Victoria Park was a picnic grove located along old Route 422 (East Washington Street) about two miles east of the village of Chagrin Falls. Various Black organizations enjoyed picnics, clambakes, and hayrides there in the late 1930s. The park’s origins are obscure, but its selection by the Tuxedo Club for the organization’s annual picnic in 1938 suggests that it was once well-known. The Tuxedo Club was eleven years old at the time. Founded in 1927 by seventeen service workers from Hotel Cleveland (on Public Square) as a social club for men and women, it later expanded to include workers from the nearby U.S. Post Office next to the Cleveland Union Terminal. True to their name, the Tuxedo Club’s male members dressed in tuxedos and top hats for the club’s formal events, but picnics such as this one outside Chagrin Falls provided more casual experiences. Although not listed in the Green Book, Victoria Park’s connection to a club founded by postal workers calls to mind how Victor Green, the guidebooks’ namesake, was himself a postal carrier.
Resources
- “Horseshoe Savings Club.” Call & Post. July 13, 1939.
- “Jr. Debs.” Call & Post. September 7, 1939.
- “On the Avenue.” Call & Post. August 17, 1939.
- “2nd Annual Elk Picnic August 12 at Victoria Park. Call & Post. August 10, 1939.
- “The Tuxedos.” Call & Post. August 18, 1938.
- “Tuxedo Club Celebrates 54th Anniversary.” Call & Post. July 4, 1981.
- “Tuxedo Club Observes Its Golden Anniversary.” Call & Post. July 30, 1977.