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The PHILOSOPHICAL CLUB OF CLEVELAND is an exclusive organization whose members convene biweekly for dinner and the reading and discussion of papers on a variety of personal interests but concentrating on the topics of sociology, business and economics, arts and humanities, government, and science.

Pi is a Cleveland-centered chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha, the oldest extant AFRICAN AMERICAN intercollegiate fraternity. For the first few decades of its existence, it was one of the largest and most influential chapters in the fraternity.

PICK-N-PAY. See FIRST NATIONAL SUPERMARKETS.

PICKANDS MATHER & CO., a chief supplier of raw materials to the steel industry and one of 4 major ore houses in the U.S. at one time, had its headquarters in Cleveland. The company started in 1883 when SAMUEL MATHER joined Jay Morse and Col.

PICKER INTL., INC., see MARCONI MEDICAL SYSTEMS, INC.

PIEN, WEI TIEN (10 July 1926 - 2 April 1999) was a leader in Greater Cleveland's CHINESE-American community (See ) and a physician who ran a family medical practice. He was born in Mukden, Manchuria,, in the northeast corner of China, to Xing-Ling (Shao) and Pei-Bing Pien. After graduating from medical school in Mukden in the late 1940s, Dr.

PILGERRUH (or Pilgrim's Rest) was the first organized settlement in the Cleveland area. Located in the Cuyahoga Valley, Pilgerruh was established in Aug. 1786 by Moravian missionaries and their Indian converts. They were led by Rev. John Heckewelder and Rev. David Zeisberger, who had been involved in the settlements of Schoenbrunn (the first organized settlement in Ohio) and Gnadenhutten (both 1772) in the Tuscarawas Valley.

PILGRIM CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH began in 1854 as a Sunday school in the TREMONT neighborhood, which was then called Univ. Hts. The congregation was organized in 1859 as Univ. Hts. Congregational, and a brick church was built in 1865-70 W. 14th St. The church was later known as Heights Congregational (1870s) and Jennings Ave. Congregational (1880s).

The PILSENER BREWING CO., once located at the southwest corner of Clark Ave. and W. 65th St., was established by Bohemian brewer Wenzel Medlin (1849-1912) in 1892 and was incorporated the following year. The corner site of the Pilsener Brewing Co. was once known as Pilsener Square. The name Pilsener comes from the Czech city of Pilsen, where the light Bohemian lager beer was first made.

The PLAIN DEALER was founded as a weekly newspaper on 7 Jan. 1842 by JOSEPH WM. GRAY (1813-62) and became an evening daily on 7 Apr. 1845. Its name was probably inspired by a former Jacksonian paper published in New York. Among its early staff members was CHAS.

The PLAIN PRESS is a neighborhood newspaper serving the near west side since March 1971.

PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF GREATER OHIO, pioneer local provider of FAMILY PLANNING, opened on 21 March 1928 as the independent Maternal Health Assn. (MHA). One of the first 50 such clinics in the U.S.

PLAYHOUSE SQUARE is a district at Euclid Avenue and East 14th Street comprising five theaters as well as office buildings, stores, and restaurants. The possibility of making the portion of Euclid east to 17th Street into a stretch of fine shops and vaudeville, movie, and legitimate theaters was envisioned by Joseph Laronge after World War I.

PLYMOUTH CHURCH OF SHAKER HEIGHTS, formerly known as the Plymouth Congregational Church, began as Free Presbyterian Church in 1850. It was formed by members who objected to First Presbyterian's (Old Stone's) moderate stand on slavery. Two years later it associated with the Congregational Church, and took the name Plymouth Congregational Church at the suggestion of Rev. Henry Ward Beecher 2 years later.

PODOJIL, ANTOINETTE "TONI" (9 Oct. 1911 - 4 Jan. 1998) was a labor leader and lifelong social activist known as a strong advocate for human rights. She was born in Braddock, Pennsylvania to Lucy (Pokrzewicki) and Adam Podowski. The family moved to the southeast side of Cleveland when she was eight.

POETSBANK is a loosely structured organization that sponsors and promotes readings by and of Cleveland poets. It was the brainchild of poet Daniel Thompson, who began sponsoring readings at the County Justice Ctr. in the late 1970s to commemorate the birthdays of Cleveland poets HART CRANE, LANGSTON HUGHES, and d.a.

