James and Moses Fish of Groton, Connecticut first settled the
neighborhood of Brooklyn Village in 1812. These early settlers
cleared an 80-acre tract of land that was on both sides of present
day Denison Avenue. Soon after, the families Hinckley, Brainard,
Young and Foster arrived. Ebenezer Foster owned a large tract of
land, which would become a large part of Barbarowa
. He was a
farmer and raised horses.
By 1898, much of the Foster land had been subdivided. A development partnership, Petty and Baldwin, had also divided land into residential lots. There were now homes along Denison Avenue (then known as Newburgh Road) and West 15th Street (then known as Gertie Avenue). Leather tanneries and soap and fertilizer industries were established on the west bank of the Cuyahoga River. These industries attracted German immigrants and later, Polish immigrants. The lack of transportation to these factories and necessity of the workers to be able to walk to their jobs led to the further increase of settlement into the nearby residential neighborhood.
By 1900, the area was developing but had more vacant lots than houses and numerous undeveloped streets. The Poles living in the area were dependent on the pastor of St. John Cantius for their religious needs. There was also an increase in the number of independent Catholic churches being formed and a belief that they were luring away the faithful from the Catholic diocese.
It was in this environment that the Polish parish of St.
Barbara's was founded in 1905. The establishment of the church drew
more Poles to the area so that by the late 1920s Polish immigration
had filled the neighborhood that was now called Barbarowa
. The
neighborhood would encompass the area south of Riverside Cemetery,
west of the Cuyahoga River, north of Big Creek and east of West
25th Street.