Until the city informed the couple of the home’s historic status, Jefferson Gray 61, a fan of The Adventures of Superman series starring George Reeves, said he thought Superman had been created in Illinois, where an annual Superman celebration is held in the southern Illinois town of Metropolis.

Since then, the Grays have tried to accommodate the people who have come to see where Superman was created. “We learned to accept that people are going to come knocking,“ Gray said. Among those knocking on the Grays’ door was comics writer and novelist Brad Meltzer (DC‘s Identity Crisis and Justice League of America), who visited two years ago as he was working on his Book of Lies, which focuses in part on the death of Siegel’s father following a robbery. Meltzer later pledged to help raise money to fund the restoration, and organized an online auction of art from comics industry professionals and other items donated by the entertainment industry.

“He helped us to do what he promised us,” Gray said. “He came here yesterday. He was very pleased.” The goal was to raise $50,000 through the auction, which ended up with more than $100,000, money which will go toward interior repairs as well as the exterior work completed.

“We met on this very porch and you could feel the passion to restore this treasured Cleveland landmark,” said Mike Olszewski, news director at WNCX-FM and a member of the Siegel and Shuster Society.  When Meltzer first talked about an auction, Pace recalled, he told friends he thought maybe $20,000 would be raised, and Meltzer “blew the doors off.” He also praised the Grays as “great custodians of a piece of American history.”

Included among those acknowledged at the event were Meltzer, who was unable to attend, and Cleveland Plain Dealer reporter and comics writer Michael Sangiacomo,  who, over the past two decades, has written articles about the house and commemorating Siegel and Shuster.

Pace said that Sangiacomo “kept the dream alive for so many decades to restore this house and bring attention what’s been done here. In today’s world of apathy we empowered him to take action.”

Speakers also acknowledged the cooperation of DC Comics for its cooperation in the society’s efforts to commemorate the two comics’ creators.

In addition, at the ceremony commemorative street signs were unveiled.  “My father would be so thrilled. He would be so proud,” remarked Laura Siegel Larson, Joanne and Jerry Siegels’ daughter. Both women were among the members of the Siegel and Shuster families featured at a panel later in the day, held in conjunction with the Screaming Tiki convention.

Joanne Siegel played no small part herself in that history. As a teenager, she worked as Shuster’s original model for Lois Lane, Clark Kent’s Daily Planet co-worker and ongoing romantic interest. Modeling for Shuster on Saturdays -- she was still in high school at the time --  she earned $1.50 an hour. “My father was very impressed because men were shoveling coal for a dollar all day,” she recalled. The program largely dealt with the panelists’ recollections of Sigel and Shuster and their reflections on the character the two men created.

Following the modeling sessions, Joanne Shuster said she would often stay afterward to talk with Siegel and Shuster because they shared so many of the same interests. After completing the modeling work they corresponded over the years, and she and Siegel ended up marrying after his first marriage ended in divorce.

“It’s interesting to see that each era has its own interpretation. However, the Superman mythos is always what the original was,” Larson said. “So no matter what new spin, it goes back to its roots, and I think its roots are what have brought people back time and time again.”

Warren Peavy, Shuster‘s nephew, said that he believed Superman would continue to evolve to address the big issues that humanity has. "There is always going to be something that collectively scares us,” he said. “Superman is going to be that collective guardian that is going to be there to save us but ultimately show us how to save ourselves.”

Shuster‘s niece, Dawn Peavy, said she believed her uncle would be very proud to see how big his creation has gotten. “It’s good to see how much support he gets,“ she said.

As a family member, Leigh Goldie, a Shuster cousin, said she was pleased to see Siegel and Shuster’s ideas have been able to connect to people.

Superman’s impact evolved over the years and so it didn’t come as a surprise to the creators, Joanne Shuster said. “It stirs people’s human values. It gets them where they live,” she said. “It resonates back to them and their own experiences and their own hurts and their own triumphs. We love things that affect us.”

Larson said Superman deals with many things, including basic human goodness, seeking a better life, dealing with internal conflicts and the need to fit into society. “There’s so many aspects that people can identify with in the characters of Superman, Clark Kent, and Lois Lane that they will always endure,” she said.

Questions such as one dealing with the rights issues surrounding Superboy could not be addressed due to current litigation. “My lawyer would absolutely kill me if I said anything,” Larson said, though she added she hopes such things could be discussed “hopefully before too long."

Down the road, Pace said, the society is looking at the possibility of a statue in Cleveland to commemorate Superman and the character’s creators, but that the focus until now has been on the house. “We haven’t started on anything else,” he said.