Historic East Bayfront

Recent excavations on the grounds of the Soldiers and Sailors home uncovered evidence that the Eriez Indians inhabited the East Bayfront area for hundreds of years. However, since the tribe had no written language, no history can be traced of their disappearance. Historians assume the tribe was defeated and absorbed by the Seven Nations including the Iroquois and Seneca Indians.

French explorers were the first settlers in the Erie area, building a fort on the prominent bluff overlooking the entrance to the bay, which is now the foot of Parade Street. They called their fortification Fort Presqu Isle. Presque Isle is now the name of the State Park visible from this vantage.

Erie's original neighborhood

In 1759, during the French and Indian War, the French abandoned and burned Fort Presqu Isle to prevent the British and their Indian Allies from capturing it. One year later, the British built a fort approximately one block east of Parade to secure their hold in this frontier area. After the revolutionary war in 1795, the Americans built a fort east of Mill Creek. Around this time, Colonel Seth Reed started the first non-military settlement, using the grounds of the original fort.

The East Bayfront's Rich Ethnic History

While the East Bayfront is most closely associated with the Russian Community, no story about this neighborhood is complete without a discussion of the Italian, Polish, African American and Irish Communities.

Italians settled in an area located around East 3rd, East 4th, and East 5th Streets from Holland to Parade Streets. Families living here originally emigrated from the Calabria and Sicily Regions as well as the Abruzzi Region in Southern Italy. The corner stores once operated by Italian Families: Mannino's, Abate's and Leonetti's are no longer around but remain in the memory of many local residents.

Erie's Irish population was drawn to the East Bayfront in the early 1800's attracted by the plentiful jobs in factories, the fishing industry, shipbuilding and the many barges and ships that traveled Lake Erie. The Irish community established St. Patrick's Church in 1837. While most descendants of the original immigrants have moved out of the neighborhood, they remain faithful to St. Patrick's, returning for services and community events.

The large Polish community in Erie was almost entirely concentrated in the East Bayfront. By the early 1900s, the Polish settlement had grown large enough to open a St. Hedwig's Church at 4th and Wallace Streets. In just a few years this section of the East Bayfront grew from 80 families to 3,000 people by 1920.

Unlike the other ethnic communities, the African American population was not concentrated in one area of the neighborhood. According to Howard Horton who grew up in the East Bayfront, the neighborhood was a comfortable place to grow up for African American children in those days. Despite differences, there was a sense of community and neighborhood amid the challenges resulting from the racial divide present in American society at the time.

Even today, the East Bayfront remains most closely identified with the Russian populations, especially a religious minority from western Russia (now part of Poland). They originally settled here in the 1880s to escape religious persecution. Drawn by the docks along the Bayfront, the population grew so large that the area from East Front to East Sixth Streets, from Holland to Parade, quickly became known as Russian Town.

Today, the docks and jobs along the bayfront and social gathering places like the CYS Club and the Neighborhood House no longer exist; likewise the original Russian community has scattered throughout the Erie area. Yet, the East Bayfront remains the center of both the religious and social life for those who belong to Erie's Russian community. At least four Russian churches in the East Bayfront remain - an important and vital link to a heritage that began over 100 years ago.

Now many new immigrants from Russia, the Ukraine, Bosnia, Kosovo, as well as immigrants from the Middle East and Africa are moving into the East Bayfront to begin a new life.

Source: East Bayfront Neighborhood Action Plan