There was an incredible amount of change taking place at that time, as the city was shaping its future through urban renewal. Businesses and residents were affected.
Today as you drive around Lorain, you can see the results of decisions that were made fifty years ago. Was it worth it? That depends on your point of view (a line I cribbed from the end of The Great Escape).
Anyway, here’s another great article exploring how some Lorain residents felt as they were about to be displaced thanks to urban renewal. It was written by Staff Writer Dennis D’Antonio. It’s a little long, so I’m busting it into two parts.
It appeared on the front page of the paper on March 23, 1969.
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South LorainA Last Look at an
Old Neighborhood
Part 1
Editor's Note: The following is a story of a city block in South Lorain that soon will change forever with urban renewal. This story is told in the words of those who live there now. There also are comments in bold face type by people who know the area or who were raised there and moved away –– people like Lois Bielfelt of Neighborhood House, Guy Wells who was a policeman on the beat there in the 1920s, Steve Streak who was raised there, now lives in Bay Village and wrote about life in South Lorain and Mrs. Mary Breznan, 68, who was born in Czechoslovakia, later lived 27 years in South Lorain and now resides at John F. Kennedy Center in Lorain.
By DENNIS D'ANTONIO
Staff Writer
EIGHTY FAMILIES live in the 1500 block of East 30th Street in Lorain. They call it home.
The block is part of the heart of South Lorain – the second oldest neighborhood in town. It sprawls under the orange smoke of the grotesque steel mill which gave it birth at the turn of the century.
This is the neighborhood story – one of change. And it is told by the people who know it most intimately – the ones who live there now and those who have lived there in the past.
Admitting a visitor through the kitchen door of her flat at 1543 East 30th Street, Mrs. Mary Patrick, 38, excuses herself briskly and rushed into the parlor.
"Come in and sit down," she says. "I'm on the phone."
It is almost supper time and a pot of potatoes boils on the kitchen stove, filling the air in the cramped apartment with a damp, sweet odor.
In the parlor Mrs. Patrick tells someone at the other end of the phone that she will call back.
"I had a welfare check stolen out of my mail box Saturday," she explains. "I was trying to get ahold of my case worker to see what they're going to do about it."
A petite black woman, Mrs. Patrick has six children and lives on public assistance. She is separated from her husband.
HER FLAT is one of several in a run-down, two-story frame building constructed around the turn of the century to house the laborers for the steel mill.
"I love South Lorain," Mrs. Patrick says. "But the living conditions are bad."
She waves a hand at the broken plaster walls in her parlor. "Here, we've got rats and roaches."
Mrs. Breznan:
"I lived at 1514 East 30th Street for 27 years... I moved there in 1926... the rent was $14 a month... but it was so bad there... there were no closets... the toilet was in the basement."
South Lorain is inhabited almost exclusively by several generations of steel workers.
When the mill first opened in 1895, people came from all over to work in it.
Residents of the neighborhood trace their origins to Europe, Mexico, Puerto Rico and the southern United States.
"We came from Tennessee in 1949," Mrs. Patrick says.
"WE WERE living in Dyersburg and my dad was working in a gas station when a friend told him about the mill here."
Like many southern blacks barely making a living in the agricultural South in those days, Mrs. Patrick's father packed up his family and moved North to where the promise was.
For many, the promise was kept.
"We came to Lorain in 1950 from Mobile, Alabama," says Mrs. Frank Kimbrough, another black resident on the block. "We had children to raise."
Miss Biefelt:
"...this is a good block... there are 165 kids on this one block, and they're good kids..."
Frank Kimbrough, now 74, had been making 55 cents an hour working in a shipyard in Mobile.
From a friend he heard about the job opportunities in Lorain and he moved his wife and six children to South Lorain where he got a job with the B&O Railroad at $1.18 an hour.
"I don't know what we would have done if we didn't come here," Mrs. Kimbrough says.
LIKE OTHER residents on the block, the Kimbroughs are waiting for a neighborhood urban renewal project to be completed.
