Abstract
Virginia Wojno Forney discusses her journey from Yonkers, New York, to Akron, Ohio, detailing her family's relocation during World War II and her subsequent involvement in local preservation efforts. She recounts her pivotal role in the Cascade Locks Park Association, which aimed to restore the historic Mustill Store and develop the surrounding area into a vibrant community space. Throughout the interview, Virginia Wojno Forney emphasizes the importance of community collaboration, fundraising, and the challenges of changing public perceptions of the area. She reflects on the successes of the project, including the opening of the store and the establishment of a park, while expressing her vision for future developments that honor Akron's heritage. Her narrative highlights the significance of grassroots activism in preserving local history and fostering community engagement.
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Interviewee
Wojno Forney, Virginia B. (interviewee)
Interviewer
King, Michael (interviewer); Gallagher, Tim (facilitator)
Project
Rivers Roads and Rails 2008
Date
6-23-2008
Document Type
Oral History
Duration
60 minutes
Recommended Citation
"Virginia B. Wojno Forney Interview, 23 June 2008" (2008). Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection. Interview 517050.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/crohc000/346
Transcript
Michael King [00:00:01] Okay. If you would, for the record, please state your name.
Virginia Wojno Forney [00:00:06] My name is Virginia Wojno Forney. And today’s date is 23rd June 2008.
Michael King [00:00:14] Very good. And where were you born?
Virginia Wojno Forney [00:00:16] I was born in Yonkers, New York.
Michael King [00:00:19] Okay. Yonkers.
Virginia Wojno Forney [00:00:20] Yonkers, New York, is part of Greater Manhattan.
Michael King [00:00:23] Yonkers to Akron. How did that happen?
Virginia Wojno Forney [00:00:28] Well, it’s a kind of a saga of my family. During World War II we left New York. My father was employed at the War Production Board. I lived during the war in Washington, outside of Washington in Chevy Chase. After the war was over, my father decided not to go back to New York and accepted a position in Cleveland. We moved to Ohio. I graduated from Shaker High School and went to Kent State where I met Walter Wojno, and we were married. And he was a lifelong Akronite and so that’s how I came to Akron.
Michael King [00:01:02] Very good. And you got involved with the Cascade project how? What drew your attention to it?
Virginia Wojno Forney [00:01:12] My attention was drawn to the house. The then owner of the house, Pete Ramnytz, wanted to sell the house. He was experiencing some asthmatic conditions. My friend Walter Shep knew Pete. I was at that time president of a group called Progress Through Preservation. And Walter thought that we would be the ideal group to either purchase the house or help Pete sell it. We didn’t have the resources, anywhere near those resources, to buy the property. But I had met Mr. Ramnytz and I agreed to see what we could do to help him sell the house. We put together a Sell the Mustill House committee and off and on met for a period of a year or more without having any success. And so this one evening it was in my living room, Stan Martin, who was then head of this committee, suggested that we all kick in $5,000 - Mr. Ramnytz wanted twenty for it - and we buy it and then we land bank it until such time as a buyer was available so Mr. Ramnytz could move. One of the members of our committee was Jim Alkire, who was at that time planning director of the city of Akron. And when he realized that we weren’t just a bunch of dilettantes, but we were serious about trying to get this house sold, he convinced the city that it was of value and that the city should purchase it. And the city did. The value of the Mustill Store was that it was a Canal-era store. Mr. Ramnytz lived in the home of the store owner. And the Lock 15, which had prompted the store to be there in the first place, was still there. So we had a little piece of Akron’s history in an area of Akron which at that time was pretty much overlooked.
Michael King [00:03:15] I don’t want to interrupt your train of thought, but do you remember what timeframe this was? The meeting at your house? The purchase?
Virginia Wojno Forney [00:03:21] Oh, dear. Now that I have to scan back in my memory. It was at least 16 years ago.
