Interview with Benjamin Stanczyk January 23, 2003 MK: This is Marian Krzyzowski and I’m at the home of Judge Benjamin Stanczyk. Judge Stanczyk is living in Detroit on the east side and today is January 23rd 2003. And we’re here to talk about Judge Stanczyk’s memories of the Chene Street neighborhood, and before we do that, though, I’d like to begin first by asking you Judge Stanczyk a little bit about your family. Your parents, their names, where they were from, and how they ended up getting to the neighborhood that you know we’re talking about today, so maybe if you could just begin with names of your mother and father, where they were from. BS: My father was Bruno Stanczyk, central Poland, Zychlin is the town. MK: How is that spelled? BS: Z-Y-C-H-L-I-N. There’s a big sugar factory in Zychlin, still there. MK: Mm-hm. BS: He was a machinist in Poland. Here he became a tool and die maker, of course. My mother was Josephine Tarczynski. She came from a town Skierniewice which is in the same area, it’s between Warsaw and Lodz. My father came to American in 1910 and my mother came in ’14 to join him. My sister was born in Poland in 1908. MK: So they were married in Poland? BS: Yes. MK: And they came where in the United States. BS: Well, my mother’s brother came to Detroit in 1905, and my father came here, according to the Ellis Island records, he came to his brother-in-law, he had $17 and a half in U.S. money and some Russian money in his possession. MK: And he came to Detroit then. BS: Yes. MK: Do you know where they were living at that time? BS: Alexandrine Street. MK: Do you know the address on Alexandrine street? BS: Uh, the old address was like 715 I think. It was in the vicinity of Orleans and Russell. MK: Mm-hm. BS: And my mother came, as I say, in 1914. She arrived in Detroit I think on the 30th of June. MK: With your sister? BS: With my sister. MK: And your sister’s name was? BS: Harriet. MK: Harriet. BS: Jadwiga. MK: Jadwiga, okay. BS: Yes. MK: So they arrived and joined your father on Alexandrine Street. BS: No, by that time my father was living on Milwaukee, just west of Chene. MK: What was the address on Milwaukee? BS: I don’t remember. The addresses changed after the-- MK: Right, the number-- BS: --that 1918 numbering system. MK: Do you know which house it was off of Chene? BS: No, it was--the bank on the corner, a florist next to the alley, and it was the house next to the florist. MK: So it is on the south side of Milwaukee? BS: It was on the south side of Milwaukee just west of Chene. MK: And was it a one-family residence? 2 BS: Oh no no, it was a multi-residence I know it was. MK: Do you know which, were they the upstairs or downstairs? BS: I don’t know that. MK: Okay. BS: I was born there. MK: What year were you born? BS: 1915, April 4th, it was Easter Sunday. MK: Wow, you were born in that house. BS: Yes. MK: And uh-- BS: Part of it was, was a multi-family, I would think 3 or 4 families would, downstairs part of the house was a real estate office, my mother’s brother got into real estate by that time. MK: What was his name? BS: Tarczynski, Stanley Tarczynski. MK: Stanley Tarczynski, okay. And when you, when you were born, what was your father doing? Do you know what he was doing? BS: Yes, he was working at the Packard Factory. Packard was making trucks at that time, heavy-duty trucks, and in addition he was moonlighting by working as the, whatever he was doing, bingo parlors, poker rooms. MK: Mm-hm. BS: And soon thereafter got into the pool room business. MK: When was that, when did he get into the pool room business? BS: I can’t remember when he started. However, I do know that the Revenue Act of 1917 required the proprietor of a bingo parlor to be a U.S. citizen, which he had not become a citizen, so he lost his interest in his business. But by 1920 he was a citizen and got back into the pool room business. 3 MK: So he was in it, kind of got out it, and then got back into it. BS: Yes. MK: I see. And where was the pool room that he was running? BS: That was on Chene and Ferry. The name was Aurora Hall. A-U-R-O-R-A. That’d be on the northwest corner, the first, the first business he had there was on the downstairs level and the owner of the building, Walter Szynkarek, rebuilt the building and he got located upstairs. MK: Mm-hm. BS: He got out of there in I think in about ’25 or ’26. MK: And was that a brick building at that time? Do you know? BS: Yes, MK: It was. BS: Big, heavy, still there. MK: Yeah, it used to be Sandomierski Grocery after a while, I remember that. BS: Yes, I believe so. MK: Okay, so he was downstairs first, moved upstairs, and then he moved out in ’25. BS: Yeah, he sold out, either ’25 or ’26. MK: And where did he move to? BS: He got out. MK: Oh he got out, he got out of the business totally. BS: Yeah, the pool room business was going down, the automobile became an everyday thing and young men didn’t spend their time in bingo parlors by that time. MK: And this whole time you were all living on Milwaukee still? BS: No, we moved from Milwaukee to Dubois Street. I don’t remember what year it was, of course, couldn’t remember. 4 MK: Where on Dubois, where was it on Dubois? BS: Between Frederick and Farnsworth on the west side of the street. The building is still there. MK: On the west side of the street. BS: In the middle of the block. MK: In the middle of the block, and the building ,the house is still there. BS: I’m not sure if it’s still today. MK: Yeah, yeah, and did he buy that or was that a rental also? BS: No, no, my uncle Tarczynski bought that building. MK: Oh, okay. BS: It was a rather big building. There was a store downstairs which they used as an insurance and real estate office. There was an apartment behind it and the upstairs had two apartments which my family occupied all of it. And the interesting thing there was a huge garage which apparently had been built originally as a stable. And above the garage was an apartment which was occupied by by an interesting gentleman, Mr. Sajda. No, I beg your pardon. Gebert, Mr. Gebert. G-E-B-E-R-T. MK: Oh, Boleslaw Gebert? BS: Mr. Gebert was an intellectual of sorts, a liberal. And I was fascinated by his typewriter. Apparently he had several of them and he always smoked a pipe and when I’d come home my mother would say, oh you must have been at Mr. Gebert’s because I can smell your clothes with the tobacco. Mr. Gebert parted this world recently. In his last gainful employment he was Poland’s ambassador to Turkey. MK: What years are we talking about, how old were you when you were living over on Dubois? BS: We moved out of there in May of 1920. I was five years old when we moved out of there. MK: When you moved out of the Dubois house. BS: Yes, on to Chene Street. MK: Okay, so between, so prior to 1920 how long did you live in that Tarczynski house. 5 BS: I don’t know. MK: Mm-hm. And Mr. Gebert stayed there after you moved out, or not? BS: I can’t answer that. MK: Okay. So, it’s 1920 then. So he was there in 1920. BS: I’m not sure. I know he was there while we lived there. Now I can’t tell you the dates. MK: And then when you were five, you moved to where. BS: We moved to 5820 Chene. [The residence became 5818, which was the upstairs apartment for the building. See the 1926-27 Polk Directory – MK] MK: Hmm. BS: That’s between Hendrie and Medbury. MK: Right. And what was that building? BS: Well it was a six room bungalow or cottage-type building and that, Tarczynski owned that building. Four or five years later he moved the building back and put up a modern store type building in the front. MK: Mm-hm. And you were living in that, in the building when he moved it or not? BS: Yes. MK: So how long did you live in that 5820 house? BS: Well moved out of there in January of 1927. My father went into the grocery store business, built a big modern building on Traverse and Erwin. 8600 Traverse. The building is still there. It’s near Harper and Van-Dyke. MK: I know, I know that. I lived a block, I lived on Knodell between Murat and Erwin. I lived, I used to buy baseball cards at that store.