03/03/2026
Ninety Years In Kamm’s Corner: Remembering West Park with Vincent “Binky” Birt
This is the second interview in an ongoing oral history project focused on people who grew up
and lived in West Park, the far west neighborhood of Cleveland. The plan is to interview and
share their stories on a monthly basis. All audio recordings, transcripts and notes will then be
secured in an online account for future use by the West Park Historical Society.
Vincent Birt was born October 3,1935 at the old St. Alexis Hospital in the slavic village section
of Cleveland, becoming the sixth of eight children to John and Josephine. The family lived in a
two story house on West 159th St., off of Munn Rd. which his father, a Cleveland fireman,
helped build in 1925.
You’d think giving birth and raising eight children, four boys and four girls, would be enough
but Josephine Sievers Birt was an amazing woman who left her own mark on Cleveland. Her
résumé included work as a company branch manager, an uncommon profession for a woman
at the time, and a member of the Ohio Poetry Society. She also painted, created pottery, wrote
music, and co-authored Cleveland history books. Vincent framed her as “before her time”,
clearly a renaissance woman.
Most everyone in West Park knows Vincent as “Binky” his nickname. As a youngster Binky
fondly recalls walks up to Kamm’s Corner where there was a choice of five grocery stores.
Was there an allegiance to one, I asked him. “Whoever had the best sales”, came his reply.
Errands were often coordinated through barter and shared ration cards, due to the war.
Binky watched his oldest brother ship off World War II, working on a submarine. In fact his
other two brothers also joined the military in the conflicts that followed, Korea and Vietnam. A
bum knee kept Binky stateside.
Time spent roaming the Tyler Estate on the edge of the valley, where their farmland extended
down into what became the Metroparks, is still fresh in his mind. He and his friends would pick
and devour fruit until their bellies were full.
Our Lady of Angels parish life was a big part of Binky’s world. He attended grade school there,
except for third grade when a certain lay teacher drove him to George Washington Elementary.
“She was so mean”, he exclaimed, “a school friend of mine has a stutter to this day because of
her”. In fourth grade it was back to his beloved OLA.
In his adult years Binky began coaching CYO basketball at Our Lady of Angels,
something he continued for 37 years, becoming a true fixture of the community.
Binky had intentions of going to Benedictine for high school when he got word of a new
Catholic boys school opening in Lakewood, St. Edward’s. The shorter commute was enough
incentive for him and his parents. There, in a small school house on Robinwood Ave., Birt
became part of the first graduating class of St. Edward High School. Among his inaugural
classmates was Phil Donahue whose friendship went back to OLA.
Birt regaled in memories of taking the trolley all the way from West Park to League Park,
watching the Indians play ball. He loved the trolleys as transportation. Every third car would
make that turn south on Rocky River Drive to St. Patrick’s at Puritas Ave. where the turntable
terminal was located.
The annual Ox Roast, put on by the West Park Kiwanis, began in the early 50s at Commander
Ray’s West Park Chevrolet and Binky looked forward to that event before it eventually moved
to Puritas Springs Amusement Park due to its growing popularity.
Early employment for Binky included washing cars at Corrigan Funeral home, a job he landed
in the eighth grade through his friend Tom Corrigan. It’s where he learned to drive, jockeying
the cars to be washed.
He also worked at a gas station in Lakewood and also bartended when he was old enough.
Birt finally landed on his calling, an electrician. His path into the electrical trade began early.
His uncle on his mother’s side, part of the Sievers family behind Sievers Security, did
installation work that included wiring and Binky often helped him. That early exposure
confirmed his interest.
Later, through a lead his father gave him, he was hired as a helper and eventually entered the
electrical apprenticeship program. His vocation found him in homes, the steel mills,
skyscrapers, and just about every building downtown.
In his final years of employment he was the in-house electrician for the Convention Center,
Public and Music Halls. He boasted of seeing many famous performers and getting his son
into a concert or two.
Binky tells a story from 1996. “I was working second shift at the Convention Center when the
cleaning woman blew a base plug out of the wall, so I was fixing it. This guy comes up and
starts talking to me—about the show, about Cleveland, about the Browns and the Indians. We
talked for fifteen minutes. Then we walked toward the door, and the guy opened a limousine. I
said, ‘You’re him?’ He said, ‘Yes, I am.’ It was Bruce Springsteen. He told the driver he wanted
to stop and sign autographs for fans. He was just wearing a T-shirt and jeans—I thought he
was a roadie.”
In 1963 Binky got married to Karen, still by his side today. They raised four children, two boys
and two girls, in West Park, later welcoming grandchildren and great-grandchildren. His family
is the greatest accomplishment in his long life. He and Karen still live in the same family home
in Kamm’s Corner.
As Binky looks back at his nine plus decades here in West Park he sees a few factors which
had great but negative impact on the neighborhood. These include television, the loss of the
streetcars and their social aspect, as well as the abandonment of front porch living, giving way
to fenced-in and secluded backyards.
“Television changed everything. People stayed in the house. Then people went to the
backyard. That was it. You didn’t see your neighbors anymore. You didn’t know who your
neighbors were,” Binky lamented.
What has endured in West Park, according to Birt, is clean streets, cared-for homes and a
shared pride as something quietly enforced.
“We were fortunate to live here.”, concluded Binky.
Stories like this matter. They not only teach us about the past but guide us forward, instilling in
us that sense of pride and wishing to carry on that tradition.