Michael King [00:03:28] I’m sorry. So the City of Akron-
Virginia Wojno Forney [00:03:30] Purchased the house and then Jim- Well, the house and the store. The store was a kind of a throw-in. Mr. Ramnytz lived in the home and he used the store as a storehouse. He collected all kinds of little things, and the store was full from top to bottom of small motors and things that he would get from garage sales so that it was crammed full. But it was of things which to the normal person had no value. So therefore, Jim Alkire came to me and he said, now we bought your house. What are you going to do with it? I didn’t have a clue. My job, I thought, was to get it sold so Mr. Ramnytz could move. So, as a good executive does, you get a committee. We first met, I say we. I knew a gentleman at the time who was a professor of marketing at Kent, and he agreed, since I knew absolutely nothing about this, to help me get a marketing plan for the house. And the first thing he said we should do is start interviewing people who are going to be the closest to it. So that’s just- We started with a man whose name was Chuck Snyder, who owned Ace Rubber, which is right still on the canal, and asked him what he thought it would do if we worked on the project to do something with the canal. And his reaction was somewhat tepid, but at least it wasn’t negative. And so we had a luncheon to which we invited people from the city, people we thought would have some influence. And at that time we just had the national park. And John Seiberling was very much involved. John Debo, who is head of the national park, had just come to town. So we invited these, oh, I guess 20, 25 people to have lunch at the old Cascade Club. And there wasn’t anyone who spoke to the negative idea of doing something to develop the canal and subsequently, of course, the property. But we were starting with the canal because the city owned the canal. And so we said that everybody who had come to the lunch was automatically on the committee. And we asked for people who would like to work with it more in depth, and so John Seiberling stepped up to the plate and John Debo, and I have forgotten the head of the Convention Bureau, who has subsequently passed away. And we started meeting in my home. And it was John Seiberling who named us the Cascade Locks Park Association. And then an attorney came in, Craig Marshall, and he got us our corporation status and then our 501c3. But nothing had yet happened. We kept meeting, and we all had totally different ideas of what could happen. I had thought we’d make the canal into a whitewater raceway. And I had just gone on a whitewater race, and I thought, boy, that’s exciting, and that’s what we’ll do. And there was someone else who thought we’ll have a theme park down there with a rollercoaster and the whole thing. And we thought, well, what we really need to do is get a professional planner. So we interviewed six companies and chose Smith, Parker, Copeland, Stevens from Cleveland. They were doing urban designs in Cleveland, and they just fell in love with the site. And initially, we had no money, and so they did it all pro bono. We would get a large bill, several thousand dollars, and then donated to Cascade Locks that exact same sum. So eventually, of course, we paid them everything that they needed. But initially, they were as much a volunteer as the rest of us. And they created our initial master plan on how to develop the store and the park. The city gave us the last segment of what had been the Cuyahoga Valley Plan, and that had been developed, oh, I would say, in the late ’70s. And that was to take the land between the national park and Akron and develop them into a series of different, different little parks like this, Oxbow. And each one would have an idea. One was going to be for soccer, one was going to be for tennis. All the way, the corridor into downtown Akron. And our segment was to have been a village. They were going to recreate a village. So that was our boundary. We had this large section which wasn’t all city-owned by any means because it includes St. Vincent’s-St. Mary’s, but that was our development area. And that was how we plotted out what was important and what should be saved. And, of course, the steam plant we thought was important and should be saved, and that’s gone. And then Aggie Russell’s house was part Aggie Russell’s house. Are you an Akronite? Do you remember the- It was called The Painted Lady. The purple and green and red house? Well, that was in our- We wanted to do something with Aggie’s house. And, of course, we lost that, too. So having this land didn’t mean automatically that everything in there was going to be ours to develop. But we thought the first thing we should do is the house and store, because they were there, and we felt that it would be easier to raise money for something that was already there. And so we embarked upon the effort of raising- It turned out to be over a million dollars. And so roughly that’s how we got started.
