• 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…


  • Groundbreaking ceremony kicks off construction of second phase of African American Cultural Gardens (photos)

    PHOTO BY CHUCK HOVEN Thursday, April 9, 2026; Groundbreaking ceremony for second phase of the African American Cultural Gardens, Martin Luther King Jr. Drive: Association of African American Cultural Gardens Executive Director Obie Shelton plays “Lift Up Your Voice” on his violin. PHOTO BY CHUCK HOVEN Thursday, April 9, 2026; Groundbreaking ceremony for second phase…


  • 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…


  • Cleveland moviemaking history begins with the Giant Coal Dumper and continues to evoke its lessons

    by Cameron Mays    (Plain Press April 2026) It is now probably accepted that the big bang that started our universe was not some great explosion but a simple happening. Thus, it is fitting that which started Cleveland film history was no epic tale but a routine industrial occurrence.    Giant Coal Dumper was the…


  • 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…


  • “El Sueño Americano” exhibit at the Maltz Museum sheds light on the struggles of immigrants who risked their lives to reach the United States’ southern border

    PHOTO BY CHUCK HOVEN Friday, January 9, 2026; Candlelight vigil in memory of Renee Good, Market Square Park, W. 25th and Lorain Avenue: This woman expresses her patriotism through protest. by Lynette Filips The sign on the side of the building at 2929 Richmond Rd. in Beachwood says “Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage”, but since…


  • 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…


  • Fairview Park cold case is still cold

       Authorities are still looking for any information to help find out what happened to the teenage girl that went missing in 1977 from Fairview Park. Yvonne Regler went missing from a Sunoco gas station located on Lorain Road. She was a resident of North Olmsted. It was early afternoon on August 8th when she…


  • 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…