THE NEIGHBORHOODS

All of the neighborhoods that appear in the sidebar to the left will be organized in much the same fashion.  We will show the boundaries of the neighborhood, a map of the neighborhood, the various ethnic groups that settled there, nearby cemeteries, churches, and fraternal organizations.  After all of this preliminary information appears, we will move on to interesting items pertaining to that neighborhood.

General links appear below for neighborhoods, but first, let's take a look at some of the "Queer" names that some of the neighborhoods have had in Cleveland.  The article below comes from the September 16, 1906 issue of the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

QUEER VILLAGES - A SCORE OF THEM GO TO MAKE UP THE CITY

Sections of every large city become nicknamed, either by those people living in them or visiting there, but it is doubtful if any American town can present such a variety of cognomens as Cleveland.  There are ever a score of places which have distinctive names, some having been dubbed many years ago.  Such names cling closer than a collector, even though the loyalty may change in character. 

The class inhabiting most of these places cannot always be said to be the elite of the town, though they are occupied for the most part by hard working people.  Owing to the cheapness of rent which the people can afford they are always filled and few houses remain available for any length of time. 

The newspapers of the city have had much to do with bringing into existence the queer names which have been applied at different times to different section s of the city.  The appellations are mostly picturesque, and the entertaining writer is not slow to brighten his story by their use. 

"The Haymarket" is the best-known locality dignified by a special name.  It is located near the intersections of Central Avenue, Hill and Ontario Streets, and is so named because it is the place where the farmers sell their hay.  Few people, however, think of the fact when hearing the name.  Rather does it picture in the memory rows of dilapidated houses among which are wandering half-clad children and parents.  Farmers line the streets of the neighborhood and poverty stalks abroad.  Foreigners with large families live out miserable existences here, but are apparently happy at the way fate has treated them. 

"Vinegar Hill" is an adjoining locality and comprises sections of old Commercial and Berg Streets.  It is a hill all right, but just why the name "vinegar" was given it is somewhat obscure.  One resident tried to explain it by saying that most of the whiskey used there-abouts was so vile and bitter that it tasted like vinegar.  In fact, the locality has a dual name, for it is sometimes called "Whiskey Hill." 

"Whiskey Island" - there is only one must here be mentioned.  This somewhat striking title is known to most Clevelanders, but the exact location of the "island" is not so familiar.  It is due north from the western end of the swing bridge on the Superior viaduct and is an artificial island, inasmuch as a new river channel was cut through to accommodate shippers, thereby surrounding a small territory of a few acres entirely by water.  Several bridges connect with Whisky Island.  During the day time it is a scene of activity.  Large freight houses swarm with workmen and the wharves are black with dock men unloading vessels.  At night the place is a most unsavory one and the subject of frequent visits from the police.  The section has reformed, however, in the past few years and is not nearly as lawless as of old.  Periodical raids by the police have resulted in better order than has been maintained for many years. 

"Shantytown" is the title applied to a collection of squatters who built numerous little shanties in the vicinity of the river and the western half of the Superior viaduct.  It is self-explanatory.  Shantytown is now little more than a memory, few of the original houses remaining.  They are constructed in the rudest manner possible, and it seems a miracle how human beings manage to exist in some of them. 

"The Triangle" must be considered while referring to this riverfront district.  "The Triangle" consists of a triangular block, covered with dilapidated little houses and saloons - mostly saloons - which is situated down the hill from Detroit Ave. and W. 29th St.  The apex of the triangle touches W. 29th St.  This block has been the scene of many a famous fight and crime in the old days.  It is now reformed, and there are now only three or four saloons in the block.  It used to consist entirely of places where liquor was sold.  One wonders how these men are able to pay a $1,000 license and exist on the business they do.  Their customers are the dock workers and sailors from boats tied up in the neighborhood.  This is another place which it is better to visit by daylight, rather than dark.  A number of murders were perpetrated in bygone days, and it once was well known as a haunt of "bad men." 

"Bad Man's Hollow" is a name which has been occasionally applied to this whole district north of Detroit Ave. and extending eastward to the river and westward for a mile.  Both "Whisky Island" and the "Triangle" come within the limits of "Bad Man's Hollow."  A lot of the bad men have been weeded out, though a few still linger in some of the little ramshackle saloons in the district. 