Michael King [00:09:46] Sounds like an excellent start. You talk about developing the house and the store. What, from you, well, actually you talked about the possible rafting and then came to the store idea. What did you envision the store- What did you envision as its purpose as you were beginning to restore it?
Virginia Wojno Forney [00:10:10] My individual one?
Michael King [00:10:12] Your individual one.
Virginia Wojno Forney [00:10:14] Well, when we decided to do the store, I thought we could do something similar to an idea of what’s ahead that we were going- We could not- We can’t use the word restore because we did not restore the store, we rehabbed it, because it got the state of the art air conditioning and all of that. But I thought it could serve as a- The one thing our mantra was, we didn’t want to be like the Inventure Place because all of us had been there and we’d never gone back. So we wanted to have something that if you’d go and you’d want to come back and we would have it in sort of a changeable format so you would come in and the idea was what’s ahead? And we could develop what is up here. And we have the Wonder Bakery, we have the- We had the station, the power lines. So one could take a theme like electricity. And back in the store they had lamps. So what’s ahead? Well, you’re going to go up the trail and you’re going to come to these electrical. And we thought we could get the different companies to help us, the rubber, the factories, that we could have little videos so you could see a video and that would change every time. Well, that was my idea. Now the saner heads said we would have so many maintenance problems keeping up with all of this. So, the saner heads prevailed, and we don’t have the videos.
Michael King [00:11:58] What do you feel? Do you feel your group has been successful? What is there today?
Virginia Wojno Forney [00:12:05] Oh, my goodness sakes. We now have three employees and we started off with all volunteers, so, oh, I would think we have- It’s hard for me to think back then that it would be as it is today. And besides being a successful group, I think, and I can speak for all of us, we’re friendly. Everybody on the board is a friend of everybody on the board, and nobody is looking to get a crown on the head or- We’re just- We enjoy what we’re doing. We like the employees. It’s just great fun.
Michael King [00:12:46] That definitely helps. In all the work that was involved, what do you think was the biggest hurdle you encountered?
Virginia Wojno Forney [00:12:55] The perception of where we were.
Michael King [00:12:57] How so?
Virginia Wojno Forney [00:13:00] How to describe Howard Street? Howard Street- Now, we were trying to make a mantra of Howard Street, how it was. It was a jazz, predominantly African American jazz clubs. A lot of excitement, wonderful music. But concurrently, it had its downside. It was more or less Akron’s red-light district. And it had an element that nice people didn’t go there. And so when I would invite my friends to come down to see the store in its sad state, very few of them felt comfortable. Most of my friends thought I was barking up the wrong tree. And so to change the perception of- And now, you know, people use that trail all the time. They don’t think a thing about it. So I would say that was the greatest achievement.
Michael King [00:14:06] As someone who ran that part of the Akron Marathon, was there any support from any individual or group that surprised you? Oh, wow, this person’s gonna help or wow, we’re getting money from this group?
Virginia Wojno Forney [00:14:23] Yes. We had great support from the GAR Foundation. They probably financed 75% of our master plan. And that was something I hadn’t thought would occur.
Michael King [00:14:44] With your board and the group you volunteered for, how big of a group is the association?
Virginia Wojno Forney [00:14:55] How many members do we have or how many members are on the board?
Michael King [00:14:57] How many members? How many volunteers? All of it. You know, you can say it individually or all together, however you’d like.
Virginia Wojno Forney [00:15:03] I think we have over 300 members now, and our board, I think we have 15 on our board. President of our board now is Phil January. Our president-elect is Bob Keener. I am on the board as the past president-founder, slash. But it’s so nice to have other people have to do the work.
Michael King [00:15:37] Has it been easy to see sustain the size of the group?
Virginia Wojno Forney [00:15:40] It keeps growing. Yes.
Michael King [00:15:43] How does it grow?
