by Lynette Filips

   (Plain Press April 2024) This month we continue to look at the history of the northwest corner of Pearl Rd. and Memphis Ave. which the Old Brooklyn Community Development Corporation (OBCDC) is seeking to “revitalize” with a $31 million new construction project. It is the most historic section of Cleveland’s Old Brooklyn neighborhood and has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 2005. A picture of St. Luke’s United Church of Christ, one of the numerous historic commercial and institutional buildings on Pearl Rd. (and on Broadview Rd.) included in the Historic District designation, accompanies the online listing of the “South Brooklyn Commercial District”.

   While OBCDC pursues funding for a plan to tear down the major portion of this corner to erect a four-story building with commercial space on the first floor, residential space on the upper floors, and a brewery in the church proper portion of the former St. Luke’s, another group of people in the Old Brooklyn neighborhood is still hoping to “Save Our Historic District”.

   This fourth in a series of articles will shed additional light on the history of downtown Old Brooklyn in the hope that someone in authority will realize that adaptive reuse of the existing buildings is superior to tearing down most of them and replacing the demo-ed area with new construction. Adaptive reuse would accomplish the same goals of adding new residential space, updated commercial space and new socialization space to downtown Old Brooklyn, but it would do so by using the existing historic structures. It is the method which has been employed in downtown Cleveland to put new residential, hotel, retail, and restaurant space in buildings which formerly housed department stores, banks, and other businesses.

   In my last three articles I wrote about (1) the legacy of three generations of the Gates family of millers in Old Brooklyn; (2) the precursor of Pearl Road United Methodist Church which was located on the north side of the Big Creek valley; and (3) Brighton Methodist Episcopal Church, the initial name of the first Methodist Church south of the Big Creek valley, and the (Old) Burying/Burial Ground which was located just south of the Methodists’ property.

   Jeremiah, the patriarch of the Brooklyn Township Gates family, arrived in Brooklyn Township in 1816. He built the original portion of his brick home at 3506 Memphis Ave. in 1820; it is the oldest home in Old Brooklyn and is a City of Cleveland Landmark.  His son Charles’ home has been demolished but his grandson Howard‘s home at 4248 W. 35th St. is still standing. Since they are residential rather than commercial buildings, they aren’t included in the National Register’s Commercial District, but they are important components of the area’s historical nature.

   At approximately the same time, many other settlers with the surnames Fish and Brainard (and other names) had been settling north of the Big Creek Valley. In 1814, a group began meeting in each other’s homes for classes in Methodism and in 1818 they organized as Brooklyn Methodist Episcopal Church. It was the first official congregation in Brooklyn Township and the first Methodist congregation in the entire Cleveland area.

   The Methodist settlers south of Big Creek wanted a church on their side of the Valley and in 1844 they purchased an existing building in the community and founded Brighton Methodist Episcopal Church. Their surnames included Brainard, Fish, Gates, Hinckley and Chester. The Methodist Episcopals dedicated a new church building in the grassy area (in front of today’s Pearl Road United Methodist Church) in August of 1897. That space was remodeled in 1924, soon after they built a Department of Religious Education behind it. Everything was dedicated in November of 1924 but in February of 1925, the church was destroyed by fire.  It was never rebuilt.

   A very early cemetery called the (Old) Burying/Burial Ground was also located at the corner of Pearl Rd. and Memphis Ave. It was referred to as an Indian Burial Ground in Kathryn Gasior Wilmer’s book, Old Brooklyn New, Book II, written in the early 1980s for the Old Brooklyn Community Development Corporation. (Perhaps the cemetery originally was an Indian Burial Ground, but we do not currently have any official documentation about that.)

   In April of 2022 Historical Society of Old Brooklyn president Constance (Connie) Ewazen had the good sense to contact William G. “Bill” Krejci, author of (among six additional local history, legends, and lore non-fiction books and three mystery novels) Buried beneath Cleveland; Lost Cemeteries of Cuyahoga County. He has subsequently been researching this former burial ground for another book he’s working on. William Krejci is an Old Brooklyn resident and because of his interest in old cemeteries and in saving this historic area of Old Brooklyn from redevelopment, he generously agreed to share his research with me for this series of articles.

   Because of his skill at finding primary source documents and converting old surveying terminology to modern measurements, William Krejci has been able to discover exactly where the Old Burying Ground was located and that it was .65 acre in size. The eastern boundary of the Burying Ground measured “1 chain and 84 links” which, when converted, equals 121 feet. It commenced “in the center of ‘the Turnpike’”, which was one of Pearl Rd.’s earliest names. The southern boundary of the Burying Ground ran 190 feet along “the road leading to Gates Mills”, which is today’s Memphis Ave. The western boundary of the Burying Ground was a straight line of 215 feet running through today’s separation between the two-story Greenline Building and the one-story commercial building next to it. The north boundary of the Burying Ground ran along today’s side wall of the Educational Wing Annex on St. Luke’s United Church of Christ. It was 168 feet in length and “terminated at the place of beginning in the middle of the Turnpike.”

   The Old Burying Ground was the first public cemetery in Brighton. We do not know the date of its first burial, but we do know that it closed in 1836 when Brookmere Cemetery was established pretty much ‘around the corner’.  The deceased in the Old Burying Ground were supposed to be exhumed and reburied in Brookmere Cemetery and based on the headstones, a few of them were.

   We do have the names of some of the reinterred, but first, here is the list of title transfers showing the owners of the land on which the cemetery was located. This research, too, is largely compliments of William Krejci — • The piece of land we’re discussing was originally a part of Warren Young’s farm.  • A 3.18 acre tract of land (which was not yet referred to as containing the Burying Ground) was transferred from Warren and Mary Young to Richard Vaughn on December 4, 1834; • The Burying Ground was transferred from Richard and Isabel Vaughn to Charles L. Swords, William M. Halsted and Edward Corning in April of 1840; •The Burial Ground on Lot 64 was transferred from Edward Corning, William Halsted and their wives to Charles Swords on February 24, 1847; •The Old Burying Ground Lot was transferred from Charles Swords to the First Congregational Church Society of Brooklyn, Ohio in 1847; • The property was transferred from the Trustees of the First Congregational Society of Brooklyn to Benjamin Foltz in April of 1849; •The property was transferred from Benjamin Foltz to the Trustees of the United German Protestant Evangelical Society of South Brooklyn in October of 1849; • The property was transferred from the United German Protestant Evangelical Society (formerly the United German Protestant Evangelical Society of South Brooklyn) to St. Luke’s Evangelical Church, the new name of the same entity, in February of 1925; • St. Luke’s United Church of Christ (formerly St. Luke’s Evangelical Church) transferred their property to the Western Reserve Association of the United Church of Christ in May of 2013.

   After the establishment of Brookmere Cemetery, could any of the people interred in the Old Burying Ground have been left behind at the time of the transfer of bodies to Brookmere? A ‘ground penetrating radar machine’ could determine that for sure, but William Krejci has some very definite ideas about that. It is based on records he has from Brookmere Cemetery and includes the people who were properly exhumed and moved to Brookmere as well as some whom he thinks weren’t. Among the latter group is a veteran of the Revolutionary War whose burial location was, until now, a complete mystery.

   I will eventually be moving on to the congregation which was the precursor of St. Luke’s United Church of Christ, but before doing so, I will be sharing the rest of the information I have about the Old Burying Ground from William Krejci.