"Little Cuba" is a term employed in referring to quite a large district on the West Side, located within the boundaries of the tenth police precinct, and south of Clark Avenue.  It is inhabited by a dense population of foreigners, men who work in the mills and factories of the city and their families.  No one seems to know how the name "Little Cuba" ever originated, or why it is retained.  It is a picturesque spot, however, and is sub-divided into many sections, some of which are also known by picturesque names. 

"Goosetown" is one of these.  It is one of the sights of "Little Cuba."  The inhabitants, for the most part, are Bohemians.  The name has been given the section because so many geese are raised and consumed there.  These paddle around in ponds and waddle down the main thoroughfares of "Goosetown," their right disputed by none. 

"Snipetown" is another part of "Little Cuba."  Where this remarkable name came from is problematical.  Perhaps it was the cigar smoking proclivity of the neighborhood and the presence of so many discarded weeds lying about that led to the queer name. 

"The Hexbuckle" or "Witch's Back" is one of the queerest names given to a locality.  It is applied by residents to a hill on which old Swiss St. extends out into Walworth Run on the West Side.  The name is said to have originated in the queer formation of the land, which, in the imagination of certain superstitious old people of the vicinity, looks like a witch's back. 

"Buttermilk Hill" is another odd name applied to a section situated on the West Side.  After one ascends the hill leading to the Nickel Plate station on W. 25th St. (Pearl) he must turn abruptly to the right.  By doing so a road is seen to extend out around an elevation looking down into Walworth run.  This is "Buttermilk Hill."  A dozen or two small frame houses are to be seen.  It is presumed that a penchant for drinking buttermilk, indulged in by the occupants of this locality led originally to the name. 

"Shi-ann" is the name which has been given to a district located at the foot of W. 67th Street and near the Lake Shore tracks.  The derivation of the name is lost in the distant past.  It is a cosmopolitan community, many of the original inhabitants being foreign squatters on the land. 

"Yellowtown" is the appellation by which Glenville, or that section of it in the vicinity of the race track, was formerly known.  The name originated from the fact that the numerous race track buildings were painted yellow.  Even to this day the former guardian of the peace in Glenville receives letters addressed to "The Marshal of Yellowtown."  This is perhaps the most dignified section of Cleveland to bear a nickname, for many beautiful residences may be seen in the locality.  The name applied, however, more directly to the houses and buildings immediately surrounding the track. 

"Dopetown" is a name which has been given by the police to a section near Ontario Street and Hamilton Avenue where congregate the drug habitues of the day.  There are a number of reported dens in the vicinity and many raids have been made, hence the name seems appropriate enough.  "Dopetown" is just about as wretched a place, in some aspects, as any section the city can boast of. 

"Little Italy" is perhaps the most pretentious of the numerous foreign villages of the city.  The best way to get to "Little Italy" is to take a Euclid car to Mayfield Road and walk south for three blocks.  Upon crossing the railroad tracks, one enters the heart of the village.  It is like being transported to a land across the sea.  The houses, the people, the stores, everything is entirely different in character from the city a half a mile away.  It is estimated that 8,000 or 10,000 Italians live in this settlement.  They have their own schools, their own churches, and their own library.  The village also has its own settlement work, which is conducted at Alta House.  An Italian band parades the streets on holiday occasions and plays Italian airs.  The housewife cooks spaghetti and other Italian dishes.  Men in velvet suits stride about the streets and the little Italian girls wear red handkerchiefs about their necks.  An Italian priest conducts religious services in the Italian tongue in an Italian chapel on Sunday.  If the average resident of the village took some novel route that would convey him from his work to Naples in thirty minutes, he could feel little more at home than he does when he journeys to "Little Italy" to take his night's rest and reunite with his family.  The village is an orderly one and, though really a town in itself, there is but one policeman on guard most of the time and he has comparatively little to do but parade his beat.

 "Little Poland" is a counterpart of "Little Italy" in some ways.  Many imposing churches presided over by Polish pastors are to be seen there.  The village is located in the vicinity of E. 34th St. and the Kingsbury Run bridge.  There are upward of 20,000 Poles in Cleveland, many of whom live in the vicinity of "Little Poland." 

