The history of Cudell is littered with brand names and products that local manufacturers produced for American companies in the past century-Winton autos, White Sewing machines, and the Parish & Bingham Co., later to become Midland Steel.
Cudell is bounded by W. 85th Street on the east, W. 117th St. on the west, Lorain ave. on the south, and Detroit ave. and Berea rd. on the north.
In 1902 Alexander Winton moved his car factory from Belden and Mason streets to 10601 Berea Rd. In 1898 the Winton Motor Carriage Co. had become the first company to sell an American-made gasoline automobile. The car sold for $1,000.
In 1902, the Winton motor Carriage Co. employed 700 people and had a branch office in New York. By 1903, employment had grown to 1,500, and a year later there were branches in England and London, with offices in Honolulu and Toronto added in 1905.
In 1915, the company became the Winton Motor Car Co., and then the next year 2,450 vehicles were produced.
As early as 1910, the firm had produced 18 models. Because of the depression of the 1920s and a saturated market for luxury cars, the company produced only 690 cars in 1922.
On Feb.11, 1924, the Winton Motor Car Co. stopped producing cars forced out of business by competitors such as Henry Ford, who produced a less expensive car that was more affordable and easier to mass produce.
In 1949, White Sewing Machine moved to 11770 Berea Rd. The firm had begun as Thomas H. White's White Mfg. Co. in 1866, the name changed to White Sewing Machine Co. 10 years later.
The firm's orginal site was a five-story factory on Canal St. in the flats, where the company had 600 employees and produced a sewing machine every four minutes.
At the Berea rd. location, the firm produced 2,000 machines a day because of straight-line production at teh site.
Although production was increased, White neglected to improve his product. In 1924, White had a contract to supply Sears, Roebuck & Co. with their sewing machines. White Sewing machine Co. also bought out competitors, including the Theodore Kundtz Co., the King Sewing Machine Co. and the Domestic Sewing machine Co..
Since White Sewing Machine Co. didn't give Sears, Roebuck & Co. better quality sewing machines after buying-out their competitors, Sears, Roebuck & Co. bought from Japanese companies in 1956.
In 1954, White averaged around $20 million a year, and 40% of the firm's revenue was from Sears, Roebuck & Co. After re-structuring in 1956, White imported sewing machines made aboroad and became Sears' second largest importer.
White Sewing Machine Co. diversified in 1956 and bought small appliance companies, including Standard Sewing (1965), the Hupp Corp. (1967), the Kelvintor Appliance Div. of American Motors (1968), and the appliance division of Westinghouse (1975).
The company's name was changed to White Consolidated Industries in 1964, reflecting its holdings of machinery, tools, household appliances, and valves.
White Consoldiated purchased numerous other major appliance competitors during the 1970s, including Philco, the Ford appliance division in 1977 and Frigidaire from General Motors in 1979.
In 1985, White Consolidated Industries had three divisions. The Home products divison manufactured name brands such as Frigidaire, White-Westinghouse, and Hamilton. A machine and metal-casting division made graphic-arts machinery, and machine tools and products for the steel industry. A general construction, industrial, and equipment division produced industrial refigeration, chemical-processing machinery and other products.
From it's Berea rd. headquaters, White Consolidated operated in 22 states, the Far East, Canada, Europe, and Mexico. The firm employed 23,000.
White Consolidated made more than $2 billion per year from 1975-1985, when it merged with AB Electrolux of Sweden.
Midland Steel, another major manufacturer on Berea Road in Cudell, began as the Parish & Bingham Co. in 1894.
The company produced trolley, wagon, and bicycle parts. The company made automobile frames with the introduction of the car. Today Midland Steel makes heavy duty frames for trucks, busses, and tractors.
In 1923 Parish & Bingham, a Detroit Pressed Steel Co. was merged into the Midland Steel Prods. Co. by Elroy J. Kulas.
Midland Steel had two Cleveland plants taht rapidly became the largest manufacturer of automobile frames.
According to the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, Midland manufactured jeep and truck frames and parts for shells and tanks during World War II.
When Midland Steel Co. merged with J. O. Ross Engineering Co. in 1957, the firm became Midland-Ross Co.
Midland-Ross was a diversified company with holdings ranging from industrial heating and steel to aerospace and electronics.
In 1981, the firm's international headquaters was in Cleveland on Berea Road.
In 1986, the company was bough by Forstmann Little & Co. for about $450 million, and it was announce that the Cleveland offices would close early in 1987.
The Midland Steel Products Berea Road site was purchased in 1992 by Gerald B. Smith and in 1995, the company was transfered to Iochpe-Maxion Ohio, Inc. Dairymens Milk Co. at 3068 W. 106 St. is also part of Cudell's Berea Rd. history. Oberlin Farms/Dairymens was founded in 1923 with a horsedrawn wagon. Orginally called L. Dzurec Dairy and located on Dowd Street in Lakewood, Ohio, the dairy moved in 1928 to the corner of Lakewood Heights Boulevard and Chesterland Avenue.
