Italian Immigrants Gave Rise to Cleveland’s Iconic Guardians of Traffic


The scalpellini, a group of elite Italian sculptors who date back to Ancient Rome, were recruited to carve what would become Cleveland, Ohio's most talked about landmarks: the Guardians of Traffic.

By Pamela Dorazio Dean, The Italian American Museum of Cleveland

Cleveland’s Major League Baseball team completed their last season as the Indians on October 3, 2021.

The club is now called the Cleveland Guardians, and the new name pays homage to four, two-sided sculptures known as the “Guardians of Traffic,” which stand prominently on the city’s Hope Memorial Bridge.

Once known as the Lorain-Carnegie Bridge, it connects the two major roads over the Cuyahoga River.  Discussions to construct a bridge that would prominently connect Cleveland’s East and West sides began as early as 1911, when Cleveland was a rapidly growing city  In fact, at that time, Cleveland was the sixth largest city in the nation with a population of more than 560,000 people, many of whom were immigrants.

Among the thousands of immigrants who came to Cleveland, about 25,000 were Italians from southern Italy and Sicily. Many took jobs as general laborers or factory workers.  One group of Italian immigrants, however, possessed specialized skills in working with stone and were brought to Cleveland for that reason. These men were called scalpellini.

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Giuseppe Carabelli (1850-1911) is credited for bringing many scalpellini to Cleveland to work for him.  Carabelli was a stone sculptor from Porto Ceresio, Italy who arrived in Cleveland in the 1880s and opened Lake View Granite and Monument Works across from Lake View Cemetery (where John D. Rockefeller is buried).  In need of a home near their workplace, many scalpellini settled in the neighborhood located close to the shop.  This corridor would eventually become known as Cleveland’s Little Italy enclave.

The scalpellini not only found work at Carabelli’s company, they also found jobs with the city and at a number of other firms specializing in stone cutting and carving.  One firm, The Ohio Cut Stone Co., had a location in Amherst, Ohio, where there was a quarry, and a second location in Little Italy on Random Road.  According to Little Italy historian Anthony Gambatese, The Ohio Cut Stone Co. purposely set up shop in Little Italy because they knew there were many scalpellini in the neighborhood that could provide the skilled work they needed.

The building of the Lorain-Carnegie Bridge was delayed for many years due to World War I and a lack of funding.  Construction began shortly after a 1927 bond issue was approved for $8 million to cover the cost (adjusted for inflation, that’s $127 million in today’s money). Walker and Weeks, a local but very prominent architectural firm, was hired to work with the city engineer in designing the bridge to bring an artistic touch to this utilitarian structure.

The architects introduced a number of ideas to create a more artistic appearance for the bridge.  One idea was to include four massive pylons which would contain some sort of sculpture.  Architect Frank Walker conceptualized the sculpture and called them the Guardians of Traffic.  They were designed with an Art Deco flair, described as “classicism with a Modernistic style,” and are said to resemble the Greek god Hermes.  Each Guardian holds a different mode of transportation in his hands (a hay rack, a covered wagon, a stage coach, a passenger automobile, and four types of trucks), representing the evolution of transportation.

Henry Hering (1874-1947), of New York, was contracted as the lead sculptor of the Guardians.  At the time, he was widely respected for his ability to create spectacular architectural sculptures.  The Ohio Cut Stone Co. was hired to obtain the stone and carry out Hering’s carving instructions. Berea sandstone, a locally available and durable stone, would be used for the Guardians. The stone was likely quarried at The Ohio Cut Stone Co.’s location in Amherst and then shipped, by railroad, to the Little Italy location to be carved, after which it would take its final journey to the bridge for placement.

The Lorain-Carnegie Bridge finally opened to traffic in 1932.  People were in awe of the 43-foot-tall Guardians on the bridge.  But not much was said about who created those great works of art, except for noting the architects, Walker and Weeks, and lead sculptor Henry Hering.  Not until the 1983 renovation of the bridge and the Guardians did the crew, who actually worked on them, begin to get some recognition.

Upon reopening of the Lorain-Carnegie Bridge, it was renamed the Hope Memorial Bridge in honor of William Henry Hope, father of the famous comedian and native Clevelander Bob Hope. William was on the crew that helped to create the Guardians.  This led to the names of other crew members coming out.  The crew was nearly all immigrants, including some Irish, German, and British.  But a large number were scalpellini who immigrated to Cleveland from Oratino, Campobasso, Italy.

Oratino has a tradition of stone carving going back to ancient times.  One can find beautiful examples of the work of the scalpellini throughout the paese.  According to www.siviaggia.it, there was a time when many Oratinese families owned a quarry in which father and son would work together to assure that the skills would be passed down through the generations.  The website also claims that the Oratinese scalpellini paved Budapest.

Some of the Oratinese scalpellini who were part of the crew that created the Guardians include: Antonio, Carmen and Gennaro Chiocchio; Anthony and Frank Cipullo; and Anthony, Celestino, Fiorangelo, Gennaro, and Pasquale Fatica. Other members included Louis Cirelli, Sam Gentile, Charles Iafelice, Frank Leonardi, Domenicantonio Mastrangelo, Cosimo Palante, Celestino and Loreto Petti, Peter Salvatore, and Albert and Henry Tirabasso.

In a 1983 article that appeared in The Plain Dealer, a local Cleveland newspaper, Henry Chiocchio, nephew of Gennaro, talked about visiting The Ohio Cut Stone Co. with his dad and uncle at night after supper to see the work done on the Guardians that day.  Henry said, “I was very impressed.  We Italian people are very proud of what we do, especially in working with our hands.”

Come spring of 2022 when the Cleveland Guardians begin to play their first season, Italian Americans can look at the team logo with pride knowing that the skill and artistry that helped to create those towering, unique and iconic statues came from Italian immigrants.

While the scalpellini may not have received the recognition they deserved when the Guardians were first created, they left a lasting legacy that shines a positive light on the contributions Italian immigrants have made not only to Cleveland, but to the whole country.

(Photography courtesy of Cleveland’s Western Reserve Historical Society. Do not repurpose, republish or reprint without express permission from WRHS.)

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