Virginia Wojno Forney [00:15:47] Well, I think word of mouth and enthusiasm. It’s a nice place to go now. And all of us have friends who know that we’re involved and pretty soon they get intrigued. We have people now wanting to go on our board. We don’t have to ask them. It’s very gratifying.
Michael King [00:16:13] Very good. What do you think is next?
Virginia Wojno Forney [00:16:21] Oh, I don’t have to think what’s next. We definitely have a master plan for developing the area across the street, across on North Street, on the corner of North and Howard. It’s to be a park in the industrial sense, celebrating Frederick Schumacher’s millsite. And in this millsite, we are going to recreate the huge mill wheel which ran the mill. And this will be- It’s a design that Chuck Ayers has done. Chuck Ayers used to be the cartoonist. Crankshaft? He designed the wheel, which will be the size of the wheel, in half because one never ever saw the whole wheel because part of it was under the factory. And we will outline the foundation of the mill with little seating areas so people can come and have their picnic lunch or whatever. We’re envisioning the park also to be the front yard of the homes that have been built. It’s called Canal Village- Cascade, Cascade Village. Used to be Elizabeth Park. It will be their playground. And then we’re going to have a circular area in brick where we can put a tent on the top so that you could have a sort of indoor facility, that you could have family reunions or whatever. And so that’s- Definitely, we’re in the process now of raising the money to create that park. And it’s going to- That wheel, as I explained to the mayor, the wheel is going to be lighted, and we are absolutely certain that that wheel is going to become Akron symbol because the wheel ever forever has been a symbol of good fortune because it’s always turning. So we think we are going to be creating Akron’s symbol.
Michael King [00:18:38] When you first started, did you think you’d ever be creating Akron’s symbol?
Virginia Wojno Forney [00:18:42] No. I didn’t think in my lifetime I’d see anything down there because it seems like, to me, to raise a million dollars was about as impossible as a challenge could be. So, no, I did not think so.
Michael King [00:18:58] I must admit, through the interviews that have been occurring today, I’ve heard your name. Oh, she’s been doing this, this, this, this, this, this. You’re very well respected in this community.
Virginia Wojno Forney [00:19:11] Thank you. Thank you. Well, it’s been a great. It’s been a great project because what we have done is given the city back something that belonged to the city to begin with. It’s their heritage.
Michael King [00:19:28] What were- From your expectations, when you first looked at Mustill, to how you actually got involved, was there a difference when you first saw Mustill and you thought, hmm, okay, I can see myself doing this, versus what you actually did?
Virginia Wojno Forney [00:19:48] Well, when I first saw it and talked to Mr. Ramnytz, Mr. Ramnytz, I said, was something of a packrat. And he had another man who had lived on Ferndale and his house was torn down. Mr. Pfeiffer. And both of them had collected every newspaper article about the canal, about the history of Akron. And Mr. Ramnytz was just convinced that this was such an important building. And so I just saw myself as trying to help him get the house. He had had it for sale, I think, for a year or more. And the only person that was one bit interested was someone who wanted to change it into a bait shop. And, you know, he was disappointed that he couldn’t get people to see that this was such an important piece of real estate. And so all I saw was my effort was to get him, get him in a position where he wasn’t having all these asthmatic attacks. And he never did leave Akron. For all his asthma. he died in Akron, but- So I didn’t see my role as anything beyond that. When I first saw the house, and I have to say, I was underwhelmed. It looked pretty well worn down.
Michael King [00:21:19] When you see the store today, when you see the actors in full dress and school children learning, tell me how you feel. Tell me your senses and your emotions, knowing that this was something you were able to help.
Virginia Wojno Forney [00:21:41] Well, since Rosemary Raymond is Emma Mustill, and I know her very well, I can speak through her because she is able to bring to the character of Mrs. Mustill. Mrs. Mustill, I mean, she becomes Mrs. Mustill when she gets that dress on and the curly hair and all. And it’s wonderful for children to have the experience of being Rosemary. Rosemary’s a marvelous- I don’t know if you know Rosemary. You do know. You know, Rosemary has an ability to get to children, to bring life to an inanimate subject to children. And I think it’s wonderful. I think back when I was in grade school and in New York, we didn’t have any such opportunities. We all had the hubris that there was only one place to live, and that was New York. But it wasn’t because of a person like Rosemary. I have no idea the history of the community in which I grew up.