To honor the farm community that supplied the milk and to give the dairy a regional image, the name was changed in 1932 to Oberlin Farms. During those days of ice boxes "Milk had to be delivered between 2 a.m. and 8 a.m. in the morning before the heat of the day would warm the milk." Milk sold for ten cents a quart. Oberlin Farms purchased Dairymens Milk Co. in 1972, retaing the site as the company's headquarters. During the 1980s, home delivery of milk ended. The company supplies milk to "retail outlets, health care facilities, schools and institutional accounts."
An unidentified employee said, "The company has grown a lot in the six years I've been there. Its growing inside. There are more employees, more clients, more truck drivers." Company sales have expanded across Ohio into the Pennsylvania border. Milk is supplied from over 300 farms. He continued with, "Dairymens' is a good place to work. They provide on the job training. The pay is good and people can change or trade their days or hours."
Another industrial area resident is the Scott Fetzer Co. world headquarters, located at 1920 West 114th St. and Franklin since 1916. The Scott Fetzer Co. began when in 1914, George H. Scott, the owner of a machine shop in a barn, met Carl S. Fetzer and they formed the Scott and Fetzer Machine Company, producing automotive parts. Later, the companie's name was changed to Scott Fetzer.
During World War I, inventor Jim Kirby was assigned to the Very Flare gun production of manufactuers, Scott and Fetzer. After the war, Kirby showed his version of the vacum cleaner to Scott and Fetzer. With a handshake, Scott and Fetzer agreed to produce the "Vacuette," the first mass produced Kirby vacum cleaner. Which, when introduced in 1919, sold over a million units.
During the 1920s, Scott Fetzer Co. pioneered in-home demonstrations with the vacuette. Through direct sales, again, over a million units were sold.
Kirby did not feel any product was worthy to carry his name until 1935, when the Kirby model C was introduced.
Kirby never worked for Scott Fetzer Co. , nor anyone else. He became a very wealthy man redesigning his vacum cleaner from his home workshop on a 220-acre farm in Westchester, Ohio.
Because of its profits, Scott Fetzer Co. acquired Kirby early in the mid-1960s during its acquisition campaign.
Scott Fetzer is today a private holding Co. of over 200 companies.
World Book Encyclopedias; Campbell Hausfeld air compressors; Wayne burners and water pumps; Douglas Quikut, makers of the Ginsu Knife, and stahl service bodies and industrial components are just a few of the divisions of the Scott Fetzer Co.
"I've really enjoyed my internship at Scott Fetzer," said Melanie Ross, former Kirby newsletter editor. "Scott Fetzer is one of the few places to pay interns, they pay $10.00 an hour and you determine your hours." She continued her praise of Scott Fetzer with, "Boy, are they good to their employees. They treat the employees to Indian games in the company luxury box. They give company picnics at Cedar Point, and company Christmas parties at Stouffer Renaissance Hotel."
Scott Fetzer employs nearly 16,000 people worldwide. And the Kirby Home Care System is distributed in over 40 countries around the globe, with over 15,000 salespeople internationally. Not only was the Cudell neighborhood an area of industry, it was also a neighborhood with one of the earliest facilities for the care of the elderly and the indegent.
The Eliza Jennings Home, still located at 10603 Detroit Rd., began with donations of 7.5 acres and money by Mrs. Eliza Jennings. The home was orginally the Young Women's Christian Association. Its purpose was to care for the poor and terminally ill young women of the city.
The home opened in 1888. Within a year of Mrs. Jennings death on Sep. 25, 1887, the home discontinued its affiliation with the Young Women's Christian Association and was named in honor of Mrs. Jennings.
Today, the home is a retirement community with full-time nursing care for both men and women.
The Cudell heighborhood was named after Frank (Franz) E. Cudell, a Greman immigrant. Cudell came to America in 1866. He was an architect who with his partner, John N. Richardson built many commercial buildings.
They built the Perry-Payne Building at 740 Superior Ave. (188-89), the George Worthington Building at 802 W. St. Clair (1882), and the Root & McBride-Bradley Building on W. 6th St. (1884).
Cudell gave to the city approximately six city blocks located around the Cudell recreation center between W. 98th and W. 100 streets and Detroit and Cudell avenues.
The 1990 Census says that the Cudell neighborhood had 3,988 households; 22,726 families; and 12,005 non-families. The median income was $19,698 for households.
Also within the Cudell neighborhood is the Islamic Center of Cleveland; the Ferris Steak House on Detroit Road; the 100 year old Martin Luther Evengelical Luthern Church on Madison Avenue; and De Lorean Cadillac on W. 117th.
By Joyce Gaddis