“People can cry much easier than they can change.” James Baldwin, 1924-1987, American author

I had the opportunity, in an attempt at avoiding a freeway traffic jam, to travel down an inner city avenue. On the corner here and there one can find the icons of another era, monuments to commercial practices and history; the failed banks and saving and loans. Their names are still clearly seen chiseled in the mantels overhanging the doorways—The Washington Bank or Union Federal Savings & Loan. Names long forgotten in Cleveland history, but perhaps remembered by second generation victims of the Great Depression—the children of the original depositors, now in their eighties or nineties.

The artisans of the 1920’s built these tall, imposing sandstone and granite structures. Their high vaulted, sometime domed, ceilings add to their aurora. They were built to last for generations, and so they have, well into the twenty-first century. Even now, they clearly dominate the landscape and are easy to distinguish from their surroundings. They also represent a failed understanding of commerce and capitalism, as well as the principals of overextension of credit and prudent accounting practices.

These massive buildings became too expensive to tear down and lay waste and were used for businesses other than banking. When the national economy returned to normal they became office building, retail stores or social service agency headquarters. They are joined by other structures in the inner city, the four or five bay service station. Architects, engineered to provide a complete facility for car repairs, designed these as well. They replaced the small building or shed with an outdoor hydraulic lift. These were the last word in the automotive service world, the epitome of convenience. Now they are corner grocery stores or beauty shops.

In this mix are the churches of yesteryear; easily recognizable by their tall gothic spires and sandstone adornments. Some have been passed down from mainstream congregations to congregation, now residing with bible thumping, evangelical, revivalists. Several mainstreams have held out: namely the Lutherans, Episcopal, Presbyterian and Roman Catholics. The Roman Catholics have chosen to be next on the list to consider changing the nature of their edifices, through the combination congregations and some abandonment of too costly houses of worship.

The residence of that era would not recognize their world today. They would be shocked and perhaps disappointed in its evolution. The question we could rightfully ask is; “what could we expect to happen to our neighborhood in the next seventy-five years?” Would the areas of entertainment, religion, commence or government fall victim to the whim of change? Would we as Rip Van Winkel awaken to a world foreign to us? Would the things we value in this world be useless in the next? Things change and we are not always happy with the change,
K.