St. Barbara Church

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Revision as of 17:09, 5 February 2008

Saint Barbara's Church
1505 Denison Ave.
Cleveland, Ohio

PARISH IN JEOPARDY! St. Barbara's is in need of new parishioners and old parishioners! Currently there are about three hundred + families registered. We need to get the word out to former parishioners and all interested to come back to church and register or the parish may possibly close. The mandate from the Diocese is to close two parishes out of the five clustered: St. Barbara, St. Boniface, Blessed Sacrament, St. Rocco and St. Michael the Archangel. We don't want to lose our church! New Parishioner Information Form We have a wonderful new pastor, Fr. Lucjan Stokowski who is the pastor of St. John Cantius. Let's make St. Barbara's the come back church and show the Diocese we care and want to keep it open.

Mass Schedule Mondays 8:30 a.m Wednesdays 8:30 a.m Fridays 6:30 p.m. Saturdays 4:30 p.m. Sundays 9:00 a.m. (English) 11:00 a.m. (Polish)

Address: St. Barbara Church 1505 Denison Avenue Cleveland, Ohio Affiliation: Roman Catholic Organized: 1905 Pastor: Fr. Lucjan Stokowski (Fr. Michael Dietz has retired) Neighborhood: West 15th St and Denison Avenue area

History

St. Barbara's, a Roman Catholic Church, was first organized in 1906 on Valley Road.

The location made it difficult for parishioners from around Denison Avenue to attend, especially during the winter and when the dirt road was wet and muddy.

When the church burnt down in 1913, some parishioners were eager to have the church rebuilt elsewhere, preferably on Denison.

In 1916, Bishop John P. Ferrelly purchased six lots from Caroline Loomis. The lots, part of the Petty and Baldwin Allotment, were all facing on Denison Avenue.

Land purchased for the original St. Barbara Church on Valley Rd.

Land purchased along Denison Ave. for St. Barbara Church and School

This Polish parish was known as Barbarowa, pronounced using a "V" in place of the "W", thus "Barba-roVa".

Golden Jubilee card from 1955 Front	Golden Jubilee card from 1955 Back	Diamond Jubilee Book Submitted by Michael Minich Click here for full text	Diamond Jubilee news article from 1980 Submitted by Michael Minich
100th Anniversary Book front cover 2006 Click here for full text

Pastors

1908 - Fr. Julius Paczuski

1909-1909 - Fr. Joseph P. Kocinski

1909-1910 - Fr. Camillus Sierputowski

1910 - Fr. Thomas Krakowiak

1910-1911 - Fr. Paul Koszyk

1911-1918 - Fr. Paul Szulerecki

1918-1922 - Fr. John Zeglen

1922-1927 - Fr. John Solinski

1927-1929 - Fr. Leo A. Sztupek

1929-1970 - Fr. Joseph Jarosz

1970-1997 - Fr. Chester Cudnik

1997-present - Fr. Michael S. Dyrcz

Assistants

1939-1942 - Rev. Joseph Gorski

1942-1943; 1962-1963 - Rev. Edmund F. Kuczmarski

1944-1948 - Rev. Francis J. Szczepanski

1948-1954 - Rev. Edward F. Gackowski

1954-1958 - Rev. Stanley A. Cymanski

1958-1962 - Rev. Chester C. Cudnik

1963-1965 - Rev. John A. Kusiak

1965-1971 - Rev. Thaddeus Swirski

1997-1997 - Rev. Michael S. Dyrcz

Parishioners

St. Barbara's parishioners and students(1965)

An Excel spreadsheet with various sorted views

Submitted by Clement Ras

School

The elementary school of St. Barbara's served the Polish community by providing education for children from Kindergarten thru 8th grade.

See the St. Barbara Photo Album for class pictures.

See the St. Barbara Class Lists for student names.

The main entry way was in the center of the building and led up to the upper floor. There were also doors on the east and west sides of the building that allowed easy exit from the lower floor. There may also have been an exit on the south side of the school that led to the playground, but I don't recall ever using it so it may have been blocked off by the 1950's.

