Episode 24: Location, Location, Location: The Detroit Shoreway Neighborhood

Many Irish immigrants had been shut out of land ownership in Ireland. They were eager to own a lot and a home in Cleveland, though many could not accomplish property ownership in the span of one generation. However, the most successful of the city’s pre-Famine Irish immigrants were able to do more. As industry took off after the Civil War, families who could afford it--such as brass foundry owner James Farnan--sought property in less congested areas, for instance, along Detroit Avenue, past today’s W. 65th Street. John McCart, another Irish immigrant who bought property in the area in 1860, became a real estate speculator and helped to open up what we now call the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood.