Parma, Ohio

Greenbriar (1806–1826)

In 1806, the area that would eventually become Parma and Parma Heights was originally surveyed by Abraham Tappan, a surveyor for the Connecticut Land Company, and was known as Township 6 - Range 13. This designation gave the town its first identity in the Western Reserve. Soon after, Township 6 - Range 13 was commonly referred to as "Greenbriar", supposedly for the rambling bush that grew there. Benajah Fay, his wife Ruth Wilcox Fay, and their ten children, arrivals from Lewis County, New York, were the first settlers in 1816. It was then that Greenbriar, under a newly organized government seat under Brooklyn Township, began attending to its own governmental needs.^[4]

Parma Township (1826–1924)

Self-government started to gain in popularity by the time the new Greenbriar settlement contained twenty householders. However, prior to the establishment of the new township, the name Greenbriar was replaced by the name Parma. This was largely due to Dr. David Long who had recently returned from Italy and "impressed with the grandeur and beauty...was reminded of Parma, Italy and...persuaded the early townspeople that the territory deserved a better name than Greenbriar."^[5]

Thus, on March 7, 1826, a resolution was passed ordering the construction of the new township. It stated,

On the petition of sundry inhabitants for a new township to be organized and erected comprising No. 6 in the 13th Range. Ordered that said Township No. 6 in the 13th Range be set off and erected into a new Township by the name of Parma, to be bounded by the original lines of said Township.^[4]

On the same day, a public notice was issued to qualified electors by the County Commissioners. They met at the Samuel Freeman House on April 3, 1826, to elect township officers according to the law. It was then that the first eleven officers were elected to lead the new government.^[4]

During this time, Parma Township remained largely agricultural. The first schoolhouse was a log structure built on the hill at the northern corner of what is now Parma Heights Cemetery. A memorial plate on a stone marks the spot. In 1827, the township was divided into road districts. The Broadview Road of today was then known as Town Line Road as well as Independence Road. Ridge Road was known then as Center Road as it cut through the center of town. York Road was then known as York Street as arrivals from the state of New York settled there. Pearl Road then had many names which included Medina Wooster Pike, Wooster Pike, the Cleveland Columbus Road, and the Brighton and Parma Plank Road.^[6]

A stone house, built in 1849 and known as the Henninger House, was occupied by several generations of Henningers and is still standing today. The house rests on one of the higher points in Cuyahoga County, which provided visibility for the entire northeastern part of Parma Township. This was also the same site where the Erie Indians, centuries before, stood to read and send fire signals as well as pray to their spirits.^[7]

By 1850, the US census listed Parma Township's population at 1,329.^[8] However, the rising population of the township had slowed over the decades. The Civil War affected Parma much as it did other towns and villages in the nation. Three out of four homes sent a father, sons, or sometimes both, to fight in the war. By 1910, the population of the township had increased to 1,631.^[9]

In 1911, Parma Heights, due to the temperance mood of the day, separated itself from the Parma Township after by a vote of 42 to 32 and was incorporated as a village comprising 4.13 square miles.^[10]

"A main reason for establishing the village of Parma Heights was to get a town marshal...There is one saloon in the territory...some pretty rough crowds Sundays have disturbed the quiet of the neighborhood...wanted it closed on Sundays. To do this they wished a town marshal. They couldn't have a town marshal without becoming a village, so they became one."^[11]

The Village of Parma (1924–1930)

By 1920, the US census showed Parma Township had a population of just 2,345, but the following decade proved to be a time of significant growth and development for Parma. It was in the 1920s that Parma Township transformed from a farming community into a village. On December 15, 1924, Parma was incorporated as a village.

The largest and fastest growing development of that time was H. A. Stahl's Ridgewood Gardens development, which started in 1919, continued through the 1920s, and into the 1930s.^[12][13] A resident of Shaker Heights, Ohio's first Garden City, H. A. Stahl developed Ridgewood as an ambitious "model village" project patterned along the lines of and rivaling the earlier Shaker Heights project with "churches, schools, motion picture theater, community house, and other features forming a part of all well-developed residence communities".^[14][15] Ridgewood was designed and marketed as a Garden City on 1,000 acres of land to accommodate about 40,000 residents "325 feet above Lake Erie, in the healthiest section of the South Side, free from the smoke of industries, or the congestion and noises of sections nearer the Public Square."^[16][17]

The City of Parma (1931–present)

On January 1, 1931, Parma became a city with a population of 13,899. Whereas the incorporation of the village of Parma was met with much optimism, the newly established city of Parma faced the uncertainty of the Great Depression which had almost entirely stopped its growth.^[18] Money was scarce, tax income was limited, and some began to talk of annexation of both the city and school district to Cleveland. Both annexation issues, however, were soundly defeated as Parma voters overwhelmingly voted against them and silenced proponents of annexation.^[19] Not long after this, Parma was once again solvent due in large part to the newly created Gallagher Act, a 1936 Ohio law that aided cities threatened with bankruptcy^[20] and the determination of Parma's Auditor, Sam Nowlin.^[21] By 1941, a building boom appeared to be underway in Parma just as the United States was about to enter World War II.^[22]

