Lakewood Lore

Block parties showing friendly side

One indicator that Lakewood is a great place to live in is the number of block parties held here each summer.

This year, the city issued 42 permits for this purpose -- an eloquent statement for urban pride and love of Lakewood neighborhoods.

Some of our streets that are easily segmented geographically will have had two separate parties before fall. One -- Elbur Avenue -- has already held a different party for for each of the three parts of the street.

Arthur Avenue has held block parties since the `60s for that north section between Detroit and Hilliard, a strip evidenced by gracious living in large, mature homes under a verdant green canopy of towering, century-old pin oaks.

The north Arthur party series was instigated by Samantha (Sammy) Ruetenik, former resident who was instrumental in getting the Safety Town program started in Lakewood. At the time, her husband Dave Ruetenik played guitar for the get-togethers.

Anne Harms Cox, 72, retired Lakewood elementary school teacher, has lived in the north section since 1944, which is longer than anyone else now residing there.

She attended Lakewood High School (Class of `39) and graduated from the College of Wooster in 1943. Her husband, accountant William J. Cox, whom she wed at Lakewood Congregational Church in 1955, retired in 1971 and died last year.

Anne who has a daughter Caryl and two grandchildren, recently compiled some of her Arthur memories into a five-page account that was distributed at the latest block party on Aug. 22. It highlighted the formative and and heyday years of some of those Arthurites who scaled the ladder of success.

The late Frank P. Celeste, one-time Lakewood mayor and real estate entrepreneur, lived at 1527 Arthur for many years during which there were garbage/trash pickups twice a week without hassle. His son, Richard F. (Dick), grew up on the street, peddled newspapers in the neighborhood and eventually went on to become governor of Ohio.

Dick became a political adversary of the late Thomas A. (Tom) Van Meter, who was reared 12 houses south of Celeste and on the opposite side of the street.

Tom, a Republican notable who served in the Ohio Senate and later the Ohio House, unsuccessfully sought a GOP nomination for governor in the 1982 primary, while Dick Celeste was running for the Democratic nomination. Present Ohio Gov. George V. Voinovich referred to Tom, who died of cancer in March 1992, as "a great American."

Attorney and politician Richard B.Kay, who twice ran for president on an independent ticket in the `60s, lived on Arthur near the Celestes. Kay's father, Richard Sr., also a former Arthurite, was one of the founding members of Lakewood Little Theatre.

Early in the space age, Arthur Avenue received spinoff publicity from James McDivitt, a member of the second group of U.S.astronauts. McDivitt was married to Patricia Haas, daughter of dry goods merchant William Haas, who lived at 1516 Arthur with wife Isabel.

"Neighbors put up a big welcome sign on one of the porches when the orbiting hero came to visit his in-laws after his first flight," Anne Cox remembers.

Two Arthur residences were occupied by the locally prominent Cotabishes until the late `60s. Matthew and Margaret owned the home at 1563 and their son Matthew Jr. (Matt), with his wife Gwen, were at 1423.

Matt, who is a member of Beck Center's board of trustees, gave up his stately abode to make way for the Lakewood Library parking lot in 1967. His sister Grace lived at her parents address until 1968.

The elder Matthew's brother, Nelson Cotabish, was first mayor of the city of Lakewood (1910-12).

The late Cecil V. Thomas was another honored resident of Arthur. At one time he was executive secretary of Cleveland's Central YMCA and president of Fenn College, predecessor of Cleveland State University.

Current hero of the street is Neville Baker, 72-year-old fomer Royal Air Force bombadier-navigator, who dispatched the German submarine U-534 to the murky depths off the Danish coast by dropping a well-aimed depth charge from a B-24 Liberator during the closing days of World War II.

Last month, Baker visited the site to view the raising of the sunken U-boat, which is now slated to become a museum in Denmark. At a reunion there of his crew, he was recognized for his feat of 48 years ago.

Neville lives in his Arthur home with his sister, Margaret Baker. His wife Lois, whom he wed in 1945, died last June. His married daughter, Linda Goth, and her husband Geoffrey, a vice president of TRW Inc., reside a short distance down the street with his three grandchildren -- Alex, Melanie and Cameron Goth, all college students currently.

Incidently, Arthur Avenue was named for fruit farmer Arthur W. Hall, whose grandfather, Lakewood pioneer Joseph Hall, settled in our community from England in 1837.

It is befitting that the Lakewood Main Library is located at Arthur and Detroit. Arthur Hall loved books. He collected 4,000 of them during his lifetime, besides learning the art of bookbinding and making his own bookcases from the lumber of his Lakewood farm.

Early Arthur Avenue homeowners urged the Lakewood school board to build the library at the head of their street. In 1914, they collected funds sufficient to buy the library's original lot -- 147 by 200 feet on the southeast corner -- from the estates of John C. Hall (Arthur's father) and Clara I. Murray. Cost was $8,885.

This article by Dan Chabek appeared in the Lakewood Sun Post September 9, 1993. Reprinted with permission.

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