Cleveland's Southside/Tremont--Home

This website is about the history of an important area -- Cleveland's Southside.

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"History is a consensus hallucination. It is a myth upon which we all agree to agree. The truth is a moving target: new
evidence must always be weighed, and 'the truth' updated.
Historical records must always be questioned, and the agenda or perceptual context of those doing the recording must
always be considered." James Cameron, December 24, 2006

Each page on this site is like part of a family -- they link to each other.
Not all information may match the same information on another page if a different source was used. The history of the
Southside is given here as it was found in multiple sources some with obvious errors and rewrites.

(Donated for use by this website from a private collection)

Cleveland Plain Dealer,

May 10, 1895, page 6.

THE SOUTH SIDE

Its Early Development is Due to the University Established There –

Brought

a Fine Class of People to That Section –

Jennings Avenue One of the Most Beautiful Thoroughfares in the

City.

“Not until both Brooklyn and Ohio City were well started and in a

flourishing

condition did the South Side begin to grow. Its

development came later

probably because the manner of

communication with the City of Cleveland

was by no means easy.

There were no bridges direct from the South Side to

the East Side in

those days. In order to reach the East Side it was necessary

to travel

along the old county road, now Scranton avenue, to a cross-road now

known as Kenilworth street, then cross the gulley (sic) and creek to

Columbus

street, after which the trip over Columbus street bridge was

comparatively

easy. But the route was a long and tedious one. The

natural travel was out

Columbus street, now known as Pearl street,

and consequently few people

ever got to the South Side or had

opportunity to admire its naturally beautiful

situation.

“Mrs. Barber, widow of Judge Josiah Barber, and Francis Branch

together

owned three farms, which in 1850 formed nearly the whole of

University hights

(sic). The hights proper began at about Scranton

avenue and extended

eastward to the high bluff overlooking the river.

To this day the residents

prefer the name University hights because of

the excellent university which at

one time was located in that part of the

city.

“Although the South Side had not yet been allotted and streets had not

been

laid out Mrs. Barber lived at a place which is now near the corner

of Literary

and University streets. The old house is still there, but is

back of several more

modern structures. Mr. Branch’s house was

near the corner of College and

Professor streets and his and Mrs.

Barber’s were the only two houses north of

Starkweather avenue. . ..

Much of the land was yet uncleared. Pelton park

being a dense forest

which extended eastward as far as Pelton street and

northward from

Jennings avenue to the river. Few roads had yet been opened.

“The flats were likewise in a primitive condition. The side hills leading

from

the bluff to the flats were covered with forests, but the flats then

comprised a

single vast meadow, owned by Joel Scranton and William

H. Averill. The

meadow was called ‘Ox-bow’ on account of the peculiar

formation made by

the winding of the river.

“When a party of prominent men came to the South Side in 1850 to

establish a

university there they found that section in

the condition

already described. . .. The men purchased the Barber and Branch

farms and began active operations. A large

brick building was

erected in the square surrounded by University, College, Professor

and

Jefferson streets and it was given the name Cleveland

University. The

adjoining land was laid out in lots. . ..

“At this time the need of a bridge was felt and Mr. Jennings raised

subscription of about $5,000 and it was built.

“Spiles were driven into the river and upon this the planks were

laid. This

opened a free and easy communication with the East

Side. The road led

down Scranton avenue, then off toward Seneca

street where the bridge

crossed the stream and then up Harrison

street to Ohio street, now

Central avenue.

“An omnibus made the trip and carried passengers to and from

both

before and after school. Difficulties had meanwhile arisen.

The land was

in the name of the capitalists who originally started

the enterprise and this

created some dissatisfaction. As a result

the college was closed after a

beneficial career of ten

(

*?)

years.

“The owners offered the building to Mr. R. F. Huminston at a

nominal

figure if he would open a school there. (*He accepted) It

was conducted

as a boarding and day school, some of the pupils

coming from the East

Side in buses every day to attend. This

condition continued for ten years.

“Through these years the South Side grew rapidly. The college

attracted

many families who built houses on the neighboring

allotments. It was the

object of the founders of the college to bring

a cultured class to that

locality. . .. The educational advantages

possessed by the South Side and

the care which the early owners

exercised in restricting anything that might

be disadvantageous to

the college community, together with the broad

avenues and

spacious lots, has made the South Side just what the

college

founders planned – a locality of beautiful streets, fine houses,

broad lawns and an intellectual and cultured class of residents.

