Founded in 2006, the West Side Detroit Polish American Historical Society (WSDPAHS), is one of the newest Polish American organizations in Metropolitan Detroit.
The Society, as we read on its website, is dedicated to the preservation, dissemination and publication of Polish and Polish American history and culture, specifically as it pertains to the immigrants who settled on Detroit’s west side and the neighborhoods they built (Our Mission, https://www.detroitpolonia.org/about/).
The Society was founded by Laurie Gomulka Palazzolo, who after 20 years of leading it, is stepping down on August 15th.
For many years Laurie has been researching and documenting Polish American history. We find out how this started from a short interview she gave in 2019: With me, my interest really peaked when my dad passed away. He had his own polka band for many, many years. And when he passed away in 1998, he had this sort of sense, this feeling, that nobody was going to care and nobody was going to remember anything that he had accomplished in his life. *
Laurie’s father, Ted Gomulka (1919-1998), was a famous Polish American musician, a trumpeter and band leader who recorded with Decca Records, and regularly appeared on radio and television. Five years after his death Laurie published Horn Man: The Polish-American Musician in Twentieth-Century Detroit (2003) and authored the video Dom Polski: Dance Hall days of Detroit’s Polonia (2003). The titular “horn man” is her father, to whom Laurie dedicated the book.
While conducting the research for Horn Man Laurie interviewed many Polish American musicians, among them a virtuoso accordionist Staś Wiśniach.
And this led to the inception of the West Side Detroit Polish American Historical Society.
In a letter recently sent to the WSDPAHS Board of Directors, announcing her resignation, Laurie writes: In the spring of 2001, I traveled to LaQuinta, California, to interview Staś Wiśniach, our founding president and my father’s childhood friend and musician colleague. I referred to him as my godfather, as I remembered him and his wife coming to our house when I was young, and my dad worked in his Detroit music studio as an instructor. The LaQuinta visit resulted in the Society’s birth.
All of Staś’s musician friends thought that he had died a long time ago, but something inside me wouldn’t let go of the feeling that he was alive. He was longing to relocate to Detroit, and so, even though he was disabled, I moved him to his own apartment in Farmington. Although he had to undergo spinal surgery in California prior to his relocation, he performed for the opening of the Detroit 300 “Polish Presence in Detroit” exhibit on Friday evening, October 12, in Strohm Hall of the Detroit Public Library, and at a subsequent Detroit 300 engagement on Saturday, November 10. I facilitated his making these performances although he was in a rehab facility in Farmington Hills.
Staś’s dying wish was that we form the Society, and so from June 2002 through January 2007 when Staś died, I became not only his caregiver, but also his instrument, along with the accordion. Nearly every day, I drove him through the streets of our west side Polish neighborhoods, loading his wheelchair into the trunk of my car. He dictated as I recorded notes and took photographs, documenting the history of our west side. We met Adam Lis along the way, and St. Hedwig Catholic Church became our first headquarters.
Almost across from St. Hedwig Catholic Church, located at 3426 Junction, is West Side Detroit Dom Polski, which for many years served as a social and cultural hub for Detroit’s west side Polish neighborhoods. Putting this historical building on the National Register of Historic Places (completed in 2006) was one of the Society’s early accomplishments.
For over 20 years Laurie served as the WSDPAHS Vice President and Executive Director/Secretary. Under her leadership the WSDPAHS has become a solid brand, with a very informative website, a Heritage Room located at St. Collette Church in Livonia, a regularly published newsletter (written and sent out by Laurie) and annual emblematic events, such as “Opłatek”, “Święconka” and “Wypominki”.
Mural by Dennis Orlowski at the WSDPAHS Heritage Room
During the “Opłatek”, held at the beginning of January, the Society recognizes organizations, individuals as well as buildings important to Polish American culture. “Wypominki”, on the other hand, is a prayer service, held at a cemetery around All Saints Day, during which attendees remember their departed by naming them aloud, and the Society honors people – often veterans – buried at that specific cemetery by lighting candles on their graves.
Last year the Society held its 17th “Wypominki” at the Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Southfield and visited the Felician Sisters’ monument where 495 Felician nuns have been buried since 1924. This January during the 19th Opłatek the Society honored Ford Motor Company for their restoration efforts of the Michigan Central. Also, after the event, in celebration of the WSDPAHS’s 20th anniversary members were invited to participate in creating a special commemorative memory quilt.
Especially valuable for the preservation of the Detroit West Side history are articles, oral interviews and documented significant sites, all of them easily accessible from the WSDPAHS website. They constitute a significant contribution to Polish American history and Laurie Gomulka Palazzolo was the person who for years created them with knowledge, passion and commitment. While the WSDPAHS has had three presidents over the years (they were Staś Wisniach, Adam Lis and the current president, Reverend Gary Michalik), and quite a few people served on its board of directors, it was Laurie who was not only the organization’s driving force, but also took care of business, day in and day out, completing the tasks which in other organizations are usually done by a few people.
No less importantly, during the 20 years of Society’s operation a community of past and present residents of the West Side was created.
Laurie did so much for the Society, that her upcoming departure certainly creates a pivotal moment for the WSDPAHS. How much the Society will change remains to be seen. The WSDPAHS Board of Directors, led by Reverend Gary Michalik have been discussing the organization’s future for a few months.
While everybody on the Board laments Laurie’s exit, they are also optimistic about the Society’s future and ready to take on new challenges. The Board has just come up with a first step toward a possible reorganization and is holding an “Event planning meeting” on September 1, at 7 pm at the St. Collette’s Parish Activity Center in Livonia. All WSDPAHS members are invited to attend. As we read in the invitation, “the WSDPAHS Board is seeking to expand the role of our members within the Society so the WSDPAHS can continue to flourish and fulfill its mission”.
In her resignation letter, Laurie also wrote: Moving on is bittersweet, but I leave knowing that the Society is well cared for and with my best wishes for those to whom I entrust its legacy.
We would like to express our deep gratitude to Laurie Gomulka Palazzolo for her many years of exceptional and exemplary service to Polonia. She leaves behind an impressive legacy and big shoes to fill. We hope that although not at the helm of the WSDPAHS anymore, she will continue her passion of documenting the history of West Side Polonia. We are looking forward to her new projects, as well as to the start of a new chapter for the WSDPAHS.
Sources:
*Interview during the “Wigilia” hosted by the WSU Polish Culture Club in 2019, and filmed by Detroit PBS.
https://www.detroitpbs.org/news-media/one-detroit/wigilia-polish-christmas-eve/
https://www.detroitpolonia.org/west-side-dom-polski/
