Category: World War 2 – Post War 1940’s

East Ohio Gas Company Explosion

From the Ohio Historical Society

The link is here

On October 20, 1944, a natural gas storage tank at the East Ohio Gas Co. plant in Cleveland, Ohio, exploded. The plant was located north of St. Clair Avenue near East 61st and East 62nd Streets. Although investigators never discovered a cause for the explosion, witnesses stated that a leak in one of the tanks occurred. Some spark must have then ignited the gas, although, with World War II currently raging, some residents initially suspected a German saboteur. This was one of the worst disasters in Cleveland’s history, with 131 people killed. Twenty-one of the victims were never identified.

The explosion occurred at 2:40 PM on a Friday afternoon. The death toll may have been even higher if schools were not still in session, keeping many children away from the heart of the explosion. Numerous homes and businesses were entirely destroyed over several city blocks. To store more natural gas in the tanks, the East Ohio Gas Co. had liquefied the gas. The liquid gas seeped into the city’s sewer system, causing manhole covers to explode into the air and creating a fireball underground that ignited numerous homes and businesses. The fireball supposedly was more than three thousand degrees Fahrenheit in temperature. Soon other storage tanks at the East Ohio Gas Co. exploded. Cleveland residents could see the resulting fireballs from at least seven miles away and the smoke from an even greater distance. As the tanks ignited, windows broke more than one mile away, and the bells of St. Vitus Church began to ring.

Almost one-half of the victims, including the unidentified ones, were buried in Highland Park Cemetery in Cleveland. For the people who survived, most lost everything. The flames destroyed several blocks of homes. Many of these people also had withdrawn their savings from banks during the Great Depression, as numerous banks had failed. The flames destroyed these people’s life savings. As a result of the explosions, the East Ohio Gas Co. began to store its natural gas underground. The company also helped rebuild the community by paying more than three million dollars to neighborhood residents and an additional one-half million dollars to the families of the fifty-five company workers who lost their lives.

The East Ohio Gas Co. continues to operate in the neighborhood, but it is now known as Dominion East Ohio. It operates the largest underground storage facility for natural gas in North America, with much of the gas stored near Canton, Ohio.

Langston Hughes at Karamu House

Excerpt from From Karamu Theater Hall of Fame:

In 1961, Hughes was commissioned (by Karamu) to create a gospel drama for Christmas. He wanted to make African-American gospel music the heart and soul of the drama and based his play, “Wasn’t That A Mighty Day,” on the theme of the Nativity story. The musical later became known as “Black Nativity.”

The literary works of Hughes, a poet, writer and playwright, are studied and discussed in high school classrooms and university lecture halls across the country. Hughes, who attended Cleveland’s Central High School from 1916 to 1920, is one of the most popular and influential writers of the 20th century.

For many years, Hughes was a familiar face at Karamu, where he taught art classes while in high school. He wrote his first play at Karamu, “The Golden Piece,” in 1921. He wrote and debuted several other works at Karamu. Hughes also became a member of the Karamu Players, a theatrical troupe.

Although Hughes traveled the world and moved to New York’s Harlem neighborhood as an adult, he never forgot Cleveland or Karamu. He continued to visit Karamu throughout his life as he sought inspiration for his writings and even penned a poem celebrating his long-time special relationship to Karamu founders, Russell and Rowena Jelliffe. Karamu’s library is furnished with two large wooden tables engraved with African carvings. The tables were commissioned by Hughes.

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