After World War II, Parma once again began to experience tremendous growth as young families began moving from Cleveland into the suburbs. Between 1950 and 1960, Parma's population soared from 28,897 to 82,845. By 1956, Parma was unchallenged as the fastest growing city in the United States.^[23] The population peaked in 1970 at 100,216.^[24]

In 2016, Parma's population had declined to 81,601, though it remains one of the Cleveland area's top three destinations young adults (aged 22 to 34) are increasingly choosing as a place to live, along with Lakewood and downtown Cleveland^[25] and in 2016 was recognized by Businessweek as one of the best places to raise kids in Ohio.^[26]

Surrounding communities

Parma is bounded by Cleveland and Brooklyn on the north, Brooklyn Heights, and Seven Hills on the east, North Royalton and Broadview Heights on the south, and Brook Park, Middleburg Heights, and Parma Heights on the west.

2020 census

According to the 2020 United States census, Parma had a population of 81,146. Of which, 82.3% were non-Hispanic White, 6.8% were Hispanic/Latino, 4.0% were non-Hispanic Black, 2.5% were Asian, 4.4% were mixed or other.^[33]

2010 census

As of the 2010 United States Census,^[37] there were 81,601 people, 34,489 households, and 21,646 families residing in the city. The population density was 4,076.0 inhabitants per square mile (1,573.8/km²). There were 36,608 housing units at an average density of 1,828.6 per square mile (706.0/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 93.0% White, 2.3% African American, 0.2% Native American, 1.9% Asian, 1.0% from other races, and 1.6% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.6% of the population. According to the 2010 census,^[38][39] 22.5% were of German ancestry, 17.6% Polish, 14.8% Italian, 13.8% Irish, 7.4% Slovak, 6.7% English, 5.3% Ukrainian, 2.6% French, 2.2% Serbian, 1.9% Czech, 1.4% Arab, and 1.2% of Croatian, Lithuanian, or Russian ancestries. In regard to languages spoken, 87.03% spoke English, 2.26% Ukrainian, 1.68% Polish, 1.27% Spanish, 1.24% German, and 1.18% Italian as their first language.^[40]

There were 34,489 households, of which 27.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 45.7% were married couples living together, 12.4% had a female householder with no husband present, 4.6% had a male householder with no wife present, and 37.2% were non-families. 31.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.34 and the average family size was 2.95.

The median age in the city was 41.5 years. 20.4% of residents were under the age of 18; 8.5% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 25.7% were from 25 to 44; 27.7% were from 45 to 64; and 17.7% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 48.1% male and 51.9% female.

Income

The median income for a household in the city was $50,198, the median income for a family was $60,696 and the mean income for a family was $68,828. The per capita income for the city was $25,064. The poverty rate in the city was 10.2%. This was low in comparison to other large Ohio cities as well as the state's individual poverty rate of 15.4%.^[41][42]

Safety

In 2014, Parma ranked as the third safest city in the United States with a population of 25,000 or more by Neighborhood Scout.^[43] In 2014, Parma had a crime index of 90 meaning it was safer than 90% of cities in the United States.^[44]

Moon Over Parma

In the late 1980s, Bob McGuire penned a song entitled "Moon Over Parma", about an eccentric courtship that traverses the various suburbs of Cleveland. The song first received wide exposure on Big Chuck and Lil' John during its "New Talent Time" segment. Though McGuire was given the shepherd's crook, McGuire's song was offered for free, in the form of sheet music, to those who wrote to the show requesting a copy.^[64]

The Drew Carey Show’s opening credits of its first season consisted of a caricature of Drew Carey — consisting of his face and a yellow tie — singing "Moon Over Parma" with an abridgment and some minor lyrical changes.^[65]

Parma Place

Occasionally, during the 1960s and 1970s, Parma was the target of light-hearted jabs by local movie show hosts Ghoulardi, Hoolihan, Big Chuck and Lil’ John, and The Ghoul, due to its central European image promoted by the friendly rivalry between Ernie "Ghoulardi" Anderson and "Big Chuck" Schodowski and contrary to actual demographics. Ghoulardi, the horror host of late night Shock Theater at WJW-TV, Channel 8, in Cleveland from January 13, 1963, through December 16, 1966, made a series of shorts called "Parma Place" and focused on an alleged love of white socks, pink flamingos, chrome balls, kielbasa, pierogi and the polka.^[66]

Novak v. City of Parma

In March 2016, Anthony Novak, a resident of Parma, created a parody Facebook page superficially resembling the local police department's official page, with outlandish, satirical posts easily distinguished from actual police public-affairs content.^[67] Despite the page being voluntarily removed after 12 hours, the Parma Police subsequently obtained warrants and raided Novak's apartment in the middle of the night three weeks later, seizing electronic devices belonging Novak and his roommate, and arresting and jailing Novak for four days until he could make bail. Novak was charged with felony disruption of police operations, but was acquitted at trial; a subsequent lawsuit against the police for civil rights violations was rebuffed by the Sixth Circuit, citing qualified immunity.^[68] Novak's appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court garnered legal briefs from the ACLU and Cato Institute, but gained notoriety because of a supporting brief filed by satirical website The Onion.^[69]