• Documentary on Ghoulardi to air in October

       (Plain Press October 2024) If you were to tune in to channel 8 at around 11:30 PM Friday nights, back in 1965, you would have also seen a funny looking man, wearing a fright-wig and lab coat, smoking a cigarette on live television. His name was Ernie Anderson, and he was a Cleveland sensation,…


  • Old Brooklyn’s Brookmere Cemetery included in nationwide cemetery tour

    PHOTO BY JOHN RAKAUSKAS Monday, August 5, 2024; Brookmere Cemetery, 3645 Broadview Rd., in the Old Brooklyn neighborhood of Cleveland: Cleveland residents as well as residents of other cities in Ohio and neighboring states attended an outdoor workshop demonstrating how to clean, repair and reposition headstones. The workshop was conducted by Jonathan Appell, founder of…


  • Torso Murders: Cleveland’s “Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run”

         (Plain Press September 2024) It has been decided by the Cuyahoga Chief Medical Examiner, along with a non-profit organization, the “DNA Doe Project,” to exhume the unidentified victims of the “Cleveland Torso Murderer” to identify them through new DNA testing. Their remains have been buried in the City of Cleveland’s Potter’s Field for almost…


  • History of Greenline Building offers a look at the past vitality of the intersection at Pearl and Memphis

    by Lynette Filips      (Plain Press August 2024) This month we continue to look at the history of the northwest corner of Pearl Rd. and Memphis Ave. which the Old Brooklyn Community Development Corporation (OBCDC) is seeking to “revitalize” with a $31 million new construction project. It is the most historic section of Cleveland’s Old…


  • A look at the history of some of St. Luke’s neighbors

    by Lynette Filips      (Plain Press July 2024) This month we continue to look at the history of the northwest corner of Pearl Rd. and Memphis Ave. which the Old Brooklyn Community Development Corporation (OBCDC) is seeking to “revitalize” with a $31 million new construction project. It is the most historic section of Cleveland’s Old…


  • Reader shares his grandfather’s immigration story

         (Plain Press July 2024) This letter is in response to the recent articles covering immigration. My grandfather, Albert Joseph Bialek, came to the United States from Poland (Galicia) in 1910. Per the Ellis Island website, he boarded the ship Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse in Bremen, Germany (formerly Prussia). He had just completed his service…


  • Mural unveiled as first iteration of an African American History Walk

    PHOTO BY CHUCK HOVEN June 19, 2024; African American Art History Walk, Western Reserve Historical Society Cleveland History Center, E. 108th Street between East Boulevard and Magnolia Drive: Mural art portrait of Dr. Harrison Leslie Adams Jr. by artist Jerome T. White. PHOTO BY CHUCK HOVEN June 19, 2024; African American Art History Walk, Western…


  • Are prominent citizens still buried at the Old Burying Ground at Pearl-Memphis intersection in Old Brooklyn?

    by Lynette Filips      (Plain Press May 2024) This month we continue to look at the history of the northwest corner of Pearl Rd. and Memphis Ave. which the Old Brooklyn Community Development Corporation (OBCDC) is seeking to “revitalize” with a $31 million new construction project. It is the most historic section of Cleveland’s Old…


  • Local documentary recounts Cleveland’s June 8, 1953 twister

                (Plain Press May 2024) This up-coming June 8, 2024, will be the 71st anniversary of an F-3 tornado that cut through Cleveland’s West Side. 1953 was a unique year for record size tornadoes that killed hundreds across the United States. These monsters devastated major cities like Waco, Texas, Flint, Michigan and Worcester, Massachusetts. Except…


  • Old Brooklyn residents’ research sheds new light on the history of a cherished corner slated for redevelopment

    by Lynette Filips    (Plain Press April 2024) This month we continue to look at the history of the northwest corner of Pearl Rd. and Memphis Ave. which the Old Brooklyn Community Development Corporation (OBCDC) is seeking to “revitalize” with a $31 million new construction project. It is the most historic section of Cleveland’s Old…