Euclid’s Fourth of July street parade and bustling downtown: Cleveland Remembers National Parents Center

Euclid’s Fourth of July street parade and bustling downtown: Cleveland Remembers

June 25, 2011 – 7:14 pm

Euclid’s Fourth of July street parade and bustling downtown: Cleveland Remembers Rick Jordan leads his kids’ float in the Fourth of July parade on East 219th Street in Euclid in 1984. His wife, Diane, barely visible, is pulling the space-shuttle wagon in which their kids, Pamela and Scott, are seated. Vern Dahl, walking behind, is a family friend. Read The Plain Dealer’s 2003 story about East 219th’s annual parade and our Life Story about Rick Jordan, “He kept East 219th neighborly.”

I grew up on East 219th Street, one in a number of charming Euclid streets north of Lake Shore Boulevard.

The dead-end street, though decidedly blue-collar, had all the amenities: well-kept houses, each of a different size and architectural style; a small park overlooking Lake Erie; and a tennis court, originally a clay version hosed down by firefighters to become a skating rink in the winter, followed by concrete.

We played tennis, divided up for Wiffle ball and touch football in the park, fished and swam, despite environmental challenges that turned the water fluorescent green. Our Fourth of July parades, followed by judging of the marchers’ costumes and games, were an annual highlight and once graced the cover of The Plain Dealer’s Sunday magazine.

Downtown awaited at the top of the street. Eventually my dad moved his store, Shore Window Shade and Drapery, to that very intersection.

The commercial area boasted five department or five-and-dime stores, as I recall: Bailey’s, Giant Tiger, W.T. Grant, Woolworth’s and Joe Norban’s. Eventually, some changed, to a Gaylord’s or a Value City. And supermarkets: A&P, Kroger’s, Bi-Rite, Pick-n-Pay and Fazio’s. There were men’s clothing stores, drug and furniture stores, pretty much anything you needed.

The downtown still stands, but with vastly different tenants, signs of a changed local economy and a much different world.

National Parents Center