“America changes so fast…” Prescient words when spoken by a newly arrived Polish émigré nearly a century ago and yet her observations remain valid in St. Hyacinth today. Originally an ethnic enclave settled by Polish immigrants, St. Hyacinth now proudly boasts a diverse, energetic population and is quickly becoming the neighborhood of choice for performance artists as well as those simply performing life.
Act One: Bourne of Industrial Flame and Fire…
Although once a struggling trading outpost located “six-miles from Newburgh,” Cleveland’s proximity to the Great Lakes, the rich coalfields of western Pennsylvania and the expansive iron ranges of Minnesota ensured the city’s position as an industrial powerhouse. With an economy built largely upon its unique ability to move raw materials in and finished goods out of the city and to markets beyond, Cleveland easily attracted both industry and labor to the south shore of Lake Erie. Consequently, during the middle decades of the 19th century, oil refineries began flooding the Cuyahoga River valley while the unrelenting flames of blast furnaces routinely crowded the darkness from the nighttime sky. Steel, oil and all sorts of manufactured goods spilled out of the city’s labor-intensive factories. Most importantly, European immigrants in search of work continually flowed into the city feeding the insatiable appetite of this industrial giant.
Act Two: …a Hyacinth Takes Root.
From a mere 92,000 residents in 1870, the industrial revolution and a steady flow of European immigration pushed Cleveland to nearly one million residents by 1950. Of the hundreds of thousands that flocked to the city during this period, over 30,000 arrived from Poland. Tireless workers dedicated to church, family and the dream of owning property in the United States, many of these eastern European immigrants sought and found work in the city’s industrial core situated along the banks of the Cuyahoga River. More notable and certainly more durable than their firing of furnaces at Republic Steel or the staffing of three tedious shifts at the Cleveland Rolling Mills, were the vibrant ethnic communities that these hearty people forged throughout the city.
Polish, like many ethnic enclaves in Cleveland, grew with phenomenal rapidity. Warszawa, Cleveland’s largest Polish settlement situated near East 65th Street and Fleet Avenue, was literally spilling over its borders as the 20th century dawned. Unable to house the unrelenting flow of new arrivals, a smaller overflow settlement began to take root in a quiet, out-of –the-way area situated between East 55th Street and the Kingsbury Run. Deriving its name from the Catholic Church established on Francis Avenue in 1906, the St. Hyacinth neighborhood appealed the immigrant’s desire for work and land. Empire Plow and nearby Standard Oil drew settlers while the availability of virgin land kept them. Soon, additional factories and forges rose from the ground along the neighborhood’s western boundary as new homes sprung up along every block. By 1950, few, if any, lots remained empty.
Act Three: Changing Seasons
Such growth could not, however, last forever. Cleveland’s declining industrial base offered less opportunity to the foreigner seeking work and wealth on American soil while increasingly strict U.S. immigration policies stopped many of those not trapped behind the Iron Curtain. Consequently, the neighborhood remained largely unchanged throughout the latter part of the 20th century. Children grew and parents aged and, as time marched on, the city and St. Hyacinth slowly began to shed its ethnic identity.
Today, the neighborhood proudly boasts a diverse, energetic population. Less dense and less Polish, St. Hyacinth remains a wonderful place to work and live. The newly renovated Waterman Building, home to The Hyacinth Lofts, a remarkably strong industrial base and new developments such as the lush Hyacinth Park (an amenity never possible in the once crowded neighborhood) serve as daily reminders of the neighborhood’s vitality and its bright future.
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