PHOTO COURTESY OF THE OLD BROOKLYN HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Corner of Pearl and Memphis: Buildings in the South Brooklyn Commercial District in one of the photos submitted to the National Register of Historic Places when seeking approval of the historic district application.

by Lynette Filips

     (Plain Press February 2025) The clock is ticking in the Old Brooklyn Community Development Corporation’s (OBCDC’s) effort to majorly alter the corner of Pearl Rd. and Memphis Ave. But unlike all the online and television coverage which occurred just prior to my writing last month’s Plain Press article, I am not aware of any new developments which directly impact the neighborhood’s historic district. The tenants in the Greenline Buildings have not yet received letters ordering them to vacate and nothing has been shared about OBCDC having located sufficient parking spots for the units in their proposed new apartment building or receiving enough funding to construct it. There are, however, two very interesting developments which could impact OBCDC’s plans indirectly.

New Ward Boundaries

     The first development is the redistricting of Cleveland’s political wards. The city’s shrinking population mandates that the number of wards be reduced by two which means that the boundaries of many wards, including the ones in Old Brooklyn, will change. The east and west sections of the current Ward 13, represented by Councilman Kris Harsh, and the western portion of the current Ward 12, represented by Councilwoman Rebecca Maurer, will become the new Ward 4. The northwest portion of the current Ward 13 will join with other areas north and northwest of it and become the reconfigured Ward 11. Councilman Dan Kelly represents the current Ward 11. 

     Pearl Rd. — in the vicinity of Memphis Ave. — will become a dividing line between the new Ward 4 and the new Ward 11 with one exception. In the original new ward configuration, the former St. Luke’s UCC/Pearl Memphis project would no longer be in Kris Harsh’s ward. Councilman Harsh has been supplying OBCDC with some of the money for the project, and he wanted to continue working with it. He announced at last month’s Old Brooklyn Crime Watch meeting that the City had redrawn the new ward maps so that the new construction project around the former St. Luke’s UCC and Pearl Road United Methodist Church and the Greenline Buildings, even though they are on the west side of Pearl Rd., will be included in the new Ward 4.

OBCDC Leadership Changes

     The second development is the change in leadership at the Old Brooklyn Community Development Corporation. At the end of last month, OBCDC’s executive director, Lucas Reeve, left the CDC to become a Senior Advisor in Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb’s office. Lucas came to OBCDC early in 2020 to fill the position of Director of Neighborhood Development. Early in 2022, after Jeffrey T. Verespej, OBCDC’s previous executive director (and the one who initiated the project at Pearl Rd. and Memphis Ave.) left to become the chief-of-staff and operations at Cleveland Neighborhood Progress, Lucas became OBCDC’s interim executive director in addition to his previous position.  The Board subsequently chose Lucas to be OBCDC’s executive director in July of 2022.

     Lucas’ interim replacement is Amber Jones who is currently OBCDC’s chief-of-staff. And the OBCDC Board of Directors are again tasked with finding a more permanent person to be at the helm of OBCDC’s ventures. How the change in leadership will affect the future of St. Luke’s and the Greenline Buildings remains to be seen.

     Since the members of the OBCDC wield such immense power in determining what happens in this community (e.g., choosing the next executive director and making the decisions about the former St. Luke’s and the entire corner of Pearl Rd. and Memphis Ave.), it seems like a good time to list who they are. There are different categories of Board members — Institutional, Commercial, Residential and At large — plus Ex-officio representatives. Four of them are also on the Board’s executive committee. They may be nominated by other Board members or be self-nominated (volunteer) for the executive positions.

     Here are the Board members and their places of employment, starting with the officers and in the order listed on OBCDC’s website, and correct as of 12/2024 —
President — Brendan Zak; City of Shaker Hts.
Vice-President — Adam Saurwein; Benesch (law firm)
Secretary — Andrew Katusin; The Cleveland Foundation
Treasurer — Harry Quinoses; 787 Market (on Memphis Ave.)
Kate Warren — City of Cleveland
Marlon Brown — Lego Headz (barber shop)
Cherie Kaiser — Constellation Schools
Berto Huertos — Sixth City Cycles
Gordy Jones — Gryphon Fund Group (CPA)
Kerry Capwell — US Bank
Jacob VanSickle — Bike Cleveland
David Sharkey — Progressive Urban Real Estate
Greg Zucca — MetroHealth ex-officio representative
Katie Corr — Cleveland Metroparks ex-officio representative

     The last three persons on the list just joined the Board at OBCDC’s 2024 annual meeting in October. 

South Brooklyn Commercial District

     It’s time now to return to listing the buildings in the “South Brooklyn Commercial District” in the National Register. I started the process in December with the Krather Building at the northwest corner of the historic district. Heading south on Pearl Rd., the other historic buildings discussed in that issue were the IDMR building, the Post Office, and the white terracotta-tile-faced building on the corner of Short Broadview Rd. 

     Two, two-story commercial buildings with stores or offices on the first floors and apartments on the second floors are next in the historic district line-up.  Each is constructed of brick and has two lower units with large windows and a center door with stairs to access the apartments above. The building to the north is called the Broadview-Pearl Building and has the addresses 4186 and 4190 Pearl Rd. The building to the south is called the Peoples Store and has the addresses 4192 and 4196 Pearl Rd. Henry Binder is believed to have operated the Peoples Store from the 1890s through the mid-1920s. He sold groceries, seeds, and medicines. Later Weber’s Groceries was there.

     Today Efty Simakis, the proprietor of Slices Fabulous Cakes, Inc. (since 1986), owns the buildings. Here’s who’s currently in the storefronts:

4186 — Break’n News (corporate office) (formerly George K. Simakis law office)
4190 — Slices Fabulous Cakes, Inc.
4194 — Pearl Dentist (Mit Brahmbhatt, DDS)
4196 — Platinum Pooch Grooming & International Dog Spa

     Next is 4200 Pearl Rd., the address of Pearl Road United Methodist Church. I’ve already discussed the history of that congregation and church building in articles in the February and March Plain Press.

     4216 is the address of the former St. Luke’s United Church of Christ.  I’ve already discussed the history of that congregation and church building in an article in the June Plain Press.

     There is a grassy area between the southern side wall of St. Luke’s and the back wall of the Greenline Building. It was not included in the National Register listing, but it probably should have been because it is what remains of an early burying ground which was once on this corner. There are articles about it in the March, April, and May issues of the Plain Press. In addition, local cemetery author Bill Krejci, my source of information for those articles, wrote a “Letter to the Editor” in this month’s Plain Press.

     The South Brooklyn Commercial District then turns west on Memphis Ave. and includes the two-story Greenline Building at 3426 and 3428, and the one-story building right next to it at 3430, 3432 and 3434. I discussed both buildings (the first of which has upper windows in the “Chicago style”) and some of the tenants in articles in the August and October issues of the Plain Press. Sometimes, both of them are referred to as the Greenline Buildings.

     All of the aforementioned past articles in the Plain Press can be accessed on the Historical Society of Old Brooklyn’s website, www.OldBrooklynhistory.org. Scroll down a bit on the home page to the heading “Pearl and Memphis” and on the first line click on “History & Proposed Future”. A list of all my articles in the Plain Press, beginning with January 2024, will appear. Click on the monthly links accompanying the headlines to access the articles you want to read.

     That’s the end of the buildings in the “South Brooklyn Commercial District” on the west side of Pearl Rd. Next month I expect to be writing about buildings on the east side of Pearl Rd. which are in the historic district.  I will also be hoping and praying that St. Luke’s Educational Annex and the Greenline Buildings won’t be demolished in the meantime.