POINT OF VIEW began as an attempt to explain the causes behind the urban unrest of the 1960s and became Cleveland's foremost example of alternative or advocacy journalism. Although issues were undated for the first few years, the first number appeared in June 1968.

POLES. Poles formed one of Cleveland's largest nationality groups in the 20th century and had an important influence on the city, particularly during its period of heavy industrial growth.

POLICE. See CLEVELAND POLICE DEPARTMENT and PUBLIC SAFETY

The POLICE ATHLETIC LEAGUE (PAL) was founded in 1956 to combat juvenile delinquency by providing Cleveland children from low- to moderate-income families with centers for organized recreational activities.

POLISH DAILY NEWS. See WIADOMOSCI CODZIENNE.

POLISH LEGION OF AMERICAN VETERANS. See JOINT VETERANS COMMISSION.

The POLISH NATIONAL CATHOLIC CHURCH supported 5 parishes in Cleveland, founded between 1910-60. The denomination began in Scranton, PA, in Mar. 1897, when Fr. Francis Hodur (1866-1953) led his new church out of the Roman Catholic church in a dispute over control of local church property. The Polish National Catholic church was established formally in Sept. 1904 at its first synod; by then it had 20,000 members in 5 states.

POLITICS. For most of its history, Cleveland has been governed much like other American cities. A mayor elected at large and a council chosen by wards have usually constituted the formal instruments of administration and legislation, while a multiplicity of private groups have sought to influence the direction of public policy.

POLKAS. American polka music evolved as a hybrid of folk songs and dances brought by European immigrants, with influences from other musical expressions. The term has come to encompass waltzes, schottisches, quicksteps, mazurkas, and other ethnic dances. Cleveland has been called "America's Polka Capital" and was identified with a particular style of polka music that has been widely copied.

POLO is a game of Asiatic origin played by teams of players on horseback using mallets with long flexible handles to drive a wooden ball through the opponent's goal. The sport was popular in the Cleveland area during the 1920s and 1930s. Disrupted by World War II, it was revived in the 1950s by enthusiasts who formed the Cleveland Polo Club.

POLYCLINIC HOSPITAL, located at 6606 Carnegie Ave., was organized in Feb. 1930 on the "Cornell Plan," which provided for maintenance of several small buildings and clinic services outside the main hospital.

POLYONE CORP., a global corporation involved in the production of plastics, was formed in 2000 after a merger between the M. A. Hanna Co. and Avon Lake-based Geon Co. The M. A. Hanna Co. was formerly one of Cleveland's major iron-ore houses, which shifted into the field of polymers in the aftermath of the recession of the early 1980s.

The POOR CLARE (COLETTINE) RELIGIOUS, who live a life of prayer and poverty as decreed by both St. Francis of Assisi and St. Clare, established their first American convent on 10 Aug. 1877 in a former school at McBride and Broadway in Cleveland.

POORHOUSES. See OLD AGE/NURSING HOMES.

The POPULIST PARTY (also known as the People's party), espoused populist causes in Cleveland during the 1890s, including municipal ownership of utilities, better hospital and health facilities, labor representation on the police board, and improved schools. Its predecessor, the Union Labor party, organized by Dr. LOUIS B. TUCKERMAN in Oct.

POREMBA, MICHAEL J. (11 Dec. 1908-2 Aug. 1998) was a stained glass window maker whose masterpiece was the windows he made for the Meyers Chapel in the United Methodist Church of the Saviour in CLEVELAND HEIGHTS. He was born in Cleveland to John Poremba, an assembler, and Mary (Chormy) Poremba.

PORTER, NANCY LYON (9 June 1921-26 Sept. 1996), was a career volunteer and tireless advocate for children, families and the elderly. Born in Hamilton, Ohio, to George Hale and Winifred (Hart) Lyon, she was raised in Cleveland where Mr. Lyon headed a major automobile dealership. Porter earned her B.A. in sociology and psychology from Wheaton College in Norton, MA, in 1943.

POTOCSNY, JULIUS (8 Jun. 1929 - 7 Oct. 2002).

POTTER & MELLEN, INC., one of Cleveland's prominent jewelry stores, was founded in 1900 (sometimes given as 1899) by Horace Potter, a noted jeweler, teacher, designer, and master craftsman.