Lakewood Lore

Vintage valley overpass linked exciting memories

A narrow footbridge that spanned Rocky River near its mouth a century ago is etched indelibly in the minds of Lakewood's Kathryn Coleman and Louise Sanders, who crossed it as children.

To Kathryn, 89, the wobbly crossover -- a 30-foot-high public walkway of short planks fastened together and held aloft by two cables, was the setting for a harrowing experience she will never forget.

One Sunday afternoon in 1910, she and her family had to hold on for dear life midway across the bridge when some mischievous boys jumped up and down at one end of the contraption, causing the entire length to swing wildly.

"I was 7-years-old at the time and walking beside my mother," Kathryn remembers. "In front of us father was pushing a baby stroller that held my 1-year-old brother."

"We were frantic, but we finally made it across. Afterwards, mother vowed we would never use that bridge again.

Louise Sanders, 92, a descendant of two prominent pioneer families -- the Andrews and the Frenches for who Lakewood streets were named, has more pleasant memories of the span, which both she and Kathryn recall was commonly known as the Cable Bridge.

"As a little girl, I used to go over to the west side of the river to pick wild violets for my grandmother," Louise said.

"By the time I returned, my bouquets were always wilted. But, just the same, grandmother thought those violets were the most beautiful she'd ever seen."

While the Cable Bridge was located near the end of Detroit Avenue, a similar span known as the Grape Vine Bridge was the only means of crossing Rocky River in the vicinity of Hilliard and Riverside roads.

Lakewood farm children with lunchpails in hand -- boys in "stovepipe" pants and girls in pantalettes -- used it to get to a little red schoolhouse at Center Ridge and Wooster, an intersection then called Phinney's Corners.

Kathryn Coleman, born in Bellefontaine, Ohio, came to Lakewood with her parents in 1906.

"My grandfather wondered why we were moving here where, he said, 'there were nothing but woods and Indians.'"

However, that was a bit of an exaggeration, she pointed out, since by then Lakewood had already reached village status with a population of 8,000.

Kathryn grew up on Wagar, one of the earlier streets to be cut through hereabouts. Her family home was the first on that street.

"There were no Indians, but we found arrowheads, and we hunted rabbits in the neighborhood," she recollected.

"We walked to West School (now expanded to McKinley Elementary) where the church ladies from Lakewood Congregational made soup for us on rainy days so that we wouldn't have to get wet walking all the way home for lunch recess."

Kathryn graduated from Lakewood High in 1921, and four years later married Robert Coleman in Lakewood Methodist Church. The couple moved to Cuyahoga Falls in 1940 and returned two years ago.

They now live in the Northwesterly Apartments on Marlowe. Their only child, son William, a retired Lakewood High biology teacher, and his wife Barbara, an elementary school librarian in the Lakewood system, live here on Arden avenue. The elder Colemans also have five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Louise Sanders grew up in her family home on an 80-acre fruit farm on Detroit at Mars when Mars was just a wagon track up to Hilliard. The home stood where today's shopping center is located, between the Masonic Temple (then a cherry orchard) and the Lakewood First Church of Christ Scientist (then her Uncle Frank Andrews' front yard).

Uncle Frank's homestead, which was built in 1894, still remains behind the church, where it now serves as a residence for the church custodian.

Louise went to Grant Elementary school when it was called Central, and then graduated from Lakewood High in 1919. There years later she was married to John A. Sanders, who died in 1976 at age 75.

The couple had three children, one of whom passed away many years ago. The two remaining are Robert of San Juan Island, Washington State, and John J. of Berea. Louise, who also now lives in Berea, has, in addition to her sons, four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

This article by Dan Chabek appeared in the Lakewood Sun Post July 16, 1992. Reprinted with permission.

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