• Plan for corner of Memphis and Pearl continues to evolve

    PHOTO BY BRENDA THEURER Thursday, August 13, 2026; Northwest corner of Pearl and Memphis: The demolition company’s process of trying to separate St. Luke’s United Church of Christ’s 1903 church building on the left from the 1925 addition —with the parlor, offices and classrooms — on the right. The iconic structure faces Pearl Rd. by…


  • Task turns to documenting the destruction at Pearl and Memphis

    NEIGHBORS 4 ACTION EMBODIED THE TRUE SPIRIT OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PHOTO BY CHUCK HOVEN Tuesday, July 7, 2026; Corner of Pearl and Memphis: A bulldozer piles up the rubble from the demolition of the historic Greenline building. by Lynette Filips    (Plain Press August 2026) In January of 2024, when I started writing these articles…


  • In memoriam — Demolition of Old Brooklyn’s iconic corner at Memphis Ave. and Pearl Rd. begins

    by Lynette Filips    (Plain Press July 2026) I didn’t grow up in Old Brooklyn, but generations of my ancestors did — and some were still living there when I was a child in post-World War II Parma.  My parents had to migrate south because there wasn’t enough housing available for all the Baby Boomer…


  • Episcopal Diocese seeks community input on future of St. John’s Church

    PHOTO BY COREY MEADOR St. John’s Episcopal Church, 2600 Church Avenue: Renovations are underway inside the sanctuary. by Corey Meador    (Plain Press June 2026) A $400,000 project underway at St. John’s Episcopal Church sparks new life and opportunity into Cuyahoga county’s oldest consecrated building. On Church Avenue in the Hingetown neighborhood of Cleveland, many…


  • Update on Memphis Pearl Project and other neighborhood events

    by Lynette Filips    (Plain Press June 2026) The pallets of orange Jersey barricades and piping which I mentioned in last month’s article, along with the fencing above them, have been installed around Pearl Road United Methodist Church, the former St. Luke’s United Church of Christ, and the Greenline Building(s) on the northwest corner of…


  • News from Old Brooklyn includes new beginnings and sad departures

    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…


  • Developments at Pearl and Memphis inch forward as former tenants seek new homes

    by Lynette Filips (Plain Press April 2026) Two months have passed since I last addressed the many issues facing the corner of Memphis Ave. and Pearl Rd. in the heart of Old Brooklyn. Seemingly more and more sidebars have come up while the major issues are still in limbo. To make processing all of them…


  • Historic buildings still standing at Pearl and Memphis

    by Lynette Filips    The months (and years) go by quickly and thus another month has passed with seemingly nothing having moved forward with the projected demolition of the doomed buildings in the Old Brooklyn Community Development Corporation’s (OBCDC’s) revitalization plan for the northwest corner of Memphis Ave. and Pearl Rd.  Sheets of new plywood…


  • Developer of former Broadview Savings/Citizens Bank buildings awarded $6 million in Cleveland Port Authority bond funds

    by Lynette Filips      (Plain Press January 2026) December has just ten days remaining as this January issue of the Plain Press is prepared for the printer.  Based on the headline on the article in the Old Brooklyn News Winter issue, “Momentum Builds at Memphis & Pearl:  REMEDIATION ANTICIPATED TO BEGIN BY THE END OF 2025, I…


  • All storefronts in Greenline Buildings at Memphis and Pearl are empty

    HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF OLD BROOKLYN MUSEUM AND MARIA THE BARBERETTE WERE EVICTED LAST MONTH  by Lynette Filips(Plain Press December 2025) In the article about the Old Brooklyn Community Development Corporation’s (OBCDC’s) Memphis Pearl project in the April 2025, issue of the Plain Press, I wrote some commentary about Ward 13 Councilman Kris Harsh’s visit to…