• Coronavirus in Hungary
  • Budapest
  • Hungary border control
  • HelloMagyar
EnglishFrenchGermanSpanish
EnglishFrenchGermanSpanish
The story of Buckeye Road aka ‘Little Budapest’ in Ohio State – PHOTOSThe story of Buckeye Road aka ‘Little Budapest’ in Ohio State – PHOTOSThe story of Buckeye Road aka ‘Little Budapest’ in Ohio State – PHOTOSThe story of Buckeye Road aka ‘Little Budapest’ in Ohio State – PHOTOS
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Society
  • Sport
  • Culture
  • Special Hungary
  • News To Go
  • World
  • Contact Us
  • About us
  • About us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
✕
Breaking News
Support us
Eleonora Jobst Eleonora Jobst · 29/05/2022
· Special Hungary

The story of Buckeye Road aka ‘Little Budapest’ in Ohio State – PHOTOS

History Hungarian history Hungarians abroad Hungary United States

Back in the day, Cleveland’s Buckeye Road was considered a unique phenomenon as this Ohio State city had the largest concentration of Hungarians in the world outside of Budapest. It was deservingly called ‘Little Debrecen’ or ‘Little Budapest’ but in fact, the neighbourhood exceeded that description. At its golden age in the ‘20s, it used to count more than 40,000 Hungarian immigrants who went there to build a new home 5,000 miles away from their motherland in memory of the thousands of towns and villages they could never return to. Read on to learn about the fascinating story of the once flourishing Buckeye Road Hungarian community!

The story of Buckeye Road - the Little Budapest in Ohio State

Source: Buckeye Road Cleveland Ohio Facebook Group

According to the source of the Cleveland State University, the first Hungarian immigrants set foot on Buckeye Road in the 1880s, however, the local Hungarian community remained a transient neighbourhood of only a few hundred residents until the 1920s. The two World Wars and the Trianon Treaty brought dramatic political changes and economic hardships for the people of Hungary, and as a response, large masses fled their country in a bid to build a new life overseas. In the early 1930s, the neighbourhood witnessed the biggest expansion of the immigrant community, an increasing number of Hungarian residents purchased homes, and, dismayed by the historical outcomes, went through the naturalization process to become American citizens. Hungarians constituted 18 percent of the region’s foreign-born population. Hungarian businesses soon dominated the entire span of Buckeye Road: around East 79th Street and Holton Avenue, on lower Buckeye from East 79th to Woodhill and Upper Buckeye from East Blvd. to East 130th Street. 

The story of Buckeye Road - the Little Budapest in Ohio State 3

Hungarian and Slovak butchers serving the Buckeye Road community
Source: Karen Bartko Reming

The heritage and customs of the old-timers were cherished and preserved within the community. Children were taught Hungarian, and businesses and services were provided by fellow immigrants who shared the same mother tongue. Travelling vendors were compelled to learn some basic Hungarian so that they could sell their produce to the locals. People living on Buckeye Road formed a dynamic ethnic entity. Seven churches and three synagogues served the religious community, while eight clubhouses owned by Hungarian organisations frequently held events such as grape harvest festivals, bazaars, card parties, New Year’s Eve dances, theatre plays, picnics, banquets and traditional Hungarian weddings. Six Hungarian newspapers delivered the news to the residents of Buckeye Road. On Sundays, older children could go to the movies unsupervised to watch the latest Hungarian movies. Gypsy bands travelling in wagons and serenading to the people on the street were also common sights. The most prominent social gala of the neighbourhood, the annual ‘Night in Budapest’ was first organised in the 1950s and hosted such big names as Zsa Zsa Gabor and Kurt Kasznar. 

The story of Buckeye Road - the Little Budapest in Ohio State 2

Hungarian advertisement in a local newspaper
Source: Buckeye Road Cleveland Ohio Facebook Group

Read more: Discover the famous Hungarian places in New York City! – PHOTOS

The decline of the neighborhood began early during WWI when most Hungarians who were not U.S. citizens were classified as ‘enemy outcasts” and experienced open hostility directed against them. In response to increasing anti-immigrant sentiments, the community devoted time and energy to affirming loyalty to the United States by forming patriot leagues and promoting Americanization. The Roman Catholic Church also played a role in the latter by discontinuing the Hungarian language classes during regular school hours. The Americanization propaganda ridiculed and tried to eliminate the centuries-old traditions, heritage and mannarism of the Hungarian immigrants. The program aimed to force the residents of Buckeye Road to adopt the mainstream American lifestyle at an accelerated pace. Second-generation immigrants also realised that if they wanted to land positions of influence or well-paying jobs, they have to ditch their heritage, Americanize their names and conform to the local culture. The language barrier also posed a significant issue; the newly arrived Hungarians were often subject to exploitation for not being aware of the local labor rights. According to clevelandmemory.org, child labour was not unheard of either, and funerals were frequent events in the Hungarian labour community. Young girls who worked in cigar factories, for instance, often contracted tuberculosis by the time they turned eighteen.

The story of Buckeye Road aka 'Little Budapest' in Ohio State - PHOTOS

A fragment of the former Takach Tavern (right) owned by local Hungarians
Source: Jim Ivan

During the Depression, nearly fifty percent of Hungarian male workers were unemployed while women become the breadwinners earning $2 a day for house cleaning and doing the laundry. The dire economic situation put a great strain on the residents of Buckeye Road who began slowly migrating to other states in the hope of finding better opportunities. Today, the neighbourhood has changed to almost entirely African-American, and only a dozen of the original Hungarian residents remained. Sadly, with the urbanisation, the sense of community has faded away, but elderly locals still reminisce fondly of the former Little Budapest, the most Hungarian city in the States.

Read more: Hungarian Houses in the USA

Source: pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu, clevelandmemory.org

History Hungarian history Hungarians abroad Hungary United States
Share
Eleonora Jobst
Eleonora Jobst

1 Comment

  1. M T says:
    29/05/2022 at 20:49

    It’s not the urbanization that weakened ethnic communities in the US, it was white flight and suburbanization after World War II when mortgage programs were made available only to white veterans.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

SUPPORT US

Subscribe to our newsletter

Sign up to receive daily updates, news & stories about Hungary!

Select your location below or enter your country so we can deliver our morning newsletters to you in time.


Thank you!

You have successfully joined our subscriber list.


.

Latest news
  • Hungarians living in Ukraine in danger? Anti-Hungarian mood, enforced military conscriptions, atrocities
  • Orbán government moves away from Budapest
  • PHOTOS: Construction of the New National Gallery in Budapest can start soon
  • ‘Brussels bureaucracy’ attacking Hungary for political reasons?
  • Hungary’s trade expected to be record-breaking in 2023 with this small country
  • PHOTOS: Extreme cold to come next week in Hungary, snow, frost covers the country
  • Diplomatic conflict between the USA and Hungary worsened: Orbán helps Putin redraw Europe’s map?
  • Hungarians think Ukraine should end the war even if it loses territories

About us

Contact us

Copyright rules

© 2023 DailyNewsHungary. All rights reserved! | Server and development by Svigelj Levente E.V