PHOTO COURTESY OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF OLD BROOKLYN

In 2005 when the application for establishing the South Brooklyn Commercial District with the National Register of Historic Places was submitted, this iconic structure at the northeast corner of Pearl Rd. and Broadview Rd. was a branch office of US Bank. But when it was built in 1923-1924, it was the Pearl St. Savings & Trust Co.  And for most of its banking life, the building at 4175 Pearl Rd. was known as the Cleveland Trust Company. Today the first floor has been beautifully restored and refashioned into Ariel Pearl, an event center.

by Lynette Fillips

     (Plain Press April 2025) The “Sword of Damocles” continues to hang over the heads of four buildings at the corner of Memphis Ave. and Pearl Rd. in the heart of Old Brooklyn. They are the two Greenline buildings on Memphis, the addition (which housed the parlor, the classrooms, and other amenities) to the former St. Luke’s United Church of Christ’s worship space on Pearl, and a very old house behind the church. Their demolition has been approved by both the Near West Design Review Committee and the City of Cleveland’s Planning Commission. A demolition permit has been issued.

     The Historical Society of Old Brooklyn (HSOB) is understandably disturbed about this outcome, and for multiple reasons. They care about preserving the neighborhood’s historic buildings, and most particularly about these buildings because they are listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the “South Brooklyn Commercial District”. The Historical Society even has a museum in one of the storefronts in the older Greenline Building. The HSOB also knows that the United Church of Christ (via the Cuyahoga County Landbank) donated St. Luke’s to the Old Brooklyn Community Development Corporation with the expectation that OBCDC would preserve it in its entirety, not tear down all or part of it and neighboring structures for a development project. Saving St. Luke’s is what OBCDC originally said that it would do in an early article in its quarterly Old Brooklyn News magazine.

     But sometime along the way, OBCDC’s priorities changed and a different style of revitalizing the major intersection became the goal. Early in 2022, at a Zoom meeting because of the Covid epidemic, under the leadership of its former executive director, Jeffrey T. Verespej, OBCDC’s then Director of Neighborhood Development, Lucas Reeve, announced their construction plan. It would have torn down the entire corner, including the church proper part of St. Luke’s, in addition to the buildings currently slated for demolition. A company called NRP was chosen over the preservation/adaptive reuse team, brought together by Tom Yablonsky, which was also working on plans to submit for the corner. NRP planned to build a low-income housing apartment building and new commercial space there. They applied for Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) funds early in February of 2022.

     A segment of the community organized as Neighbors4action to protest; their battle cry was “Save Our Historic District.” They put a petition on Change.org (which by May had garnered 1600 signatures), designed and distributed posters featuring the corner, and wrote letters. In mid-May of 2022 OBCDC learned that it did not receive the LIHTC funding, and the plans were scrapped. NRP backed out of the project and the process for finding a developer began again. Tom Yablonsky’s team, still headed by the local, highly respected Sandvick Architects, submitted their plans, as did a firm from Pittsburgh called Desmone Architects. Sandvick’s plans preserved/reused all the existing Memphis-Pearl buildings (plus new construction) in their apartments design; Desmone’s did not.

     In December of 2022, OBCDC announced that the OBCDC Board, with strong direction/encouragement from OBCDC’s staff directors, had chosen Desmone’s plan for the reimagined corner. These plans also include Pearl Road United Methodist Church (PRUMC). PRUMC is giving their property to the Memphis Pearl project in exchange for remodeled worship space and community/kitchen space and a generous rental agreement. So, in addition to the tenants in the Greenline Buildings, the congregation at PRUMC will also have to relocate during the construction.

     Since then, the parties involved have been trying to work out the details. The number of floors and units in the proposed apartment complex have increased. They are still trying to secure sufficient parking and definitive financing.

     At their January meeting, the members of the Historical Society unanimously voted to appeal the issuing of the demolition permit. If they can’t halt the entire project, they at least want to stop the planned destruction of the four buildings until OBCDC has found sufficient parking for the proposed apartments and has 100% of the funding in place. But what the HSOB later learned is that they are not allowed to file an appeal; only the property owners are allowed to do that. And since OBCDC owns all the buildings and the demolition is their idea, surely OBCDC won’t be appealing the demolition permit.

     Aware of the Historical Society’s concerns, Ward 13 Councilman Kris Harsh decided to address the group at their March meeting. His presence was a welcome surprise and time was not an issue. Councilman Harsh spoke about what he thought would interest them about the project involving the former St. Luke’s UCC and then he answered all their additional questions.

     The most reassuring statement was that even though tenants of the Greenline Building(s) had been visited by the relocation specialist and required to sign letters about having to vacate in 90 days, that would not actually be the timeframe. Equally assuring was that NO building demolitions would occur until all required parking and financing for the project was in place.

