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Topic: merline ave. (Read 708 times) |
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Brian
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merline ave.
« Thread started on: Aug 31st, 2004, 6:13pm » |
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When I was growing up in the Falls, in the early 50's Merline ave. as it was called then, had the aforementioned spelling. When my wife and I were back there to see the old house where my aunt and uncle resided we noticed the spelling of Merline as Meriline. I subsequently asked at the Hall of records and they informed me that when they were renaming the streets someone added the extra "I" in the first part of the street name, He asked me how I knew and I informed him that if you look at the old brick building at the corner of Chestnut Blvd. and Meriline st.you will see the original spelling of MERLINE imbedded in the top portion of the building. Thought some would like to know. Brian.
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| « Last Edit: Aug 31st, 2004, 6:15pm by Brian » |
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60s Kid
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Re: merline ave.
« Reply #1 on: Feb 28th, 2006, 01:19am » |
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It was most definitely Merline. In the 1960's we used to bike down Merline to avoid traffic on the way to the Gorge main entrance and park. I'm pretty certain it was spelled M-E-R-L-I-N-E through the 1970's.
I'm pretty certain Merline was one of the streets that used to be "oiled" every summer in The Falls into the early 1970's (I wonder what carcinogens might have existed in that oil and tar concoction........I know the oil and stones wreaked havoc on the paint jobs of cars!). I believe it was during the administration of Mayor Quirk (in the Watergate years) that the "oiled streets" started receiving coats of what was then called "poor man's pavement," thus eliminating the annual oil job.
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Brian
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Re: merline ave.
« Reply #2 on: Feb 28th, 2006, 2:23pm » |
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60's kid, thank you for the input. I thought no one out there had the same memory as me or the same recollections of the name change. I remember the gorge very well, but before it became a municipal park. In my days,and I'm 66 years old, it was known as a place for derelicts and homeless to live. I remember my mother would tell my brother and I not to go near the gorge because the "gorge man" would get us. It certainly did the trick. At that time we lived in a house at 737 Albemarle. A few years ago my wife and I went back there from San Diego, where we currently reside, to take a nostalgia trip. The old house looked exactly the same as my young mind could envision it to be back then. I asked some people who had lived there since the late 50's and I was told the house had been sold and resold several times. The only change I could see was the owners had removed the steps at the front and extended the front lawn. My aunt and uncle lived at 1660 MERLINE<, my spelling, and I remember them oiling the street particularly after the winter season was over and the ruts had to be repaired. You probably rode past the house many times going to the gorge. Their house has gone through minimal changes.
Thanks again for the answer and the update. It was nice to go home again, but only to refresh the soul and to remind me of the simpler times of my life and where I came from, and the journey it took me on to get to where I am today...Brian. 
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60s Kid
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Re: merline ave.
« Reply #3 on: Feb 28th, 2006, 10:33pm » |
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Brian,
I did ride by your old house many times, I'm sure. I started collecting baseball cards in about 1963 or so, and had a theory that some of the "mom and pop" grocery stores might have a chance at having the "better cards" in the 5 cent pack.....back before collectors just bought the entire year.
There was a mom and pop grocery around 10th and Grant, not far from your place as I recall.
(mom and pop stores could be a whole other folder here......my favorite was "Pete's," otherwise known as "Petersen's Grocery" at 10th and Jefferson. Pete was a great guy, and I could wax loquaciously about the afternoons I stopped by his store........I remember Pete was especially proud of the fact he got to see Franklin Delano Roosevelt while he was President, albeit from a distance.......)
There was also a nondescript Italian club not far from you.....on 9th, as I recall. I ended up with Italian friends who took me there in college.....back when one could drink beer at 18. One could sit at the bar all day, and drink for free. The etiquette was one guy would buy a round for the bar (reasonably priced draft). Everyone would thank him, and later on another guy would buy a round. It wasn't necessary to buy a round on a visit, but it sure seemed appropriate on about every 2nd or 3rd visit.
I could talk forever about the Gorge, too. My memories are a bit different in that I was hanging out there in the 1960's when pollution assured that absolutely nothing was alive in the Cuyahoga River. And that's a fact. But I sure loved the caves and the trails.
BTW, I'm a California guy, too. Now up in NorCal, in the San Francisco Bay area. But, I've made it back to The Falls on many many occasions over the years.
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ohbuckeye52
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Re: merline ave.
« Reply #4 on: Oct 24th, 2006, 12:48pm » |
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I found that very interesting about the spelling of Merline (Meriline) St. I grew up in that neighborhood! In fact, the Italian-American Club you spoke about 60's was right across the street from my old home on 9th. Back in the 60's, it was a real "Italian" club as that neighborhood was called Little Italy at one time because of the influx of Italians that settled there. The Club back then used to have a bocce (msp?) court out front and the guys used to go out there in the summer and play bocce all day long (or so it seemed.) I can still hear the balls click against each other if I close my eyes and think about it.
The Club is still in operation today. Though the neighborhood has changed and the old Italian men have long since passed away. And the bocce court has been long gone many, many years!!
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SixtiesKid
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Grant, or St. Joseph's?
