GARFIELD HEIGHTS POLISH NEIGHBORHOOD (est. 1925)

Garfield Heights was originally a part of the larger Newburgh Township. An early settlement of Garfield Heights was in 1854 near Turney and Granger Roads. These settlers were German farmers and they established St. John Lutheran Church.

In 1895 the City of Cleveland purchased land near Mill and Wolf Creeks for the development of a city park outside of the city limits. The following year Newburgh Park was opened to the public. In 1897, the park was renamed Garfield Park, in tribute to President James A. Garfield, a Cleveland native. The park had walking paths, bridges, picnic areas and offered swimming in the summer and ice skating in the winter.

The new park may have been what prompted Louis David Round, proprietor of the Round Chain Company, to build a summer home there in 1900. By 1910, he had made the summer home his permanent residence and with the many acres of land that he had acquired, he decided to get into the real estate business. He began the residential development of the area around Turney Road and Garfield Heights Boulevard. In 1919, the area become known as Garfield Heights Village.

At first, wealthy Polish bankers and businessmen from the Warszawa neighborhood built brick mansions along Garfield Heights Boulevard. Eventually, with the advent of the bus line down Turney Road linking to Harvard and Broadway Avenues, middle class first generation Poles were able to make their homes in Garfield Heights. By 1926, there was a movement to establish a Polish-Catholic congregation. The following year, Bishop Schrembs approved the request and the diocese purchased five acres of land on Turney Road at Dorothy Avenue. SS Peter and Paul Church was therefore established. A small wood frame church was purchased and moved to the site. There were 200 families in the parish when the church was dedicated in January of 1928 and they were predominantly of Polish ethnicity. In 1930, Garfield Heights became a city.