Tremont , a Cleveland neighborhood

was quite a scary place to live or pass through in the late 1960's and 1970's.

Today being October 31st and All Hallows Eve, reminds me of many scary tales of Tremont.

Seedy housing and acrid polluted air ruled this neighborhood, perched just southwest of downtown Cleveland, and full faced into the constant blasts from the steel mills and industrial flats in the valley just below.

Not a pretty site at all back in the day, and from a pollution standpoint not much better today.

Lincoln Park was a twenty four hour illegal drug supermarket, infested to boot with a legion of drippy nosed paper bag glue-huffers, whose main avocation in life was to stumble up and down the Scranton Road hill to Train Avenue and the giant vats of chemicals available for these toluene tortured souls to zombie up on.

Most of the apartment buildings surrounding Lincoln Park were either shooting galleries for the junkies, or shady dens of ill repute of one form or the other, including the usual gamut of illicit activities such as after hours joints, gambling and prostitution.

Arson was a free form Olympic style event, with sirens shrieking away most evenings, and a much despised "Tremont arsonist", available for hire when a home or apartment building could not be sold , or a landlord wished to evict a tenant without using the court system.

Both daily newspapers wrote feature articles concerning this heinous criminal activity of arson and it's affects on the Tremont neighborhood, though this was a part of the city that in the 1970's, more resembled an out of control lawless free for all , than a nice place to raise a family.

Needless to say the drop in population in Tremont was dramatic.

The 1920 census shows a population of 36,000 residents of which only 8600 remain in the 2000 census figures. The construction of a large interstate highway divided the Tremont neighborhood, contributing to it's population loss, and to this day a direct walking route to downtown Cleveland is a feet of navigation involving a detour into the neighboring Ohio City via Abbey Avenue, or a grimy stroll through the industrial flats.

Tremont today still suffers the highest cancer rates, along with its East rim neighbor Slavic Village, in the entire city of Cleveland.

Now filled with trendy restaurants, art galleries, and ice cream parlors, contemporary Tremont has managed to capture the fancy of a young Cleveland crowd despite its obvious shortcomings.

Most of Tremont's housing stock is comprised of late nineteenth century single and two family homes without much architectural character or charm. These cheap homes were built to accommodate the waves of mostly Eastern European immigrants whose families migrated to Cleveland for work in the steel mills, most of the original families that occupied them moved into the suburbs post world war two, and they were then occupied by waves of Appalachian Americans, Puerto Rican, and Afro American families working hard for success and to duplicate the "American dream."

Now these same said homes are fine starter homes for single Clevelanders in their twenties and thirties, but like those before them they will move into the suburbs with great haste when faced with the dilemma of the current state of Cleveland schools, and the problems of raising their children in a marginal neighborhood like Tremont. Crime is still a major deterrent to any long term growth, and the visible scars of the arson activity of the sixties and seventies are visible today in the numerous empty lots that remain.

I have never understood the fascination of the contemporary set with this ugly smelling place known as Tremont.

Its citizens and businesses are a distinct positive contribution to life in today's Cleveland, the stench and belch of the fetid industrial valley below enough to keep me away.

Not to mention the scary hangover that remains from stepping around Tremont in my youth.

Book selling time!

In keeping with the spirit of Halloween, we would like to offer you the works of Clark Ashton Smith, DARK CHATEAU, GENIUS LOCI, and THE ABOMINATION OF YONDO.

These volumes were purchased from a crumbling neglected home in the adjoining Duck Island section of Tremont some years ago, and are looking for a scary collector to take them home.

We feature many other ARKHAM HOUSE titles as well for your holiday of haunted souls.

Best wishes for a safe and happy Halloween. All of my family, John and Kim, and all the costumed celebrators of this witchy old holiday

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