Chapter 21. The Library Relinquishes its Responsibility For School Library Service as it Begins its Building Program

The Board met on August 13, 1958 and awarded the general contract to William Passalacqua, Inc. for the low bid of $367,600 as the lowest, responsible bidder. The electrical contract was awarded to Lake Erie Electric, Inc. as the lowest responsible bidder at $146,900. The plumbing, heating and ventilating contract went to Lighthouse Inc. at the lowest and responsible bid of $170,000. We were now really on the way to making a Library Annex out of an old newspaper building.

I was now to experience my baptism under fire as it were in the responsibilities of the Office of Business Manager of a large public library that was beginning an intense period of building renovation and construction downtown, and in its system of branch libraries.

With the advent of the school year, the Library Board became involved in a difficult situation with its parent body, the School Board, over library service in the schools. The Cuyahoga County Budget Commission had informed the Library Board that it no longer could legally underwrite the cost of operating the libraries in the Cleveland Public Schools with intangible tax funds as long as the School Board was fiscally able to support and operate those libraries itself. According to a decision of the Ohio Supreme Court, it was reasonable and logical to interpret the statute as meaning that when a Board of Education can afford to pay all of the expenses, it should do so, and when it could afford to pay only part of the expenses, such part should be ascertained on the basis of its ability to pay as determined by the taxable resources of the community which it serves. Mrs. Jamison, opened the Library Board meeting of September 9, 1958 with the following statement:

As a result, the Library Board informed the Board of Education that it could not continue to offer school library service legally until a definite contract providing remuneration was signed by both boards.

This of course came as a big surprise to the School Board and caused its administration some consternation because the Cleveland Public Library had been carrying most of the cost of school library service from the time of inception. Superintendent of Schools, Paul Briggs and Michael Wach, Clerk Treasurer of the School Board called for a meeting to discuss the matter. They suggested that the meeting be held over lunch at Guarino’s Restaurant in Little Italy.

Director Lindquist asked me as the Library’s Business Manager to join him at the meeting. Within a short time, we met at Guarino’s Restaurant on Murray Hill for a working/lunch meeting. As I recall it, Ed Smircina, the School Systems Business manager was there with Superintendent Briggs and Mike Wach, his Clerk-Treasurer. After lunch, Mr. Briggs began the discussion by indicating the difficulties that the school system would face having to absorb additional costs to run the school libraries and asked Mr. Wach to explain that the surplus noted earlier in the newspapers had been committed to other budgetary needs, that it would be a fiscal impossibility to absorb any more of the costs of the school library system at that time.

Director Lindquist replied that the Library had been advised by John T. Corrigan, the Library’s legal counsel that there was no option, that the Library must enter into a bonafide contract with the School Board wherein that board would be paying for school library service according to its real means. Mr. Briggs asked whether there was a deadline. Mr. Lindquist advised him that Mr. Corrigan had said, “without delay.”

Mr. Briggs then pressing Mr. Lindquist, insisted that the Library could and should find an alternative solution to the problem. Mr. Lindquist replied that there was no alternative that the Library Board had decided in its last board meeting that since it could not legally do so, it would not offer to continue school library service until the School Board signed a contract agreeing to pay according to its ability to pay all or part of the cost of the service.

At this, Mr. Briggs said that since the Library was not willing to find an alternative solution to the problem that he would advise the School Board not to approve the Library’s next budget request and not submit it to the Cuyahoga County Budget Commission.

At that point, I felt impelled to address that course of action. With all due respect, I gently advised Mr. Briggs that although according to Ohio Law, the School Board, as the parent body, appointed the Library Board, it did not have the legal power to do what he was threatening to do. I added that according to the law, the School Board could not add to or reduce the Library’s budget or refuse to transmit it to the Budget Commission, that it merely served as the transmittal agency for the Library. The meeting ended at an impasse.

The School Board shortly after that fateful meeting agreed to a businesslike contract wherein it agreed to share the costs of school library service according to its means, and was billed accordingly. The School Board initially closed some school libraries. Eventually it took over the operation of the school libraries entirely in the late sixties.

