early because there’s a snowstorm. I think that there aren’t as many places to eat locally like we used to have. So, you know, Ruthie and Moe’s closed down. That was always a nice place to go. And we tend to go to Sterle’s. I don’t know if that’s part of Midtown, though. A little too far, maybe.

Mark Souther [00:33:07] I think it’s St. Clair-Superior technically.

Barb Emery [00:33:10] But, you know, there used to be more- Yeah, there used to be more places again. You know, we have a cafeteria now that offers all kinds of food, so you really don’t have to leave. But part of that was done because a lot of the places closed. Really isn’t a lot of place. We have to go down by Cleveland State if we’re going to find some place to eat, too. Or Little Italy.

Mark Souther [00:33:31] Yeah. Well, if there’s something else you’d like to add, then I’ll go ahead and conclude the interview. And thank you again for coming down today.

Barb Emery [00:33:39] Okay, great. Thanks.

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