An entire section of South Lorain is marked for clearance – from East 28th Street to East 36th Street, and from Fulton Avenue to Globe Avenue. Housing conditions in this part of town are among the worst in the city, and homes and buildings which have stood three-quarters of a century and more are to be pulverized. They will be replaced by public housing and small shops. In a few years the entire face of the neighborhood will be changed totally – and forever.
All neighborhoods grow old someday and die, and then they are buried and built on again.
Next: Part 2
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Here’s a look at the South Lorain area being discussed in the article, as it lays out today.
Interesting article --- and you're correct that years ago the local newspaper employed many great writers whose insights and ability to effectively tell the many interesting stories in the city made the Journal a daily "must read". Probably my favorite was Darlene Brown who wrote many interesting articles relating to little known historical events in the city. Unfortunately, Darlene left the Journal and passed away about 10 years ago. I've often thought that her articles should be collected and published in book form. I know that I would purchase a copy.
ReplyDeleteThat's still a pretty bad area in todays world....The more things change the more they stay the same.
ReplyDeleteOH MY GOD, FIRST YOU WRITE ABOUT THE POTATO CHIP COMPANY , THEN YOU TAKE ME TO MISS PATRICK HOME, YOU SEE LIKE MANY OTHER CHILDREN IN THOSE DAYS , MISS PATRICK WAS ONE OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD PARENTS. THE OLD AFRICAN PROVERB, " IT TAKES A NEIGHBORHOOD TO RAISE A CHILD " AND NO MATTER WHERE WE WENT, AS CHILDREN , THERE WAS ALWAYS A NEIGHBORHOOD PARENT WATCHING OVER US CHILDREN. I KNOW THE BUILDING , MANY OF OUR FRIENDS LIVED THERE. IN FACT, IN FRONT OF THE BUILDING WAS TWO OAK TREES WITH TWO LONG BOARDS NAILED TO THEM TO ACT AS A BENCH FOR AL TO SIT AND EVERYONE WAS WELCOMED, I MEAN EVERYONE, INSIDE OR OUTSIDE OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD. IN FACT I EVEN REMEMBER THE INTERVIEW SHE DID. THE JOURNAL PHOTOGRAPHER WAS THERE AND TOO PICTURES OF US SITTING ON THAT MAKESHIFT BENCH AND PUBLISHED IT IN THE PAPER. THAT WAS GREAT. I SEE ONE COMMENT SAID IT WAS A BAD AREA IN THAT TIME. I HAVE TO DISAGREE, IF HE OR SHE WOULD HAVE COME THRU THE AREA , THEY WOULD HAVE BEEN VERY WELCOMED TO JOIN US. THIS IS WHAT PARENTS AND NEIGHBORHOOD PARENTS TAUGHT US , TO WELCOME EVERYONE WITH OPEN ARMS. I HAVE BEEN TRYNG TO OBTAIN THAT ARTICLE FOR MANY YEARS . THANK YOU AGAIN
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment, Michael! I’m glad you enjoyed the article and that it brought back pleasant memories!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for your posts! My grandparents were from Mexico and lived in Lorain from 1928-1931, before going back to Mexico. My mother was actually born in Lorain on 12/30/1930. I was born in Mexico as was all my family. We emigrated to Texas in 1956 and as a kid I always thought it was really weird that my mother would say she was born in Ohio. Ohio?!?! I've been doing family history for quite a few years now and have discovered a few things about our Lorain "connection". I wish I had asked more questions of my grandmother when she was still around. My mother, being only an infant when they moved back to Mexico, remembers nothing. From her birth certificate I learned they lived at 1528 E. 30th Street. I can't begin to tell you how excited I was to see that aerial shot of the 1500 block of E. 30th St. and knowing that my mother was actually born in one of those houses!! Thank you again. Can't wait to show the pic to my siblings and to browse through your old posts to see what more I can learn of Lorain back in those days.
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