Several years later it became obvious that the schools administration had harbored ill feelings toward the Library and had turned the School Board, not only against the Library Board, and its administration, but especially against Ray Lindquist and me. I will elaborate on that later.

At the same time, although we had our hands full making the, old Plain Dealer Building into a library annex, it was decided that it was time to do something about the replacement of the Woodland Branch Library that had been destroyed by fire in November of 1957.

This matter was brought before the Library Board on September 17, 1958. As the matter was being discussed, I could not help recalling that wintry night–November 22, 1957, being telephoned at home by the fire department at 10:00 P.M. and told that the branch library at 5806 Woodland Avenue was burning. It is a night that I will never forget. I remember speeding from my home in West Park. I became aware of the extent and the seriousness of the fire as I drove through what is now the Gateway area into lower Woodland Avenue. At that point, I was able to see that the sky was fiery red and filled with smoke. When I arrived at the site, I learned from the firemen that the fire had already become a five alarm fire. The fire at first seemed localized in the rear of the building, the auditorium part. The firemen were concentrating on that part and their hoses were spewing torrents of water through side doors of that area. I began to yell at the firemen urging them to start pouring water on the roof areas of the front and middle parts of the building to prevent the fire from spreading to those parts because that is where the book collections were housed. The firemen smiled and told me to talk to the man in the white raincoat, the chief. By the time I was able to get his attention, the flames had already spread across to those roof areas from the auditorium roof. Although the chief got the hook and ladder unit pouring water onto those areas, it was too late. The burning flat tar and gravel roofs were caving into all areas of the building, including the book areas. In later years I have often thought that it must have been awfully nervy of me to presume to tell the fire chief how to fight the fire.

I must say, however that I have never faulted the chief or the firemen because they did fight hard to save the building. They were also fighting the elements that night. It was freezing cold and the water virtually froze into huge icicles as it hit the roof areas.

On that night I watched a beautiful Carnegie Building that had been opened for service on July 16, 1904, a library that had been my first assignment in the early 1940’s as a Branch Librarian, one that I had administered until I left for World War II military service, die. I remained there until three o’clock in the morning on that frigid day, weeping as I watched the firemen finally put out the last flame. In the end, all that was left were the exterior walls. The fire investigators concluded that it was arson, however, no perpetrator or perpetrators were ever found. The books were not destroyed by fire but by the tons of water that had been poured into the building. They were a total loss. At the time the freeze-dry book saving methods we have today were not available for book restoration. Watching the destruction of that branch library building that night left me emotionally wounded.

In 1941 as its youthful head, I had fought to save that branch library from neighborhood hoodlums. In October of 1941, against my better judgment, I had allowed Director Clarence Metcalf convince me to leave my position as Assistant Branch Librarian at the Euclid-100th Branch Library to take over the Woodland Branch Library as its Branch Librarian when Margaret Kelly retired after having been there for many years. Apparently in the last few years she was there, she had lost control of the branch during the evening hours. A group of teenagers had made it impossible for Miss Kelly to maintain discipline, and the kind of atmosphere conducive to reading and study. From 6:00 P.M. on every evening the young hoodlums would turn the branch library into a place that resembled a hangout for incorrigibles. As a result the Library’s regular readers, those who wanted to read and study, no longer used the library. It had not only become a social club for hoodlums, but also a market place for marihuana reefers. After having been there for only one month, I knew that something drastic had to be done. I advised Mr. Metcalf that I was not about to stay in a place that was no longer being used as a library, that if it was to be saved I had to have police help! At first Mr. Metcalf, shocked and in disbelief was reluctant to go the police route. He changed his mind when I said that I would resign rather than continue to work under the insufferable conditions that existed at the Woodland Branch. He asked me to join him in a special Board meeting that was called to present the problem and to seek the board’s approval to take the police route.