The upper floor had four classrooms with some grades doubling up when the class sizes were too small to warrant their own room. Also on this floor was the Principal's office and the nurse's room.

The lower floor not only had two classrooms, but also the lavatories, boiler room, and the church. Later, after the church was moved to it's new building on the corner of West 15th and Denison Ave., the church area was turned into a gym where the children could exercise, have lunch, and watch movies.

Each classroom had what was referred to as a "cloak room" where students could hang up their coats on hooks that ran along the wall. There was no such thing as individual lockers. The cloak room typically ran along the width of the room and had an entrance at each end.

The Sisters of Saint Joseph order served as teaching staff at the school. The nuns lived in the convent house located behind the school building. The convent was originally a wood frame house. Later it was moved to Botany Ave near West 14th St. and a new brick convent was constructed on the old lot on West 16th St.

St. Barbara's Elementary School - Architect's rendering showing the originally planned two story building.

St. Barbara's Elementary School

Original convent house

Polish Song Book

Do you remember the black Polish songbook that we had in church back in the 1950's?.

Some of the songs inside were always sung at Christmas....

Click any title to view the lyrics: (use the control at the top of this page to hear Lulajze Jezuniu)

Lulajze Jezuniu
Wsród Nocnej Ciszy
Dzisiaj w Betlejem
Gdy sie Chrystus rodzi
Przybiezeli do Betlejem
Aniol Pasterzom Mowil

[NOTE: Many, many thanks to Carole Zanath for locating a copy of this book for me! I was thrilled when it arrived in the mail. Funny how a little nostalgia warms the heart.]

Organizations

Some of the male parishioners organized as the Brooklyn American Polish Civic Club. Later this club evolved into the St. Joseph Lodge and the Merrymen's Club. Meetings were held in the large brick two story house on the northeast corner of West 14th and Denison Ave.

• 1964

President -- Frank Franks

Secretary -- Walter Dziedzina

• 1965

President -- William Yuschik

Treasurer -- Walter Dziedzina

Transition

In the early 1960's, word came down from Cuyahoga County officials that a proposed highway would bisect the neighborhood. This was bad news for the people who had bought their homes and planned to live the rest of their lives there. A study of deed transfers shows that a small number of speculators jumped in and bought some properties. They probably knew what sort of price the State of Ohio Dept. of Transporatation was paying for properties acquired for freeways and paid the frantic sellers a lower price, hoping to make a profit from the true value. On the flip side of the coin, the sellers may have wanted to move quickly instead of waiting for the slow wheels of government to move, so jumped at the chance to be out of their property.

After all the property was bought up on the east side of W.15th, the west side of W.14th and the north side of Redman, bulldozers moved in to begin demolition. It was an odd sight to be able to see straight across from the houses that were left on the eastern portion over to the houses that were on the western side.

Click here to see pictures of the demolition

Additonal Readings

• Miller, Carol Poh, 1950-
  

Barbarowa: cultural resource report on a neighborhood of Cleveland. [1993]

F499.C66 B376 1993a

• Mihal, John

"The Poles." Cleveland News, Jan. 11, 1941.

"Polish community nestles in 'forgotten' corner of city.", . Harvard-Denison Bridge area Poles of Cleveland.

• Wang, Charissa Y. (editor)

A history of the Barbarowa Neighborhood, Cleveland, Ohio

submitted by Hardlines: Design & Delineation ; submitted to

Burgess and Niple, Limited ; contributors, Roy A. Hampton

III, historian.

Barbarowa Neighborhood, Cleveland, Ohio

Columbus, Ohio : Hardlines, [1999]

Item Description: 77 p. : ill., maps ; 28 cm.

F499.C66 B37 1999

Other Polish settlements in Cleveland were:

• Kantowa (University Hts, also known as the Tremont area)

-- See the Tremont webpage by Pat Schmidt --

• Krakowa (Lansing Ave. and East 71st)
• Jackowa
• Josephatowa (East 33rd and St. Clair)
• Poznan (near East 79th and St. Clair Ave.)
• Warszawa (East 65th near Fleet Ave.)