Lakewood Polish Neighborhood (Est. 1893)
The current city of Lakewood was once part of Rockport Township, just west of the city of Cleveland. It was known as East Rockport until it became Lakewood hamlet in 1889 and later Lakewood village in 1903.
Lakewood’s first official settler was James Nicholson who acquired 300 acres of land from Madison Avenue to Lake Erie. Lakewood was mostly agricultural consisting of orchards and vineyards. After the Civil War, farmhouses were replaced with mansions. Many of those mansions still stand today.
In 1891, the National Carbon Company purchased land in the southeast section of present day Lakewood. This property consisted of 155 acres that was bounded by Madison Avenue on the north, Halstead Avenue on the west, West 117th Street on the east and the railroad tracks on the south. The company built factory buildings and developed a residential neighborhood for National Carbon workers.
This residential neighborhood that was just west of the factory was nicknamed “Birdtown” because it had many streets with bird names such as Thrush, Robin, Quail and Plover. The area was also called, Ducktown, Bird’s Nest, the Village and the Carbon District. Eastern European Slavs were some of the first people to make their residences in Birdtown and they established churches and schools that catered to their ethnicity.
But by 1893, news of good jobs at National Carbon and other nearby businesses attracted Polish immigrants as well. Many of these Poles attended the Slovak church of SS Cyril and Methodius but were eager to form their own Polish Catholic church. In 1909, Bishop Farrelly responded to their request and created St. Hedwig’s Parish.
In 1911, the year Lakewood was incorporated into a city, land was purchased on Madison Avenue between Halsted and Dowd and construction of the church building began. It was completed in the summer of 1914.