     Councilman Harsh also spoke about the preliminary boring which was done in February behind St. Luke’s to check the soil for the development project, and also about a major sewer revamping which the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District will be starting in 2026. Projections are that the “close to Pearl Rd.” section of Memphis Ave. will be shut down for five years.

     For accuracy in writing the minutes, the entire HSOB business meeting, including the interaction with Councilman Harsh, was electronically recorded.

     Now, let’s continue looking at each of the buildings in the South Brooklyn Commercial District. The most northerly one on the east side of Pearl is the Speed Exterminating Building at 4141 Pearl Rd. The building is named after John W. Speed who founded the business in 1908. Since the time of the building’s construction in 1929, it has been continuously occupied by that company, which has been continuously owned and operated by John W. Speed and/or three generations of his descendants. It is a one-story red brick structure with attic space and garages for the trucks in the back.

     Heading south on Pearl, the next “qualifying structure” in the historic district is the Andreson (sic) Building at 4143 Pearl. It is a two-story red brick building with three bays which was built in 1910. At the time of the application for the historic designation, Montalvo General Home Improvement Co. was operating there. Now, however, Young Achievers 2 Learning Center occupies the space.

     The Hullett Co. Building at 4147 Pearl Rd. is also a two-story, three bay, red brick building built in 1910. Marzano Nunzio has had his cabinet shop there for decades.

     A large parking lot (free for patrons to use these days) comes next and then a modern, large, concrete block, “non-contributing”, one-story structure at 4163 Pearl Rd. It’s called the GilDor Furniture Company on the application, but GilDor vacated the space years ago. A dental establishment named Buckeye Family Dental initially took over and reconfigured the interior of the building, but they didn’t last very long. More recently Brooklyn Dental Group has been there, and everything seems to be going very well with that business.

     The crown jewel of the commercial buildings in Old Brooklyn’s historic district is next — the Pearl St. Savings & Trust Co. at 4175 Pearl Rd. (at the corner of Broadview Rd.) A masonry building in the Renaissance Revival style, it was constructed in 1923-24; a plaque to the right of the lobby entrance door states that the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce declared it “the best commercial building erected in Cleveland in 1924.” Noted Cleveland architects Hubbell & Benes designed the building. (They also designed the Cleveland Museum of Art, the West Side Market, the City Club, and the Masonic Temple.)

     The ten tall arched windows on the exterior of the bank make it appear to be just a two-story building, but there are three levels in at least part of it. There was also a professional office section (largely medical offices in days-gone-by) north of the bank proper, which wasn’t mentioned in the National Register application. The entrance door to the former offices used the address 4169 Pearl Rd. The interior of the bank building is perfectly grand, too — a rotunda, marble floors and columns, stone walls, a decorative plaster ceiling, fancy metalwork, the vault, a fine room with a fireplace.

     Pearl Street Savings & Trust merged with Cleveland Trust Company in 1929, and for many decades the bank was known by that name. Then Cleveland Trust became Ameritrust and Ameritrust later became Star Bank. The business in the building was known as US Bank at the time of the application for the South Brooklyn Commercial District.

     US Bank departed from the building in 2011 and, in the following year, Old Brooklyn Councilman Kevin Kelley was instrumental in having the site declared a Cleveland Landmark. Then the beautiful building sat vacant for years. The water pipes froze and burst one particularly cold winter and the street view through the windows was of a frozen wasteland. No one wanted to lose the building, but no one wanted to spend the money to buy it and take on the project.

     Then in 2016 investors Radhika Reddy, Irene Zawadiwsky, and Lynn Selzer, the Ariel Ventures team, entered the picture. They had already completed Ariel International just east of downtown and were looking for another historic building to convert into a one-of-a-kind event space. They purchased the former bank building and in 2017 it opened as Ariel Pearl Center.

     Ariel Ventures also purchased the building east of the bank on Broadview Rd. because it owned the parking lot, and they needed parking for their new space.

     At this point in time, Ariel Ventures has only restored/repurposed the bank lobby and adjoining rooms and the mezzanine level which is accessed from stairs at the Broadview Rd. entrance.  A bridal suite and Radhika’s office are on the mezzanine level. The rest of the building has been gutted — the marble was meticulously removed and reapplied to downstairs walls which didn’t have any.  The third floor has not been redone yet because the owners are waiting for a tenant so they can build it to that party’s specifications.

     Unfortunately, removing some of the marble from its original location and reusing it elsewhere in the building disqualified Ariel Ventures from receiving any historic preservation funds from the government. The women had to fund it themselves.

     The South Brooklyn Commercial District continues south on the east side of Pearl Rd. and east on both sides of Broadview Rd. Since seven of the bank building windows face Broadview, I will continue with the other historic district buildings on Broadview next time.