"The Ghetto" of Cleveland is spread along Orange Ave. from the market almost to E. 40th St.  For some reason it is gradually but surely shifting eastward.  This phase of life is seen most markedly in the moving of a number of Jewish synagogues from old locations to new ones in the neighborhood of E. 55th St.  Orange Avenue may be said to be the main thoroughfare of "the ghetto."  A section of Broadway near the market on market days greatly resembles the London ghetto, for there it is where the bartering is done between the merchant and humble housewife.  There are many thousands of Jewish people living in this locality, being cosmopolitan as regarding race.

 "Oil Town" is a name which has been applied to the district surrounding the Standard Oil refineries out in the direction of Kingsbury Run.  The dense fumes of petroleum may be detected day or night in "Oil Town," but people moving into the vicinity soon cease to notice it.  In fact, many of the old-timers have become so accustomed to smelling oil that they will vigorously deny that it has any smell at all or that the refinery emits any odor of oil.

 "The Flats" is a name which has been applied to that section of Cleveland located in the valley of the Cuyahoga River.  It covers an area of a number of square miles and is covered with factories, lumber yards, furnaces and a few habitations.  The city hears from the flats occasionally when a fire or a flood is in progress.  It is the big backyard of Cleveland, where the work of the city is done and where the dollars are made which keep the wheels of industry moving in other parts of the municipality.  The flats are distinguished by dense clouds of soot and dirt.  This cloud floats almost incessantly, the high banks at either side preventing a free escape.

 "The Water Cure" is the name by which a pond located in Kingsbury Run at the foot of E. 51st St. (Sawtell Ave.) is generally known.  A few years ago, droves of people would go to this pond to wash their feet and to bathe, believing that the water had medicinal virtues.  The pond, like many others about the city, has claimed many victims from drowning.  It is generally credited by those living in the vicinity as being bottomless.  Several ineffectual attempts have been made to sound it.  The pond is about 500 feet long and 100 feet broad.

 "Dutch Hill" is the name given to a section of territory at the foot of Holmden Ave., and a short distance from W. 14th Street (Jennings).  There are about a dozen cottages on the hill, and it received its name from being a settlement for Dutch and German people.

 "The Dump" is a common enough name, and it is used to distinguish several parts of the city.  One's mind usually reverts to the south end of E. 40th Street (Case) when one mentions "The Dump."  A score or more of little shanties are located on the dump.  While father goes to work to earn a weekly wage, mother and the children ply the trade of the dump hunter.  This consists of gathering refuse from the loads of trash and debris thrown there and either converting it to some personal use or selling it for old metal, bone or glass.  It is hoped by city officials that at some future time this locality may be converted into an attractive park.  This will not be for years, however, until the huge hole in the face of nature has been patched by the filling in of thousands of wagon loads of earth and refuse.

 "North Side" - ever hear of it?  It's a place, singularly enough, that Cleveland hasn't got.  It has its "East Side," "West Side" and its "South Side," but there is no "North Side."  This is due, doubtless, to the city being laid out in a fanlike shape, with the center or hub of the fan being almost on the lakefront.

 "Suicide Pier" is another of the odd spots in Cleveland.  It is a wharf that belongs to the city and which is located at the foot of E. 9th Street (Erie).  It is said to have been the scene of more tragic deaths, self-inflicted, than any other spot in Cleveland.  Human beings, wearied of existence, wander down to "Suicide Pier" and jump off into Lake Erie, there to bury all their trouble with themselves.

 "The Jungle" is not the term applied to the Cleveland stockyards, but it is one that is occasionally used in referring to the district north of St. Clair Ave. and bounded on the east by E. 14th St. and on the west by old Water St.  Hundreds of poor colored people and others live in this section, which is divided by many narrow lanes, lined on both sides with insignificant enough inhabitations.

This by no means exhausts the queer names applied to various spots in Cleveland, but indicates their general character.  Although the city renamed its streets recently, it did not succeed in blotting out some of the queer terms used to designate places which are just as queer.