Michael King [00:22:53] So for- If you met a teacher, if you met me and you were wanting me to bring my class down, what would you tell me about Mustill? What would you tell me about Cascade?
Virginia Wojno Forney [00:23:08] It’s a whole different experience for children today to see what a general store was like in those days. Everything now comes prepackaged in plastic wrap, and you get your little cart and you walk up and down an aisle. When young people their age 100 years ago, I don’t know that they shopped, but if they did, they knew the grocer, and their wants were probably a lot more basic. So it’s for a few moments in time to get back to an era they would have no idea of knowing what it’s all about. And I think living history is so important wherever it’s done, and it’s done well because it’s light years back. It may only have been a hundred years, but it’s like landing on Mars. You have no connection to what life was like back then. There were no switches. The lights didn’t come on with a switch. You had to light a lamp. And the interesting thing is the shoes. The shoes were one size. I mean, there was not a right and a left foot. And you had to pull them up with straps. And the expression pulled up by his bootstraps is because boots had straps and you had to pull them up. And food came in bulk. It’s- You know that word? It’s just, you know, it’s a scratch the head experience.
Michael King [00:25:04] Will this project ever have an end?
Virginia Wojno Forney [00:25:08] No. Well, I shouldn’t say no because you can’t make definitive statements like that. We envision the Cascade Locks Park Association always being involved in that part of Akron. That part of Akron is growing exponentially. Mr. Testa is building his townhouses on Howard Street. They’re going to be reminiscent of old townhouses. The community- Cascade Village is a growing community. When we get our park built and we have- Someone will be planning events that will be occurring there. So I see the next effort after the park, another million dollar effort. We want to put the house back as part of our campus, which means we would have to build something for a caretaker or a tenant. We have a tenant in the house who lives there for security reasons. We have somebody there all the time. But it would be nice if we could reincorporate the house because when we did the buildings and our contractor was the national Park, Jennie Vasarhelyi was very much involved. We insisted that we were going to do it lath and plaster, even though drywall would have been easier, that’s all done in lath and plaster. And we have a little place where you can see what lath and plaster looks like. The house was done the way the house was built. So it would be nice if we could reincorporate the house where we could have people in costume in the house and what it was like to live in that era. So the plans continue and we’re hoping to have some of the drama students from St. Vincent become involved with this.
Michael King [00:27:23] This may seem like an odd question, but a couple times you said a million dollars. Does a million dollars, now that you’ve, now that you’ve raised millions of dollars, does it seem like that much? Does it seem like an impossible goal anymore?
Virginia Wojno Forney [00:27:41] [laughs] I still see a million Dollars as being a lot of money. Anything that goes beyond what’s in my checkbook, to me seems like an awful lot of money. It seems so to me. People have been very generous. Foundations have been generous. I think most people support the idea of what we’re doing. We’ve had tremendous support with the city and the mayor. But still, these are difficult times. And when you go out and you say you want to raise a million some dollars, now the state is not going to be able to do for us because the money that they have allocated to Akron is going to Goodyear. So we have a competitor which is twenty times our size and probably twenty times more relevant, except for those of us who [inaudible]. Yes, I still see that as a lot of money.
Michael King [00:28:40] You still see as a big M million?
Virginia Wojno Forney [00:28:42] Yes, yes, I do. But, you know, little by little, this.
Michael King [00:28:47] Is the part of the interview where I’m going to ask, is there something that you would like to tell history? Is there something you would like to share for anyone who might be listening to this? What are some things I may not have asked you, but are still a very important part of this?
