by Lynette Filips

   (Plain Press May 2026) Another month of “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” — but no demolition— has passed in the heart of downtown Old Brooklyn and to report about it, I am using the method I used last month — subtitles. They make all these different historical topics easier to organize, especially since this month I added a couple of new categories. 

THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF OLD BROOKLYN 

   In the last issue I declined to name the location being considered for the new Museum because a lease had not yet been signed. But now it’s official — The Historical Society of Old Brooklyn (HSOB) will be renting space in a storefront at 2221 Broadview Rd., two doors north of Colburn Avenue. Currently the HSOB’s Relocation Committee is still negotiating with the painters to come up with a work plan, so it’s too soon to determine a date for the Museum’s reopening. 

   Because the Society’s bi-monthly meetings were never held in the Museum, the upcoming meeting will not be affected by the status of the Museum. The meeting will be at 7 p.m. on Friday, May 8th, at St. James Lutheran Church, 4771 Broadview Rd., opposite Oakpark Ave., and between Alvin Ave. and Maynard Ave. The speaker will be from the Cuyahoga Valley National Park; Interpretive Ranger Rebecca Jones Macko will discuss the history of the Ohio & Erie Canal. A business meeting and time for socializing will also be part of the evening. 

   May is also the month when the HSOB has been presenting an annual Memorial Day Observance at a neighborhood cemetery, most recently at Brookmere Cemetery at the end of “short” Broadview Rd. Please check the HSOB’s website and Facebook page closer to the holiday to confirm that it will be taking place at noon again this year. And bring a lawn chair if you decide to honor the day by attending this brief ceremony. 

BROOKMERE CEMETERY

   And since we’re on the topic of Brookmere, it’s a good time to note that gates have been installed at the Cemetery’s entrance. Brookmere’s “guardian angels”, sisters Linda Cameron and Karen Parks, didn’t like the caliber of some of the visitors who came to hang out after dark by the Gates family’s monument in the extreme western end of the Cemetery. So, they asked John Novak, the City’s Manager of Cemeteries, to have the gates installed. Strictly utilitarian in appearance, they open at 8 a.m. and close at 5 – 6 p.m. each day and only block the passage of vehicles. The sisters are behind schedule with their clean-up of the Cemetery grounds this year due to delays in receiving permits from the City to do all their volunteer work there.  

PEARL ROAD UNITED METHODIST CHURCH 

   Members of Pearl Road United Methodist Church (PRUMC) celebrated their first Palm Sunday (March 29th) and Easter Sunday (April 5th) in their new temporary location, the former Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd, 8235 Memphis Ave., next to St. Elias, in Brooklyn. Because the congregation Live Streams its worship services on Facebook, anyone can tune in to see just how lovely the new space is. None of their own large church items had been moved there for the first services, so they fashioned an altar from two tables and used the cross on the wall and the pews from the previous congregation. Andrew’s Moving then came to 4200 Pearl Rd. to move the large items on Wednesday, April 15th, and to move the large items to be stored (e.g., the pews) on Thursday, April 16th.  Cory United Methodist Church on Cleveland’s east side also moved some of PRUMC’s excess dishes, bibles, hymnals and parlor furniture to their church. 

   The parking lot at PRUMC looks very different because pallets piled with orange plastic Jersey barriers (to ultimately keep unwanted vehicles away from the new construction) and white pipes line the fence next to the driveway of the Loizos home. Behind that, all the trees and vegetation on the once heavily wooded lot on “short” Broadview have been cut down. Old Brooklyn Community Development Corporation had purchased the residential property when it became available so that they would have more “site control”. Even without the six-story apartment building, it’s already a big change for the Memphis-Pearl project’s next-door neighbors. A lesser number of trees have also been removed from the main PRUMC-St. Luke’s property. Shiny portable metal fencing and gates have also appeared on the site. 

   In addition to this loss, members of PRUMC are also mourning with a former pastor, Rev. J. Harlan Rife, and his wife, Madeline, over the loss of their nine-year old son, Sam.  In the late afternoon of Friday, April 17th, Sam and a friend were playing baseball in the front yard of the family’s home in Green (Summit County) when he chased a ball into the street, right into the path of a Jeep Wrangler. He died from the injuries caused by the impact with the vehicle. In addition to parents and grandparents, Sam is also survived by his younger sister, Marta. 

   Folks who attended Old Brooklyn’s early Farmers Markets may remember Harlan and his family because of the way he opened up PRUMC’s front yard and Church basement for the Market. He was very interested in building up the church community and is the pastor who began negotiating with the Old Brooklyn Community Development Corporation to include his church building in their plan for dealing with his neighbor, the abandoned St. Luke’s United Church of Christ. After he finished his seminary education, he moved to a bigger congregation than PRUMC. Rev. Rife is currently the pastor of Greensburg United Methodist Church. 

FRIENDS OF SNAKE HILL 

   Just west and a bit north of the hub-bub of the Memphis-Pearl intersection lies a much quieter, lesser-known area of Old Brooklyn called Edgewood. It’s composed of streets like Pensacola, Muriel and Clybourne which are situated on the bluff directly south of the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. Many years ago when I started writing local history for the “Old Brooklyn News”, older people told me about a hill where they used to go on wild sled rides when they were young. They called it “Snake Hill” and it ran from Muriel Ave. at W. 38th St. to the roadway (maybe called Brookside Park Dr. in those days) on the southern edge of the Zoo which connects Pearl Rd. to Fulton Pkwy. The trail was originally used by workers to get from the higher-elevation neighborhood to a now demolished large iron stove production facility called Fanner Manufacturing. I remember seeing it on that roadway (called Wildlife Way today); the Zoo bought/used the building after the stove production there ceased.

   The Trail was totally overgrown when I first became aware of it, and I suspect that it had been like that for many years. But in recent years it’s become an “item” again, as preserving what remains of our history becomes increasingly important. Eric Greifenstein, a member of the Historical Society of Old Brooklyn and a resident of the neighborhood, co-founded “The Friends of Snake Hill Trail” with Alex Manuk. Eric periodically leads hikes down the trail to make people aware of its existence. He even got the new Ward 11 Councilwoman, Nikki Hudson, interested in it. He would like Metroparks, the Trail’s owner, to put some money into improving it/making it safer. And Eric interested local multi-purpose trail enthusiasts Lennie Stover and Chris Feighan in his new passion. 

   Luckily for the Friends of Snake Hill Trail, Lennie Stover liked their project and he had some equipment to help them out.  Relatively recently he brought a small tractor to “improve” (clear and level) some of the half-mile trail. He hauled a massive donated bench, resized it and installed it at the top of the Trail. The name of the Trail is now lettered on the bench. The Friends were very sad to learn that their new ally Lennie died on April 22nd. Further investigation revealed that the cause was pancreatic cancer; not many people beat it. May Lennie continue to advocate for trails and greenways from the “Great Beyond” and may the new Councilwoman’s interest in the Snake Hill Trail continue to grow.

   Till next month, if you want to refer to any previous Plain Press articles about this historic Old Brooklyn corner, access them on the Plain Press’ website, https://plainpress.blog, or on the HSOB’s website, www.oldbrooklynhistory.org. In time the HSOB also hopes to be able to share news on its website about its progress transforming another building into a museum.