by Lynette Filips

     (Plain Press July 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.

     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 seventh 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.

     This month I’ll begin discussing some of St. Luke’s immediate neighbors, beginning with a frame Victorian-era home at 3444 Memphis Ave. which was reportedly built in 1885.

     Memphis Ave. was originally called Mill St. when the Gates family owned that expanse of property in Brooklyn Township. But the name had changed to Linndale Ave. – because it was the route taken to the Village of Linndale — when one of the best-known of South Brooklyn’s early doctors became the owner of today’s 3444 Memphis Ave. His name was Washington Emil Linden and he lived from 1858 to 1943. Dr. Linden had earned a Ph.G. (Graduate of Pharmacy) degree from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy in 1881. He also studied medicine in Switzerland and Germany and graduated from Western Reserve University in 1883. 

     A “family” physician, Dr. Linden delivered babies (most often at home), set broken bones, and tended to the sick. Treating victims of typhoid fever — which was unknowingly being transmitted when people drank Lake Erie water containing typhoid bacilli — was one of Dr. Linden’s special talents. He administered cool baths to lower the victims’ temperatures. Dr. Linden also had a cure for children with fevers; he prescribed a chocolate syrup called cocoa-quinine. To establish a good rapport with the youngsters he sat them on his knee while he was examining them. 

     Dr. Linden had a room in his home at which he saw patients and he made house calls with his horse and buggy. But his official medical offices were conveniently located above Fernau Bader’s former drug store on the second floor of the former Odd Fellows building on the southwest corner of Pearl Rd. and “Short” Broadview Rd.

     In addition to a doctor’s office, the Linden home had a living room, dining room and kitchen on the first floor and three bedrooms on the second floor. The stone-walled basement was accessed by a trap door in the back of the house. The carriage house was at the rear of the property.  

     Doctor Linden and his wife Carrie raised two sons, Arthur, and John Edgar, in their Linndale Ave/Memphis Ave. home, and John Edgar, born in 1888, frequently accompanied his father on the horse and buggy medical runs. John attended the Cleveland College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ohio Wesleyan University’s Medical Department and graduated in 1911. After serving as a Navy doctor during World War I, Doctor John Linden returned to South Brooklyn to set up his medical practice. His office was located in the medical building above Albert Hagedorn’s former drug store on the southeast corner of Pearl Rd. and Broadview Rd.  A surgeon, Doctor John Linden was on the staff of Lakewood Hospital, Lutheran Hospital and St. John’s Hospital. Maps at the Cuyahoga County Archives also list Dr. John Linden as being one of the previous owners of 3444 Memphis Ave. and another source lists his home as being at 2063 Broadview Rd.

     The house about which I have been writing has been in the hands of the Loizos family since approximately 1968 when Emmanuel Loizos, the owner of the former Glenn Restaurant and the storefronts on the south side of Memphis Ave. west of Pearl Rd. purchased it with the thought of tearing it down and turning it into a parking lot. He got the idea because that is what Pearl Road United Methodist Church had done with a third Victorian-era home which was located directly to the east of 3444 Memphis Ave. – they tore the house down to expand their parking lot. After Emmanuel purchased the property, he realized that the lot was too narrow for a parking lot.

     The house was not in the best condition, but shortly thereafter Emmanuel’s son Michael assumed the ownership of the home and took on the responsibility of restoring it to its former charm. 

     Michael was still working on the house when he married Sophia Rokakis in 1970 and continued working on it over the years to bring the house to its current lovely condition. Sophia has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and has used that knowledge to tastefully furnish this vintage Old Brooklyn residence. The flower gardens in the front yard further add to its charm.

     Previous articles in this series can be read online at www.plainpress.blog. and hardcopies at the Historical Society of Old Brooklyn Museum, 3430 Memphis Ave. It is usually open on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays from noon to 5 p.m. But call (216)337-8200 before stopping by, to be sure.