The Broadway Avenue Historic District is a historic commercial district in the Broadway–Slavic Village neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States. The commercial district is the historic center of Cleveland's Czech community, and is an excellent example of a district that grew along a streetcar line. The historic district includes 43 buildings constructed between 1888 and 1930, including the Hruby Conservatory of Music and Our Lady of Lourdes Church and School. The commercial district was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 19, 1988.
Emergence of the historic district
In 1662, Charles II of England, ignoring existing Native American claims to the area, granted to the Connecticut Colony all lands to the west between the 41st and 42nd parallels of north latitude. These rights began at the western border of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations and extended to the Pacific Ocean, although they did not include lands already ceded to the Province of New York or the Province of Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, Charles and other English monarchs had also pledged these same lands to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Province of New York, Plymouth Colony, and the Colony of Virginia. In 1786, Connecticut ceded all its land claims to the federal government in exchange for cancellation of its American Revolutionary War debts. Connecticut retained only those lands known as the Connecticut Western Reserve, an area bounded by Lake Erie on the north, Pennsylvania on the east, and the 41st parallel of north latitude on the south. The Western Reserve extended for exactly to the west, and came to an abrupt halt.
On August 3, 1795, the state of Connecticut sold the Western Reserve to the Connecticut Land Company for $1.2 million ($ in dollars). In 1811, Youngs L. Morgan, Sr., an emigrant from Connecticut, purchased from the Connecticut Land Company of land around what is now the intersection of E. 55th Street and Broadway Avenues. He and his heirs continued to farm this land until 1872. Others who owned land nearby were Charles Barkwill (a brickmaker), Eliezar Cable (who founded an orchard and nursery), Samuel Dille, Sr., (whose farm straddled the intersection of Broadway and Dille Avenue), Jabesh Gallup (who founded a nursery), Moses Jewett, and Simeon Streetor (who farmed along Broadway).
In 1808, James Kingsbury, a local judge and former military officer, gave of land at the intersection of Broadway and E. 55th to his son-in-law, Dyer Sherman (who had wed Kingsbury's daughter, Abigail). Sherman erected a tavern there, which became well known among residents of the area. In 1827, John L. Wightman purchased of land on the southwest side of Broadway Avenue between what is now McBride and Fowler Avenues. He erected Wightman's Tavern there, a waystation for travelers which became one of the most famous in the northeast Ohio.
In February 1849, construction began in Cleveland on the northern end of the Cleveland and Pittsburgh Railroad. (Construction on the southern leg began in Wellsville, Ohio, in July 1847.) The line reached Hudson, Ohio, in February 1851, and Freedom (now Alliance, Ohio) on July 4, 1851. The northern leg was connected to the southern leg in 1852. Development of the railroad spurred extensive industrial activity along Broadway Avenue, which it largely paralleled until reaching Bedford, Ohio. One of the most important of these was Grasselli Chemical, founded in 1856 by Eugene Grasselli.
For a short time in the late 1850s, the Cuyahoga County Fair was held at Broadway and E. 55th before moving to a more permanent home.
Early Czech settlements in Cleveland
Czech people were among the earliest groups to emigrate to the United States in large numbers, with the first wave of Czech immigration occurring in the 1850s. Large numbers of Czech people settled in Chicago, Illinois, and in St. Louis, Missouri. Many Czech immigrants headed for the Midwestern United States used Cleveland as a midway stopping point, intending to move on. But large numbers of Czechs actually settled in the city, and soon Cleveland had one of the largest Czech populations in the nation.