There was an obituary in today's Plain Dealer for Marvin Helf, the man who built our family's home in Euclid in 1951. The obit says that Marvin Helf was 92 years old when he died, which means he was only 32 years old when he developed the subdivision in Euclid that extended from Zeman Avenue to Elinore Drive, and from E.272nd Street to E. 260th Street. There were hundreds of inexpensive tract homes built in this area by Helf. When my Mom and Dad had their house built, the cost was $11,900. The house was fairly small and was built on a small lot (maybe a tenth of an acre). The bottom floor of the bungalow had 2 bedrooms; the second floor was unfinished (later finished by my Dad); and there was no basement or garage or even finished driveway (we added those later).
Over the years we had a lot of petty complaints about the house and the small lot. But it did offer our family (and hundreds of families) a nice new place to live and raise families--for a modest cost. The neighborhood attracted the vigorous World War II vets and their spouses, who populated the neighborhood with lots of children. The area had a neighborhood group called the "Forest Park Civic Association"--which I guess is as close as we came to having a name for our neighborhood. My Mom and Dad sometimes just called it the Marvin Helf homes. This was a wonderful place to grow up, and for that we have much to thank Marvin Helf.
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3 comments:
Dear Bob,
I stumbled across your blog today while preparing a public lecture on glossy women's magazines featuring Muslim head gear (hijab) in Indonesia, and the constructions of femininity represented in them. At the last minute i had the idea to add a slide with photos illustrating why head scarfs have never seemed frightening or alien to me. I was at the office, not at home, and tried to find photos of two things: babushka-wearing women of Balkan origin in my neighbourhood (Euclid Homes Projects and surrounding areas between E.222 and E.185 and down to Holy Cross and the beach); and a wimpled photo of my aunt, Sister Ruth Marie Behrend -- your teacher during the year of your First Communion. I thought I might find something in a local Ursuline publication, but found you and your photo in the process. After the lecture, to which i was a few minutes late thanks to you, I put in a few hours browsing your blog. Thank you for writing it, and writing it so well. Thanks for writing about familiar milieux of my youth.
I'm six years younger than you, was much less world aware in my youth, and we moved away for six years when I was 12. When we moved back, I was on my way to university on the other side of the continent - so am bereft of Cleveland experiences in my most formative years. But my forebears arrived in Cleveland in the 1830s, and the city is deeply knit into our DNA. Would love to have a little email exchange with you if you have thoughts about the E.200th Street Projects, the city in general, or Geneva-on-the-Lake. I'm on facebook and my own email can easily be found by googling my name and the word "auckland", the city in NZ where I now live.
PS, you may know my father and brother, who frequent the Irish Club. Despite our surname, the Behrend name came to Cleveland from Milwaukee in the early days of the automobile industry (ending up at White Motors) and was grafted onto a near-West Side clan of Mahoneys, Mulcaheys, Nugents and others.
What a wonderful comment, Tim! What an amazing thing, to get this comment from the nephew of my first grade teacher, Sr. Ruth Marie. And it comes from the other side of the world! I have tried to email you, Tim. Not sure if it got through. I'd love to meet you next time you're in Cleveland.
Bob, just stumbled on this again and saw that you had responded -- two and a half years ago. This is a note to you. My email address is t.behrend@auckland.ac.nz if you want to write. I've been spending the last year and a half since retirement doing family history and reimagining Cleveland of the 19th century. I am corresponding with another alumnus of St Williams who has written a memoir of his time as a Marianist brother. Do you know David Pfriem, author of Uncommon Bonds? He is now working on a history of Euclid through the lens of his own experience growing up and living there. I think he lives near the old church, now a amalgam of several parishes, on 260th.
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