Lakewood Lore

Town really heated up when lumberyard burned down

Lakewood's most spectacular fire took place 70 years ago when the Theodore Kundtz lumberyard burned down. It lasted two days, leveling an area larger than Lakewood park and resulting in a property loss of $489,000, a tidy sum back in those days.

The lumberyard, extending from Clifton Boulevard south to the Nickel Plate tracks between Manor Park and Giel Avenues, burst into flames about an hour before midnight May 21, 1920, from a cause unknown.

At the time, an eyewitness, Audrey Rebscher Bloom, 79, was 9 years old and lived on the east side of Giel, across the street from the lumberyard.

"I had gone to bed and was awakened by the flames," she remembers.

"From my bedroom, I could see them shooting high into the air. They lit up the whole sky.

"I stayed up all night watching. My mother packed three new dresses and other belongings and put them on the back seat of our Chalmers touring car in case we had to flee. My family was afraid a change in the wind might cause the flames to leap over the street and engulf our house."

At the outset, Audrey's father, John M. Rebscher, hurried over to investigate the fire. A few years earlier he had been brought here from New York City to work for the Theodor Kundtz Co., which operated the Lakewood yard and had five plants in Cleveland producing the cabinets for White Sewing machines besides church and school furniture.

"During the long night, exhausted firemen were invited to rest from time to time in our home and have breakfast," Audrey recalled.

"We were on pins and needles until sometime after sunrise when they told us the fire was contained. Even so, it continued to burn for two days."

Later a real estate allotment was made from that area deviated by the massive conflagration. Then, new streets -- Chase, Bunts, Hathaway and Merl-were cut through between Giel and Manor Park, and new homes were built on the property.

Three years after the fire, the Kundtz enterprise was absorbed by White Sewing Machine Co. In 1949, Audrey's father became executive vice president of White. He retired in 1954 and died seven years later.

The Kundtz company had been formed by cabinetmaker Theodor, who at 19 immigrated from Hungary in 1871 and eventually became a manufacturing tycoon. By the turn of the century, he had 2,500 employees working for him.

He built a mansion at 13826 Edgewater Drive that resembled a baronial castle. It included a ballroom and a bowling alley. He had every room finished in a different kind of wood. He sought out highly skilled craftsmen to hand-carve decorative interior appointments, and engaged artists to bedeck walls and ceilings with murals. It was the most elegant home in Lakewood.

Kundtz died in 1937 and his palatial showplace was razed in 1961 for new smaller homes development.

Young Audrey grew up in Lakewood, graduated from Lakewood High School in 1929, and afterwards attended Ohio State University and Dyke College.

She married Warren Bloom at Lakewood's Pilgrim Lutheran Church, where she is a lifelong member. The couple, who now live in West Park, have two sons and four grandchildren.

Audrey has another vivid childhood memory. It predates the fire. It is of a 6-year-old girl standing with playmates along the Nickel Plate tracks at Giel and waving to World War I inductees, who are smiling from the open windows of Pullman cars taking them east to overseas debarkation centers.

"The soldiers heading for France tossed us nickels and pennies, and dropped slips of paper with their names written on them," she said, a bit dreamy-eyed.

This article by Dan Chabek appeared in the Lakewood Sun Post December 13, 1990. Reprinted with permission.

[Note: Audrey and Warren Bloom both passed away in 1992]

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