I had advised Mr. Metcalf that I would like permission to go to Mr. Frank Celebrezze, who was Safety Director of the City of Cleveland, and who was a family friend to ask him to assign some police to help me rid the branch of the trouble .makers. At the appropriate time in the board’s agenda under New Business, Mr. Metcalf asked me to describe the situation at the Woodland Branch to the members of the Library Board and to present my request. Never having appeared before the Library Board, I recall being so nervous that my voice shook as I began to speak. I had not counted on finding myself addressing not only the seven library board members but also a room filled with newspaper and radio reporters, members of the public and library staff members! I managed to compose myself after I had gotten warmed up to my subject, and somehow managed to convey my deep concern for the future of the branch Library if the hoodlums were allowed to continue using the library.

The initial reaction of the board members was similar to Mr. Metcalf’s first reaction to my report. Some of the members wondered whether I was not over reacting and seemed to be leaning toward asking me to give the situation more time to right itself. One board member, Doctor Charles Garvin, who at the time was the chairman of the Library Extension Committee, the committee having jurisdiction over matters pertaining to the system’s branch libraries, asked me if I thought that the situation was dangerous to the staff and the public generally. Lip until that moment, I had thought it the better part of valor not to mention the fact that I had been threatened by some of the hoodlums in several attempts to get them to leave the library, that there had also been an incident that I had mistakenly thought it wise not to publicize when it had happened. I had only been at the branch two weeks when, I had been able to thwart one young hoodlum’s attempt to choke a woman staff member. On that day around about 2:00 P.M. on returning from a meeting with the Supervisor of Branch Libraries at the Main Library, I entered the branch in time to see a young teenager trying to put his hands around the staff member’s neck. I had been able to get to her aid in time! He fled when he saw me coming.

Doctor Garvin’s question convinced me to reveal the personal threats made to me and the choking incident. At that Doctor Garvin asked me how I personally felt about the Woodland Branch, and if I thought that bringing in the police was really the only way to go. Looking back in time and recalling my reply to him at the time makes me wonder at the recklessness of my response. There I was twenty-eight years old, the youngest and the only man branch librarian in the Cleveland system, out of graduate library school only three years, telling the chairman of the Library Extension Committee and his fellow board members that, “the Woodland Branch Library was no longer a library, that it was just a hangout for a bunch of bums, that if the police were not brought in to rid it of the bums, that the branch ought to be closed. It was no longer serving the decent people of the community, that I could not see myself continuing to work there.”

That did it! Dr. Garvin reacted favorably to my response and convinced the board to give me the permission I needed to seek help from the city’s Safety Director’s Office. Needless to say, I lost no time in seeing Frank Celebrezze. Without delay, he assigned two officers in plain clothes, detectives, a great hulk of a man named John Jones and a very forceful woman detective Nell Hackney. For the period of about six weeks they would come into the branch around 6:00 P.M. and stay with me until closing time. As the trouble makers came in I would point them out. One by one they would collar them and escort them out, reading them the riot act as they did. That did the trick! The Woodland Branch became a library again. Until the day that I left the library to go into military service there were no more hoodlums! This recollection of my beginning as a branch librarian at the Woodland Branch will help my readers understand my special feelings for that particular library the night it burned.

When it came to rebuilding the branch, it was estimated that $200,000 was needed to replace the
Woodland Branch and the Board was advised that funds were available in the Library’s self insurance fund which at that time totaled $421,694.94. The Board concluded its September 17,1958 meeting by appointing a committee to study whether to rebuild on the old site or elsewhere and to investigate possible architects to prepare building plans, etc. The committee was charged to bring its recommendations back for consideration later in the Fall. The committee eventually recommended and the Board agreed to rebuild on the old site transferring $250,000 from the self insurance fund to the Building Improvement and Repair. Fund to be used for the rebuilding of the Branch Library.

