HIKA BAY TAVERN AND UNION HOUSE


     Hika Bay Tavern and Union House stands at 252 Lincoln Avenue
in the Village of Cleveland.

     The proprieter of this tavern beginning in 1899 was Hugo
Schurrer. Mr. Schurrer was one of the most colorful personalities
in this area. He was born in Stuttgart, Wurtemburp. Germany    in
1867 and came to the United States as a young man in 1885. tfter
a brief stop-over in Milwaukee he came to Cleveland, which at
that time was just a flagging point on the old Lake Shore railway.
For a time he worked for fifty cents a day making fence posts.
Then he was promoted to a job with the Lake Shore Railroad for
eighty cents a day. He decided to try something a little less
strenuous, and went to work for Peter Hoffmann in his tavern in the
St. Wendel area. After that he operated his own tavern in Cleve-
land for four years, and then moved to Centerville where he
established his tavern business in the building now known as
Hika Bay.


     The building housed a tavern, rooming house, and dance hall.
For a time it also included a barbershop. There were nine rooms
upstairs and three downstairs. Meals were served for fifty cents,
which included all you could eat. Beer in those times sold for
$5.00 a barrel, and good whiskey sold for $1.50 a gallon. The
establishment was known as the Union House.   The rooming house
and meals were discontinued in 1944 "when food was hard to get.'

     Hugo Schurrer had many other activities besides running his
tavern. He was a town constable for thirteen years, a substitute
mail carrier for fourteen years, and town treasurer for two years.
He served on the school board for twenty-eight years, and also