Old Brooklyn is a

neighborhood A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neigh ...

on the West Side of

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–United States border, Canada–U.S. maritime border ...

, United States, located approximately five miles south of

downtown Cleveland Downtown Cleveland is the central business district of Cleveland, Ohio, United States. The economic and cultural center of the city and the Cleveland metropolitan area, it is Cleveland's oldest district, with its Public Square, Cleveland, Publi ...

. It extends east-to-west from the

Cuyahoga River The Cuyahoga River (see ) is a river located in Northeast Ohio that bisects the City of Cleveland and feeds into Lake Erie. As Cleveland emerged as a major manufacturing center, the river became heavily affected by industrial pollution, so mu ...

to the

city of Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

and north-to-south from the Brookside Park Valley to the city of Parma. It is home to the Cleveland Metroparks, including the Cleveland Zoo; the Jesse Owens tree at James Ford Rhodes High School; and the Benjamin Franklin Community Garden, the largest urban community garden in Cuyahoga County. Old Brooklyn has recently adopted the slogan "Old Brooklyn, a great place to grow" to commemorate its history and potential growth.

History

The first instance of European habitation in the Old Brooklyn vicinity occurred in 1790, when fur trader Joseph Du Shattar established a

trading post A trading post, trading station, or trading house, also known as a factory in European and colonial contexts, is an establishment or settlement where goods and services could be traded. Typically a trading post allows people from one geogr ...

on the west bank of the Cuyahoga River, across from the area that became Newburgh. Originally a portion of Brooklyn Township, the area was settled permanently in 1814 as the hamlet of Brighton, centered at the present-day intersection of Pearl and Broadview Roads. The Brighton area was incorporated as South Brooklyn Village in 1889 and then annexed with other surrounding villages by the City of Cleveland during the years of 1905–1927. During the late 1880s, farmers in Old Brooklyn's Schaaf Road area (also known as South Hills) and the neighboring Village of

Brooklyn Heights Brooklyn Heights is a residential neighborhood within the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Old Fulton Street near the Brooklyn Bridge on the north, Cadman Plaza West on the east, Atlantic Avenue on the south ...

were among the first in the Midwest to use

greenhouses A greenhouse is a structure that is designed to regulate the temperature and humidity of the environment inside. There are different types of greenhouses, but they all have large areas covered with transparent materials that let sunlight pass an ...

to cultivate

vegetables Vegetables are edible parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. This original meaning is still commonly used, and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including flowers, fruits, ...

. By the 1920s the neighborhood was one of the nation's leading producers of greenhouse vegetables, with more than under glass. Most of the greenhouses were displaced, beginning about 1960, by new housing and the construction of Ohio Rt. 176 ( Jennings Freeway). Commercial development in Old Brooklyn reached its apex during the period of 1920–1960. Shopping districts spread along Pearl, Broadview, and State Roads and were followed, after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, by the development of shopping plazas at the intersections of Memphis-Fulton, Broadview-Brookpark, and Pearl-Brookpark. The original Honey Hut ice cream shop, a favorite of many West-siders, can be found on State Road near the south end of the community. The most ambitious period of residential construction extended from the early 20th century to the 1950s. During the 1980s and 1990s, residential development experienced a resurgence, particularly in the South Hills and Jennings Road areas. Housing values in Old Brooklyn, today, are among the highest within Cleveland proper.

Landmarks

Old Brooklyn's most notable landmark, the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, was created in 1907 when Cleveland's Park Board relocated the Zoo from University Circle on Cleveland's east side to Brookside Park. The 145-acre park lies entirely within Old Brooklyn and is one of the 16 nature preserve reservations of the Cleveland Metroparks system. Brookside Park also has a place in sporting lore, having hosted the reputedly largest

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

crowd in Cleveland's history, when the White Autos of Cleveland met Omaha in the World Amateur Baseball Championship. On October 10, 1915, a reported crowd of 115,000 sprawled along and below the park's northern bluff, directly west of today's Fulton Road Bridge, and cheered as the home team seized the day. The Jeremiah Gates Home, built in 1820 and located at 3506 Memphis Avenue, is believed to be the oldest residence in Old Brooklyn. Other notable landmarks include the Brooklyn-Brighton Bridge, the Estabrook Recreation Center, and the Italian Gothic-style Our Lady of Good Counsel Church (now called Mary Queen of Peace) atop Pearl Road Hill. New Fulton Bridge 19

Education

Old Brooklyn is a part of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. Schools in the neighborhood include: Charles A. Mooney School, William C. Bryant Elementary, Benjamin Franklin Elementary, William Rainey Harper, James Ford Rhodes High, Facing History New Tech, Cleveland Preparatory Academy, Constellation Schools: Old Brooklyn Community Elementary and Middle, Mary Queen of Peace, Luther Memorial, Saint Mary Byzantine, and St. Leo’s schools.

Natives of Old Brooklyn

The neighborhood's secondary students generally attend James Ford Rhodes High School, whose graduates include 1944

Heisman Trophy The Heisman Memorial Trophy ( ; also known simply as the Heisman) is awarded annually since 1935 to the top player in college football. It is considered the most prestigious award in the sport and is presented by the Heisman Trophy Trust followin ...

winner Les Horvath, anti-establishment poet D. A. Levy, and television star

Drew Carey Drew Allison Carey (born May 23, 1958) is an American comedian, actor and game show host. After serving in the United States Marine Corps, U.S. Marine Corps and making a name for himself in stand-up comedy, Carey gained stardom in his own Situa ...

.''

The Drew Carey Show ''The Drew Carey Show'' is an American television sitcom that aired on ABC from September 13, 1995, to September 8, 2004. Set in Cleveland, Ohio, the series revolved around the retail office and home life of "everyman" Drew Carey, a fictionaliz ...

s "Warsaw Tavern" was patterned after a bar near the Memphis-Fulton intersection, which hosts one of the highest concentrations of bars and restaurants in Greater Cleveland.

Demographics

Old Brooklyn encompasses all of Cleveland's Ward 13, and the southwestern portion of Ward 12.

Recent and future developments

The Treadway Creek Greenway Restoration project, completed in 2008, restored and preserved of riparian corridor and open space along Treadway Creek. The project included the construction of a multi-purpose trail connecting Harmody Park to the Ohio and Erie Canal National Heritage Corridor's Towpath Trail. Other plans include a connector linking the Towpath Trail with the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, as well as transit service and streetscape improvements. In 2020, the Cleveland Metroparks approved development of a 26-acre park space named Brighton Park, with a connection to the trails from the Towpath to the Zoo, atop the former Henninger Landfill site.

References

External links

City Planning Commission (of Cleveland)Cleveland State University's "Neighborhood Link"Ohio and Erie Canal National Heritage CorridorOld Brooklyn Community Development CorporationOld Brooklyn BlogsThe Encyclopedia of Cleveland History
{{Coord, 41.431559, N, 81.702332, W, display=title Neighborhoods in Cleveland Slovene-American culture in Cleveland Former municipalities in Ohio