Need Pictures of Detroit-Shoreway Neighborhood (Cleveland, Avon Lake: houses, neighborhoods, theatre)

[ness2361]

I was born and raised in Cleveland, and I'm now living in San Diego, California, working on a writing project that involves the time I spent in Cleveland. I need some photos or articles, anything detailed, specific, about the area from, say, West 25th Street heading west past 65th and Detroit Avenue. I lived on West 59th off Detroit from 1971 to 1978 so I am particularly interested in that general area. I remember the 65th and Detroit area had a diner that I visited and played the jukebox (Helen Reddy's I Am Woman, Cher's Half Breed), and there was a news stand, and several taverns. Also, I remember Craciun's Funeral Home but that was on Detroit, around 60th. It's been so long I can't picture it vividly enough for what I'm working on. Oh, there was a five and dime, too; and the five and dime was in the block with an old theatre that wasn't being used, but adjacent to it were shops. I used to walk through the theatre lobby, marble and brass, and it was eerie. In 1973 or so the theatre still had a movie advertised on its marquee though I don't recall what movie.

I'd appreciate any help with this. I've tried The Cleveland Press photo archives, The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History and a few other online sources but they don't go back that far, or if they do, they tend to depict the more popular or ritzy areas. I've also found modern photos of "Gordon Square" which appears to be the block around 65th and Detroit and it's so changed from when I lived there that I can't get my bearings.

Well, anyway, if you've got photos, articles, ideas that might help, let me know.

[tribecavsbrowns]

Urbanohio.com Gallery > Detroit-Shoreway

Start here and feel free to ask me for photo locations if you like. I didn't take the photos, so I won't know all of them, but I'll know quite a few because I hang out in the neighborhood a lot. I can even take some pictures and upload them on here. I spend a lot of time in the coffee shop at 65th and Detroit and often walk around 65th, 67th, and 69th north of Detroit. Cool old streets.

There are more photos out on the net that I've seen already. I'll see if I can find some.

[ness2361]

Thanks for the link. The photos remind me of how cramped it felt living there, all the businesses and houses up against each other, the narrow streets. And what I loved, how so much was made of brick which gives us a clue as to when these structures went up. (I'm talking about the ones that haven't been taken down or had new faces put on them.) Also, "The Gordon Square Arcade", that's what we called it then, not just "Gordon Square" and the arcade is what I used to walk through, not the theatre itself, inside where it echoed, where it was brass and marble, so much marble, and you could gain entrance to the shops when they were open, from inside, but I was in the arcade early, before school, when everything was closed, and I always felt a little afraid--sometimes too afraid to go inside, on my way to school, to West Junior High...

The Gordon Square Arcade, as I remember it in the 70s, didn't have a uniform look like it seems to have now. What fronted Detroit Avenue had variety but now whoever bought and renovated it has given everything a seamless look. Only photo 21 of 23 was familiar to me "as it used to be" in the 70s; I used to stand in the doorway (if this is the church I'm thinking of) in the winter, to warm up, on my way back from a "canteen" at West Junior High School. All the other photos, especially in isolation, either don't look familiar, are of buildings that have been done over, or are no longer the same shops. For instance, the theatre entrance was on 65th, and the front was part of several joined businesses, including the five and dime that is no longer there. I need to see the buildings as they were to jog my memory; seeing buildings as they are now overlays what used to be there and gets in my way, mentally. (I feel like Calvin and want to make a face and say, "argh!")

I need photos of the shops/businesses/residences "as they were in the 70s", not as they are now after renovations or having been sold to others. If you find any of those I would be grateful to see them. And articles on the neighborhood IN THE 1970S, too, would be terrific.

My husband is talking about going with me for a trip back to Cleveland to do research, and it may be necessary after all because I can't, from here, get the articles I need, or even the sense of what the neighborhood was like then. In person, I may find that too much has changed in terms of what I can look at, but at least I would be able to visit the libraries and check out microfiche, see newspaper headlines and articles written from 1970-1979, or any time before that, and that would help a lot.

[costello_musicman]

Well I did a little search myself.

First, more modern day:

The Detroit-Shoreway Housing Photo Thread
CLEVELAND - Welcome to Collinwood, Bratenahl and Detroit-Shoreway
One Night in Cleveland - Part 2



The biggest thing that may help you while sitting at home in San Diego is the Cleveland Memory Project. http://www.clevelandmemory.org/ . but man, these pictures are hard to find of that area!

Here are some decent examples I came across:

W. 29th. circa 1955 * Cleveland Memory : Item Viewer



St. Coleman 1980 * Cleveland Memory : Item Viewer


St. Patrick's Day 1980 * Cleveland Memory : Item Viewer




This has some interesting info and some pictures: * Cleveland Memory : Compound Object Viewer

The only other resources I can think of if you do decide to come back to Cleveland would the the Western Reserve Historical Society, CSU Library, and Cleveland Public Library. Good Luck!

[ness2361]

Costello Music Man

Thanks for the links. I checked out Map Boy's Photo Thread and the links are dead but the history he gave on the Detroit - Shoreway area was great and may lead me to books (wouldn't that be great!) on the history of Cleveland that includes that area. The problem with rehabbing, of course--in terms of a history project like I'm involved in--is that the folks involved aren't interested in what it used to be like; they're interested in retaining the best (physically) from the past but otherwise serving the present population.

A few days ago I spent hours in the Cleveland Memory photo archives and I could not find a single photo from "back then" of the Detroit-Shoreway area. Heck, we didn't even call it that, those of us who lived there. We just called it "living on the west side" or if we wanted to be more specific, "living on the near west side" or "around 65th and Detroit Avenue." I remember someone trying to claim "Ohio City" for the neighborhood, you know, wanting to sound fancy. My parents owned a home--and I lived in it, of course--on West 59th Street, from 1971 to about 1979 before they sold it and moved to the suburbs (Avon Lake).

Last week I also checked in with a CSU librarian who suggested I pay someone to go through the microfiche because it was too big a job for the staff; but even if I had the money, I could end up paying someone to spend hours coming up with information they thought would be helpful but wasn't; if I come to Cleveland with my husband at least I'd be sure we were zeroing in on the time period and the type of photos and articles I'm interested in--those that show in detail what life was like in the70s for residences of the area.

Thanks again!

[costello_musicman]

Ness,

Just found this, which may have some good contacts and some photos:

Detroit Shoreway

Side note, I also found this very positive article: http://thegldc.com/blog/2009/02/27/five-reasons-why-detroit-shoreway-may-be-the-best-neighborhood-in-cleveland/ (broken link)

[ness2361]

Thanks, Musicman. Oh, I should mention that I have also checked out (looked at photos, read articles) from the web site called Encyclopedia of Cleveland History.