Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Canine Wellness Day Sunday 9/23/12




FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION OR PRESS PHOTOS
CONTACT:
Becca Britton
Friends of the Cleveland Kennel
216.534.0624
beck2_2@yahoo.com


FREE CANINE WELLNESS DAY FOR WARD 14 RESIDENTS

Cleveland, OH – ASPCA, Cleveland Animal Control, Councilman Cummins and other local partnering organizations are sponsoring a free community event for Ward 14 residents of Cleveland, on Sunday, Sept 23 2012 from 10a-2p.
**Must provide proof of residency to participate.**

This event will feature FREE
-        Vaccinations
-        engraved ID tags & collars
-         ID microchips

There will also be dog food giveaway & free dog trainer consultations.
 This event is for dogs only.

WHEN:
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 2012
10A-2P

WHERE:
BOYS & GIRLS CLUB (WEST SIDE)
3340 Trowbridge Avenue
Cleveland, OH 44109

*This event made possible by:
ASPCA
Badges for Bullies
Boys and Girls Club of Cleveland
Councilman Brian Cummins
City of Cleveland Animal Control
Friends of the Cleveland Kennel
Stockyard, Clark-Fulton, and Brooklyn Centre Community Development Office
Metropet Vet Clinic


For further information on this event, please e-mail Becca Britton at Friends of the Cleveland Kennel: beck2_2@yahoo.com or call 216.274.9480.




Friday, August 10, 2012

Brooklyn Centre Bi-Centennial Home Tour

Click the image for a complete copy (PDF) of the Brochure.



Bi-Centennial Celebration Events This Weekend



Brooklyn Centre Bi-Centennial



This year marks two-hundred years, 1812 – 2012, since the arrival of the first American settlers on the western bank of the Cuyahoga River, in the neighborhood that we now know as Brooklyn Centre.

The Community is commemorating its Bicentennial with exciting activities designed to bring neighbors together through celebratory events (see “What’s Happening,” on page 2), and to educate and encourage local residents and businesses to make physical improvements throughout the neighborhood.

The Bicentennial started on Memorial Day, with a ceremony at the Brooklyn Centre Burying Grounds, located at 2300 Garden Avenue, behind Aldi’s. The Brooklyn Centre Burying Ground’s first interment was in 1823, and the cemetery was deeded with the name Brooklyn Centre when it was founded in 1835. Memorial Day ceremonies have taken place here for the past 33 years. This historic cemetery is the final resting place for many of the neighborhood’s founding families as well as veterans of every major U.S. war. 


UPDATED - 8/13/2015: 
See below for an inclusion of the Brooklyn Historic District and Home Tour Brochures.


Pioneer Life in Brooklyn Township

In May of 1812, Brooklyn Centre’s founder James Fish arrived with his family to settle at what is now the northwest corner of Pearl Road and Mapledale Avenue, in what was to become Brooklyn Township. This was the first American settlement west of the Cuyahoga River in what would become Cuyahoga County.

Brooklyn Township was born out of the Connecticut Western Reserve.  In 1795, land claims were sold from the state of Connecticut to the Connecticut Land Company for $1.2 million.  In 1796, the Land Company sent a team of surveyors, led by Moses Cleaveland, to the Western Reserve to divide the land into 25-mile square townships.

However, settlement of the area was not possible until several U.S. treaties with Native American tribes and frontiersmen were signed.  For the ten year period between 1795 and 1805, the Cuyahoga River was actually the western border of the United States. It was not until the Treaty of Fort Industry was signed in 1805 that land west of the Cuyahoga River was opened for settlement.

James Fish, with his family and two other families, left Groton, Connecticut in 1811. They traveled by oxen team and lumber wagon and arrived in the area of Newburg early in the autumn of 1811. In spring of 1812, James crossed the river and constructed a log house.  In May, he brought his family to their new home. 

By 1818, over 200 people were living in the area surrounding what is now known as the Brooklyn Centre neighborhood.  The process of clearing the forest and developing a village progressed, and the area from the Big Creek to Scranton Road became the center of Brooklyn Township. On June 1, 1818, Brooklyn Township was formally organized. The village of Brooklyn served as the center of the township until the early 1830s. Through the late 1830s, the neighborhood was known as Brooklyn Centre, and was where the region’s settlers came to vote, attend church, and purchase goods. 

From Annexation to the Twentieth Century

From the 1830s until its annexation to Cleveland in 1867, Brooklyn Centre was a fashionable suburb between the forests, farmlands and small towns to the South and the growing city of Cleveland to the north.  This period was also marked by a great immigration from Europe that brought Germans, Irish and others to America. Brooklyn Village boasted highly skilled tanners, shoemakers and other tradesmen and service providers, so that the shops on what is now Pearl Road met all of the village’s needs.

From the 1900s through the end of World War II, Brooklyn Centre served as a refuge from Cleveland’s bustling city center and the more heavily industrialized Cuyahoga River valley. In the early 1960s Interstate Route 71 was built after the passage of the Federal Aid Highway Act in 1956. The freeway displaced many families and hastened changes in how and where the residents of the neighborhood conducted their business and did their shopping. 

Recent interest in protecting and revitalizing Brooklyn Center began in the 1940s and extended into the 1980s. The Southwest Citizens Area Council was formed in 1946. Brooklyn Center Community Association, formerly known as Archwood Denison Concerned Citizens, was founded in 1978, as was the Brooklyn Centre Historical Society. In 1981, the Crossroads Development Corporation was formed. The city recognized the historic importance and architectural significance of the neighborhood with the creation of the Brooklyn Centre Historic District in 1984.

