Charles Merzian Oral History Interview

Armenian, Granite City, immigration, Lincoln Place, sports

Merzian, Charles, “Charles Merzian Oral History Interview,” Madison Historical, accessed December 22, 2024, https://madison-historical.siue.edu/archive/items/show/866.

The content of Madison Historical: The Online Encyclopedia and Digital Archive is publicly available for use in research, teaching, and private study. Encyclopedia articles, oral histories, web design, and other content original to Madison Historical are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images in encyclopedia articles not part of the digital archive are either in the public domain or Madison Historical received use permission by the original creators. While in most cases Madison Historical received permission to publish archive items from the institution or individual who possessed the item, it has not determined their copyright status. Please contact the possessing institution or individual for additional information regarding copyright status.

This oral history interview with Charles Merzian was part of oral histories conducted in the fall 2001 semester of History 447: Oral History.

Mr. Charles Merzian is a second generation American. His father emigrated from Armenia in 1910, and his mother emigrated from Armenia shortly later. They were married in 1925 and became naturalized American citizens in 1945 and 1946 respectively. They had two children, Charles (born in 1928) and Nell (born in 1933). In this interview, Mr. Merzian describes life while growing up in Lincoln Place in two primary locations for socialization, the community center (the clubhouse) and Sim’s place (later honored as Sim’s college), and how they impacted the lives of virtually everyone living at Lincoln Place. Mr. Merzian stresses that the multi-ethnic relationships established when growing up were a definite asset in preparing him for his working career.

• Louisa H. Bowen University Archives and Special Collections

Fall 2001 Granite City Oral History Interviews

• Lincoln Place
• Granite City

Merzian, Charles

November 1, 2001

• Granite City
• Lincoln Place

English

• Oral History

• mp3
• pdf

• 01:16:48

Tedrick, John W.

Merzian, Charles

Lincoln Place, Granite City, Illinois

256 kbit/s
250 kbit/s

• Lincoln Place
• Granite City, Illinois

• Merzian_Charles-O-001