Cleveland (corner of Jeptha Drive and Wade Oval Drive)
Month: January 2013
Searching for Home
Just finished re-re-re-reading House: A Memoir by Michael Ruhlman, my favorite Cleveland writer/blogger/food expert/television celebrity.
While I identify with Ruhlman’s yearning and houselust, the book’s themes relate to anyone with happy memories of a place they grew up.
Basic overview…the Ruhlman family buys a century-old home in Cleveland Heights and deal with the excitement, and annoyances, that renovation brings. In the work, they hope to fit the house to their needs while paying homage to the structure and the lives that occupied the space before them. Anybody who has been through a major home repair will find familiarity, and shared frustration, in the stories.
But the reason I keep coming back to the book is the depth of topics Ruhlman explores. Apart from toilet installation, the book delves into urban planning, community, the history of suburbs, and Cleveland.
In discovering the history of this house, Ruhlman (and the reader) sees the history and expansion of Cleveland as new generations of wealth made their way east, away from the dirty factories. Technology opens up the outer reaches and leads to the creation of this house, before expanding well beyond, into what we now think of as suburbs.
The structure, a focal point to the societal shift before and after, becomes a microcosm of America. From walking communities to the wide-spread sprawl of major interstates and big-box stores.
Ruhlman also offers his own philosophies on the idea of home and how that connects us to something bigger than ourselves, perhaps helping us to understand our own nostalgia.
A Fix in Perspective
The beauty of written communication is the ability to edit, to look over one’s work as many times as needed to prevent mistakes and unchecked spewing of the mouth. Not that writing is infallible. Wrong words still find their way in.
I realized I’ve been using the wrong word, a slip of the tongue…er…keyboard.
Talking with Derek about the state of the city, I asked what we can do to help fix Cleveland. Astute as ever, he pointed out, reminded me, that Cleveland doesn’t need fixed. And I thought of all the times my tongue said “fix” when my head meant “make it even better.”
The problem with the word “fix” is the negative connotation. Fixed means something is broken or not working. Things need fixed. Do cities?
Reflecting on my words, “fix” in a way cheapens what is happening in the city, the people working to solve the problems. “Fix” sounds like their efforts don’t matter, and they do. Very much so. Their work and more work like that will keep the city moving forward.
We can admit there are problems that need solutions, because there are. Some big. But the city is working, and working to improve. The city doesn’t need fixing.
Of course let’s not settle at having a city that simply works. Let’s strive to make it one of the best in the nation.
Around Town: BP Building
Ohio Historical Markers: Birthplace of Rock ‘n’ Roll
Cleveland (corner of East 9th Street and Erieside Avenue, in front of the Rock Hall)
Around Town: Kauffman’s Country Bakery
Your Ad Here
Look at the side of brick buildings in the city and you might see one of these old ads. Years later, time wears them down and transforms them, and in that way they become something of an urban art form.
Ohio Historical Markers: The National Carbon Company 1
There are two markers in Northeast Ohio for The National Carbon Company. One in Lakewood and, today’s focus, one in Parma.
Parma (12900 Snow Road)
Room With a View
Attached to the Western Reserve Historical Society is a gem of a house, easily overlooked and passed by if you don’t take the time for the tour. Walking through, you can imagine the life of the Cleveland upper-class across the 19th and 20th centuries.
First, a little history on the house from the Historical Society’s web site:
In 1908 Clara Stone Hay, daughter of Amasa Stone and widow of John Hay, engaged Abram Garfield, youngest son of President Garfield, to design a home for her in the Wade Park Allotment. While the house, with terraced courtyard garden and modern conveniences, was completed in 1911, Mrs. Hay never furnished or occupied the house, preferring to return to New York City on the death of her sister, Flora Stone Mather.
After Mrs. Hay’s death, the property was acquired in 1916 by Price McKinney, of the McKinney Steel Company. He and his family lived there during the 1920s. In 1938 McKinney ’s widow, by now Mrs. Corliss Sullivan, sold the house to WRHS, and in 1939 it was opened as the Society’s Museum. Today the Hay-McKinney House is furnished as a series of period galleries exhibiting furniture, decorative and fine arts and domestic artifacts from the Society’s collections.
Clara Stone Hay and Price McKinney
Inside, the rooms portray how a house might look at various periods in American history. Most of the items on display have been donated, our guide told us.
Names of design styles popped up. Rococo, Empire, Louis XIV, all of those and more. Those names I recognized but never understood. Room to room, we saw the progression of history and how it helped shape design.
Also on display are the servants’ quarters that give a glimpse how the other half of the house lived and worked.
Portraits and stories showcase some of the major players that shaped the city and surrounding areas. Of note, Jeptha Wade, namesake of Wade Oval, and Mr. and Mrs. Justin Ely, whose son, Heman, went on to found the village of Elyria.
The Elys
Although we have to rely on stories and archives to picture Millionaires’ Row in its day, the Hay-McKinney House gives us an understanding of what that life was. If you’re at the Historical Society, take the time-about 1 ½ hours-to take the tour.
Re-Energized
Well dear readers, we are in the midst of another Cleveland sports venue name change. FirstEnergy Stadium.
While I’m not too keen on corporate names (it’s still the Jake to me) I never thought Cleveland Browns Stadium was that great. Too bland. Although I did enjoy the confusion of having two NFL stadiums named for Paul Brown, albeit by technicality.
Now that I’m off point…in reading about the deal, I only just realized FirstEnergy is the largest energy company in the U.S.
So if the nation’s largest electric company is based in Northeast Ohio, why are we not capitalizing on this?
As much as I love the old-school, steel mill dotted, industrial look leftover from Cleveland’s past glories, those days are gone. While we should remain a presence in those industries, with Cliffs and the remaining steel plants left operating, we need to look for other opportunities.
And here we have a chance to become a city of the future. We are in the process of being re-branded as a medical center. What if we strive to be an energy center as well?
Renewable energy will be a major industry soon enough. With FirstEnergy right here, Cleveland and Northeast Ohio should do what they can to get a jump on the rest of the country and become one of the premier cities in the U.S. for renewable energy development. We have the colleges to produce the brains to do it. We have the perfect partner/customer in FirstEnergy. We have a company that could provide the raw materials.
We have what we need. We just need to make that push to revolutionize ourselves and our nation.
This is My Cleveland 