Virginia Wojno Forney [00:29:05] I guess I would say that if one has an idea or something they would like to see happen, then they can do it. You don’t have to have a college degree in marketing or anything like that. I asked Pat Raymond, who was then here in Akron, I think he was an attorney with Buckingham. He had been very successful in raising money for the Civic Theater. And I asked him to what did he contribute the success of his efforts? And he said, it’s very simple. Five fanatics. So you get five people who believe in the project and who can make it happen.
Michael King [00:30:05] One more question. What is your favorite memory for you, maybe not for the project, but for you, maybe being a part of a fundraiser or being part of an event, what is your favorite?
Virginia Wojno Forney [00:30:17] Oh, well, I just have to say when we opened the store.
Michael King [00:30:21] Tell me about that memory.
Virginia Wojno Forney [00:30:22] It was, I think it was the first or second of July in the year 2000, and we opened the store and the bikeway. We had a real hoop-dee-doo party, celebration. Many, many people came. Governor Clinton from New York came in on a horse. And the mayor. It was just a great affair, a culmination of a lot of effort on many, many people’s parts. And we brought together Cascade Locks Park Association. We were the fundraisers and we are the grassroots organization. But the city, Metro Parks serving Summit County, the national park, we were all partners in this. And that’s what made it quite unique that we had all of these people giving what they, their expertise to create the completed park.
Michael King [00:31:32] Tim, did you have any questions?
Tim Gallagher [00:31:34] I have one question for you. You kind of touched on it where you were talking about your suggestions or your advice for other people who might want to take on a task similar to what you’ve done, at least so far. My question might be, do you have any specific advice for anybody who’s trying to save land or preserve something?
Virginia Wojno Forney [00:31:59] I think a little bit of political savvy fits into here. Wherever your land that you want to save or the building, it’s in a geographical place. And I think first you should go to whoever the mayor or the councilperson or whoever has jurisdiction and sit down and talk to him/her/them on what your ideas [are], and are they in concert with what you’re going to do, and then assume that you are going to be the unit that’s going to be raising the money to do it. I think if you can take that on and think if I want to see this happen- For example, there’s an old, it had been a school on Market Street. It’s part of the new Judy Isroff Park that they’re building. And there’s a lady who is very much- Her passion is to see that schoolhouse saved. And I had lunch with her and I said this is a great opportunity for you and another organization. And I said you should meet with the city and explain what it is that you would like to see happen to the schoolhouse and that if you could get together an organization, you would like to create the funding. But she didn’t want to go that far. So I don’t know what’s going to happen to the schoolhouse, but it is, you know, I think we started off with the city and the city gave us- I shouldn’t say they gave us a green light. They never put the red one on. We just kept going, assuming that they were going to agree with what we were doing, so long as we weren’t asking them to finance the project.
Tim Gallagher [00:34:08] That’s interesting.
Virginia Wojno Forney [00:34:10] And they did give us money. They did give us money, but the bulk of it came from private sources. And I mean, as I said, we’ve had great support from the city.
Michael King [00:34:26] Any final thoughts?
Virginia Wojno Forney [00:34:30] You mean for history or for- How would you like final thoughts?
Michael King [00:34:33] Final thoughts for the project? History for yourself. Anything that you-
Virginia Wojno Forney [00:34:40] Well, for myself personally, it’s been probably the most rewarding project or effort that I have ever been involved in. But I don’t take any of the credit for myself. The only thing I can say is that I persevered, but it was an effort of many people pulling together. And I think the role of a president is to get people who are going to get things done. And then, you know, you’re holding the reins and you just let them go, but you want to make sure that they’re all going in the same direction.
Michael King [00:35:13] You need a strong team of horses.
Virginia Wojno Forney [00:35:14] But you need a team of horses. [laughs] Absolutely.
Michael King [00:35:18] [laughs] Well, again, we thank you on behalf of Cleveland State and WVIZ and ourselves.
Virginia Wojno Forney [00:35:24] Oh, you’re very welcome.
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