History

Thanks to Kalia for submitting this great interview.  If you have any neighbors who have lived in any of the neighborhoods covered on PoP please send their recollections to [email protected]  

“I have been fortunate enough to work with an extraordinary woman and friend who I recently discovered was a former resident of Mt. Pleasant. Jean Poholsky was born in 1936 and since then has traveled and lived all over the world in places like East Africa, Ireland, and Australia to name a few. She often shares her fondest memories of living in Mt Pleasant and can recall things like they were yesterday. In 1940 she moved into her first house in Mt. Pleasant, 1948 Irving Street. Her grandmother owned the property which was a house split into two apartments inside the vestibule area. Her neighbors, the Vought’s, were an older couple that had the lower level apartment and her family’s door led them up to the top two floors including the attic (where she once ate a moth ball just to see what it would taste like!) The house was beautiful inside she describes and had a very similar look to the 1.3 mil house featured earlier on PoP’s site under “Let’s Play Good Deal or Not -Fantasy Edition”. (Yes, Jean does like to occasionally check out PoP’s blog!) Jean’s family would live in this house from 1940 to 1946 where she fondly remembers being able to roller skate from 16th street to the Zoo jumping the curbs and cracks in the sidewalks. When it snowed, Irving Street would be closed to traffic and she and the other children would sled down it all day or ice skate on Adam’s Mill Creek. She loved going to Tivoli to see a movie or hopping on the Street Cars to ride to the National Theater to catch a show. Jean says that those were very exciting years for her. Interview continues after the jump. (more…)