« Reply #5 on: Oct 24th, 2006, 6:53pm » |
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on Oct 24th, 2006, 12:48pm, ohbuckeye52 wrote:I found that very interesting about the spelling of Merline (Meriline) St. I grew up in that neighborhood! In fact, the Italian-American Club you spoke about 60's was right across the street from my old home on 9th. Back in the 60's, it was a real "Italian" club as that neighborhood was called Little Italy at one time because of the influx of Italians that settled there. The Club back then used to have a bocce (msp?) court out front and the guys used to go out there in the summer and play bocce all day long (or so it seemed.) I can still hear the balls click against each other if I close my eyes and think about it.
The Club is still in operation today. Though the neighborhood has changed and the old Italian men have long since passed away. And the bocce court has been long gone many, many years!! |
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OhBuckeye, were you one of the Grant Elementary School alums? If so, not too many of you folks around. I think only Crawford has fewer....! I'm guessing these days someone living where you did would likely go to DeWitt...?
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| « Last Edit: Oct 24th, 2006, 6:54pm by SixtiesKid » |
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ohbuckeye52
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Re: merline ave.
« Reply #6 on: Oct 24th, 2006, 8:42pm » |
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Yes I am a Grant School Alumnus. You are right, there are few of us around anymore. Actually I only went 5th and 6th grade to Grant. We moved to the Falls when I was 10 and I have been here every since. As I am sure you are aware, Grant School is now the Quirk Center named after the illustrious former Mayor of the same name.
Yes the children in that neighborhood attend school at DeWitt now. As did my children. I didn't move far from home; lived on the corner of 7th and Francis Ave. for 20 yrs. and raised my children there.
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High Bridge Glens Fan
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Re: merline ave.
« Reply #7 on: Oct 24th, 2006, 10:18pm » |
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Greetings all - I am one of those rare Crawford Elementary graduates you refer to! I used to live down the street from Crawford ... My brother and his friends also spent many an evening playing basketball on the Crawford playground after school. (I preferred swinging on the swings or hanging by the monkey bars.) Seeing how ultra-cautious people are today about playground equipment and having soft rubber mats for children to bounce off I am amazed any of us Crawford grads survived all the bumps and bruises from the steel hanging bars and gravel pavement without any sort of protection. I guess us kids were just tougher then ... either that or the personal injury settlements hadn't gone sky high yet.
After I completed the fifth grade, they announced plans to tear down Crawford. Later they built apartments on the site. Wish I'd saved a brick or two from the demolition for old times sake.
I went to Bode Elementary for 6th grade and shortly thereafter it closed.
Needless to say I was starting to get a complex. But since Roberts Junior High is still open I guess I'm not the educational system's equivalent of a jinx I suppose I'm just on the tail of the Baby Boomer wave.
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slyborg
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Re: merline ave.
« Reply #8 on: Jan 28th, 2009, 1:36pm » |
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I grew up near Merline, and always noticed that although the black and gold concrete street markers always spelled it "Meriline," everyone pronounced it MERLINE.
And yep, in the '70s, when I grew up, every summer the streets in that area were oiled. 7th Street, between Francis and Grant, where I grew up, was "dirt" my first few years of recollection, and coated with oil every summer. Then, sometime in the mid-70s, they started the "poor man's paving," as they called it, where they put down tar and a layer of gravel on top of it.
On either side of the street were deep grassy "gutters.' We always considered 8th Street, one block over, fancier, because they had real curbs. That was the first street we would hit trick or treating, because the houses were bigger and we thought we'd get better candy...
Mrs. Huff was a little old lady who lived in an ancient tiny cottage on 6th Street....every year she gave out homemade popcorn balls for trick or treat....
I still have a scar on my chin where I was going down the Horace Ave. hill, my brakes failed, I went over the handlebars and got gravel embedded in my chin, right after they put down a fresh coat of Poor Man's Pavement.
My parents still live on 7th Street...several years ago they put in curbs and a concrete street, cutting down all the big silver maples that used to line the street in the "devil strip."
Every summer evening, there would be epic games up Kickball in the middle of the street....a manhole cover was home plate, one of the "gutter" pipes, where the driveway hit the street, was first base, third base was a silver maple in the gutter strip with a double trunk...
Kids would be all over the neighborhood, roving in big groups, til mothers would come out on back stoops and "holler" for kids to come in for dinner....one neighbor had a bell she would ring. Kids would have to be dragged away from our games, then we would all rush back out and play outside til dark...
Whenever I visit now, the streets always seem strangely quiet in the summer...I guess the kids are inside playing video games...
I remember every few months, when the Gorge power plant still burned coal, they would "blow out" the smoke stacks, and flecks of black ash would rain down on the neighborhood...
Our neighbor, Mr. May, would always complain that it ruined the finish on his Chevy pickup...
Just a few memories...I have many more....I am not that old...38...but I feel like the world I grew up in is another era, things have changed so much....
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CFRose
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Re: merline ave.
« Reply #9 on: Jan 28th, 2009, 2:56pm » |
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Slyborg, you must have been a neighbor of mine at one time. We lived on the corner of 7th and Francis from late 70's until the end of the 90's......so about 20 yrs. And you are only a couple years older than my kids. I remember well the poorman's pavement and Ohio Edison blowing their stacks and cleaning off the porch covered in soot. Things have certainly changed in the old neighborhood!!
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slyborg
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Re: merline ave.
« Reply #10 on: Jan 28th, 2009, 7:26pm » |
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Small world! It was a quiet place and a great place to grow up....
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