“The South Side has long been considered one of the most

delightful

residence sections of the city. Its beautiful streets and

its cleanliness and

healthfulness have attracted many residents.

The erection of the Central

Viaduct made approach to the South

Side comparatively easy and added

another attraction. Since that

time the population has increased rapidly.

Every advantage is

offered to South Side citizens, including plenty of

schools and

comfortable churches.”

(Because of space restrictions, only parts of the original article

appear

here. A full copy can be obtained from microfilm at the

Cleveland Public

Library

, Microform Dept., Main Branch.)

Top Left-clockwise: The "Flats" today, Dominance of the City (WPA Collection, Ora Coltman), Valley View Homes poster (Courtesy National Archives, Washington, D. C.), Lemko Hall, Brayton
Avenue/Court, Tremont historic area sign near the Union Gospel Press, gazebo in Lincoln Park, Jefferson Branch Library (Private collection),
door from Tremont Elementary School, and Betty Knish on Railway Avenue, 1924 (Private collection)

Tremont West Community Development Plan

, 2001.

“The period since World War II has brought many changes in Tremont. In the 1960’s the community was sliced in half by

the

construction barrier between sections of the existing working class neighborhood. This occurred again in the late

1980’s, when

the construction of Interstate 490 further fragmented the community. During these decades, Tremont was

also subject to the

negative trends that affected urban neighborhoods nationwide. The population dropped approximately

74% from 1920 to 1990.

Drug use, arson and poverty threatened to segregate Tremont. These problems were

exacerbated by political boundaries that

hampered a unified approach to them.

“Tremont has been able to survive these changes due to a solid foundation of determined residents and a strong surviving

building stock.

“In the last ten to fifteen years, Tremont has attracted substantial new residential and commercial investment. It has

become a

favored site for artists’ studios and galleries, and it is one of Greater Cleveland’s prime destinations for dining

and entertainment.

Residential investment over the last 20 years has brought a range of new homeowners to the area

and has done much to reverse

the negative trends of the post-war decades.”

Source:

Tremont West Development Corporation, Cleveland, Ohio, 2001

From

Between Spires and Stacks

, (1936),

page 17.

"One's first impression of the South Side, as the Tremont Area is commonly called, is one of spires and smokestacks. Certainly these two elements,

symbolic

on the one hand of a Central European peasant culture and on the other of American industrialism, are the dominant features in a bird's eye

view

of the Area,

either from the Central Viaduct to the north west or from the more distant Clark Avenue Bridge to the south."

"Viewed at a closer range from the windows of an automobile as one winds in and out among the 64 blocks that compose the Area impressions that

have

been

etched upon one's mind become engraved more deeply. Steep almost vertical embankments bound the Area on three sides. Only one

adequate

road, 'Big

Jeff'

as it is called, provides a traffic exit to the 'flats'. Other rough, narrow and precipitous streets lead down past crude dwellings,

that seem

almost to cling to

the

slope, to rougher trails that skirt the marsh land below. Entrance to certain streets, streets only in that dwellings front

them on either

side, and known as

courts

and alleys, is undertaken by strangers with some misgivings. Congestions everywhere is apparent

increasing as one moves

downward from the fourth

boundary of the Area, Fourteenth Street, toward the 'flats'. The people put up a good front. Picket

fences and gates are in order.

Green hedges and flower

gardens, serve to relieve the dull drabness of closely packed frame dwellings whose paint

fights a continuous battle against

cinders and soot and sulphur

fumes that destroy the pigment and place a blight on beauty."

Page 45.

"Little remains to recall the earliest period of first settlement."

Page 48.

"And so today as one enters this one-time privileged Area settled by New Englanders and followed in turn by Irish and Germans, later by Northern Slavs

and

more recently by Southern Europeans, one finds himself in an Area in transition, an Area in which the strains and stresses of conflict and

adjustment

are

severe

and symbolic, an Area whose name itself, the South Side, has come to be associated with gangsters, hoodlums and

underprivileged. In the

cycle of

one century

the Area has moved from the splendid isolation of privilege to the submerged isolation of poverty.

University

Heights has become the

South Side."

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