A short time later, the Board approved proceeding with negotiations with the City of Cleveland to acquire the Eastman Park. On February 18, 1959, Mrs. Damison asked me to accompany her to a meeting in the City Council Chambers at City Hall to present the matter. It was the first time that I had ever been in that beautiful and inspiring room, and of course the first time that I had come face to face with members of the Council and its president. Bronis Klementowicz was its young and feisty president at the time. Mrs. Damison made the initial presentation, indicating the Library’s desire to take over the park and to convert it into an outdoor reading garden. She ended her appeal by saying that I was present, and as the Library’s Business Manager, was available to answer any questions about how the Library would take care of the property. During Mrs. Damison’s statement, the council members present and Mr. Klementowicz had listened quietly and respectfully, however, Mr. Klementowicz subjected me to an intense grilling. Mr. Klementowicz was very pointed in questioning me. He wanted to know how the Library planned to convert the park into a reading garden? What assurance would the City have that the Library would be able to take care of it properly? Mr. Klementowicz asked what made me think the Library could do a better job of maintaining the park than the City? Carefully and tactfully selecting my words, I advised Mr. Klementowicz and the members of the City Council that we planned to improve the park in its architecture and landscaping, that we had plans to enclose it with architecturally pleasing wrought iron fences and gates at the Superior and Rockwell Avenue sides, that entry would be made from a doorway that would be built in the Annex wall in place of a large window that existed there. In this way we would be able to provide security and the proper use of the park as a real outdoor reading garden, and make sure that the park would no longer be a hangout for the bums who had been frequenting the park as a place to drink their booze and sleep.

I informed him that we hoped to make it an oasis in downtown Cleveland that the city could be proud of, where its citizens, the people who worked in the area and visitors could read or rest, could bring their lunches at the noon hour, and listen to some quiet music, which we hoped to pipe in from the Annex auditorium control room each day during the months of May through the early Fall’s days of good weather. I also assured him that we had the required maintenance staff to maintain the park in continuing good order. Mr. Klementowicz was adamant and continued to be very reluctant to agree to our request, citing the fact that in 1937 when the City had named the park in honor of Linda A. Eastman, the Library had equipped the park with a few tables with parasols and chairs and for a short time had taken books and magazines out to the park for the public but had stopped the practice without explanation, and that was as far as the Library had gone to cooperate with the City in the park.

I advised Mr. Klementowicz that I recalled the Library’s efforts to make books available in the park at the time, and why the Library soon found it impractical to continue the practice. I informed him that in 1937, I, as a Senior in College, as Head Page in the Shelf Division of the Main Library was asked at times to assist Miss Edith Prouty who was Head of the Stations Department, and who had been charged by Miss Eastman to make books available in the park. I told him that Miss Prouty would ask that a Page be assigned to take a couple of wooden book trucks loaded with books that she would select out to the park daily. I advised him that I often did that duty myself when I was short of Page help. I recalled that one of Miss Prouty’s assistants and I would go out to the park with the books, hoping to serve them to people as they passed through the park. It did not work because the condition of the park was not suitable or conducive to providing books in that way. Why? Because of the ever present drinkers and sleepers in the park, who, when half out of their liquor induced stupors would direct insulting remarks at anyone who might pause to look at the books.

Since the Library did not have custody or control of the park, and since the City’s efforts to rid the park of the bums was sporadic and ineffective, the Library had no recourse other than to cease its efforts to reach a reading public in the park. In addition the physical condition of the park was also not conducive or inviting as a reading environment. The City’s maintenance of the park was not of the best. At the time, there was poorly kept grass on either side of a cracked concrete walkway and some rarely trimmed ugly looking shrubbery. The only seating available were benches, with wood slats that formed the seats and backs superimposed over concrete end bases. From time to time the City would give the wood parts a coat of dark green paint. All in all, the park made a very uninviting place in which anyone might want to tarry for any length of time. Mr. Klementowicz continued his objections to either giving or leasing the park to the Library. We were for the time being at a standstill in our efforts to get the park, that is, until we enlisted the aid of Mayor Anthony Celebrezze. Anthony Celebrezze was the brother of Frank Celebrezze, who as The city’s Safety Director helped me with the hoodlum problem at the Woodland Branch Library in 1941. This time because of the good offices of Mayor Celebrezze, our request was well received. City Council approved leasing the park to the Library for a dollar a year, with the option to renew every ten years and the understanding that the Library would maintain it as an outdoor reading garden in perpetuity.