A Brief History of Slavic Village, Cleveland

Slavic Village, located on the southeast side of Cleveland, was a primary settlement area of Polish and Czech immigrants in the 1880. The population of the Eastern Europeans who came to work in the woolen and steel mills peaked in the 1920s. This demographic decreased due to mass suburbanization throughout the 1960s. The 1970s saw an attempt to revitalize the neighborhood with the establishment of what is now the non-profit Slavic Village Broadway Development Corporation which seeks to support the community by preserving it’s unique history and character. In 2007, Slavic Village was dramatically affected by the foreclosure crisis. The Slavic Village Garden, part of the Cleveland Botanical Garden, was created in the spring of 2008 out of an abandoned parking lot. The garden seeks to impact the vitality of the neighborhood by educating and providing jobs to youth, while creating healthy, local and affordable food options.