This vital neighborhood continues its legacy of transition and activism with the formation of the Friends of Big Creek in 2005, the Brooklyn Centre Naturalists in 2007, and the designation of the new Jones Home National Historic District earlier this year. Activities planned to celebrate the Bicentennial this August will further highlight the neighborhood’s rich history.  
For more information and details about the events planned for the Bicentennial, go to www.brooklyncentre.net and www.brooklyncentre.com/wiki
.  

Compiled by Darren Hamm and Brian Cummins


The following documents can be viewed as larger images or they can be downloaded as PDF documents.






Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Jones Home National Historic District Announced


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 10, 2012


*  PRESS CONFERENCE  *

Announcement of new
National Register of Historic Places Designation

Jones Home National Historic District


Cleveland, OH – Councilman Brian Cummins together with local resident leaders, representatives from the Cleveland Landmarks Commission, Cleveland Restoration Society, Applewood Centers Inc., Stockyard, Clark Fulton & Brooklyn Centre Community Development Office, and other officials, will announce the newly designated Jones Home Historic District, located in Brooklyn Centre.

See her for link to the district description and map.

  • Where:  3000 Daisy Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44109
    (Parking available across the street at Applewood Centers - Jones Campus parking lot)
  • When:   3:00 pm, Friday, July 13, 2012


Brooklyn Centre, Cleveland, Ohio 44109, USA
February 17th, 2012






DISTRICT BOUNDARIES - The District is bounded on the: north by the rear lot lines of the properties on the north side of Woodbridge Avenue; east by West25th Street; south by the rear lot liens of the properties on the south side of Library Avenue; and, west by a line formed by West 39th Street at daisy south to the southern boundary line, and, northward from Daisy, by the rear lot lines of the properties on the east side of Fulton Road.

[Historical Note: Marvin and Daisy Avenues were named after Marvin Lloyd & Daisy Jones of Carlos L. Jones and Betsey Adelia Brainard.  Source Brooklyn-Centre WIKI



HISTORY OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD

The area was originally part of the Western Reserve, surveyed by the Connecticut Land Company into part of what became Brooklyn Township in 1818. The earliest settlers of the area west of the Cuyahoga River were the Brainard and Fish families, who settled here in 1812. The lands were developed early in the nineteenth century into farmsteads, with a row of farms facing onto both sides of what is now West 25th Street.

David Jones arrived in 1831 from New Jersey with his wife Cynthia and family, including son Carlos Lloyd Jones and developed a farm on this site. In 1867, as Cleveland extended to just south of Clark Avenue, Brooklyn Village was incorporated, with the Jones Farm sitting on its northern end. In 1872 a plat was entered for the northern portion of the former Jones farm that marked the initial development of the district into a residential community. By 1874 the farmstead was subdivided in a series of plats that all followed the same plan as the original allotment, with fairly broad streets and spacious lots with alleys in the rear.



DISTINCTIVE PLANNING AND HOUSING QUALITY 

The district is significant for its distinctive street pattern of wider streets, compared to the surrounded area, spacious lots and rear lot line alleys that combined with the Jones Home for Children and its spacious park-like setting to stimulate the development of a turn of the century middle class residential neighborhood that survives largely intact today.

District planning was influenced by the streetcar, as the streets were laid out east-west for better access to the streetcar lines along Pearl and Fulton Roads. The streetcars also enabled industrial activity to be located further from the residential community, unlike neighborhoods to the north where factories were often built within walking distance of residences.

The properties within the district are a microcosm of well-preserved examples of American architectural styles during its period of significance, from 1872, when the area was first subdivided, through World War I, when the area was completely developed. The neighborhood is focused around four streets: Woodbridge, Marvin, Daisy and Library Avenues.  The significance of this neighborhood lies in its overall ambience and its relationship to the Jones Home for Children, a major architectural landmark on Cleveland’s west side as its centerpiece.  Most of the houses in the district are of Colonial Revival in style with Queen Anne and other styles interspersed throughout.  There are 745 structures listed within the District with 695 contributing and 50 non-contributing buildings.


THE NOMINATION PROCESS

The process for nomination of the district started in 1994 when the former Clark-Metro Community Development Corporation hired Steve McQuillin, of Steve McQuillin and Associates, to identify potential National Register Historic Districts within its service area. Of three potential districts the consultant identified, the Jones Home Subdivisions Historic District gained the most favor. Others involved in the process included former Councilwoman Helen K. Smith, Cleveland Landmarks Commissioner Robert Keiser, and neighborhood residents.

In 2008 a neighborhood resident worked with the consultant to update the application, and in 2011 Councilman Cummins had the new Stockyards, Clark-Fulton & Brooklyn Centre Community Development Office put the finishing touches on the document for final submittal. The updated application was approved by the Ohio Historic Preservation Office and forwarded and approved by the National Park Service on February 17th, 2012, making the new district official on the National Register of Historic Places.  The new National District designation and recognition coincides with the larger Brooklyn Centre area’s bicentennial celebration of the original settlement’s founding.  Events for the Brooklyn Centre bicentennial are being planned for the weekend of August 10th and will include a historic home tour which will include structures located in the new Jones Home District.

REF: