Seems only yesterday I was elected the first president of a then-rejuvenated Moss Bradley Residents Association.

We decided on the name Moss Bradley because the neighborhood ran from Moss to Bradley. It was only years later did we realize the name had a double meaning since it also related to Lydia Moss Bradley. I still have the watercolor painting of the first flag raising at the flagpole relocated to Moss Ave., gifted from the Dries family and relocated and refurbished by John Hanley and friends. It was July 4, 1973. In the painting by the now departed Dean Howard are the Dries family with the honor guard raising the flag for the first time and in the background are the members of the Klise family.

There were many memorable occasions, one of which was the restoration of the historic street lamps said to be the first electric street lamps in the city.

That was made possible by a pre-election promise by Mayor Dick Carver in his campaign against a formidable opponent, Bruce Brown. Carver’s promise was that if he was successfully re-elected, his first action would be to totally restore the ornamental street lights of Moss Ave. Based on this, I strongly campaigned for him, much to the chagrin of some of my neighbors (his election posters mysteriously kept getting missing from my front yard). True to his word, though, that promise was kept after he successfully won re-election. The lamp posts were taken down, reconditioned, and reset further back from the street so they were no longer hit by traffic.

When I started writing this, my only thought was to congratulate those keeping Moss Bradley such a viable organization, but somehow I got carried away.

Donald Luebbe
First head of rejuvenated Moss Bradley Residents Association, who helped with Historical Zoning and National Historic Districts