Old Brooklyn is a neighborhood on the West Side of Cleveland, Ohio, United States, located approximately five miles south of downtown Cleveland. It extends east-to-west from the Cuyahoga River to the city of Brooklyn and north-to-south from the Brookside Park Valley to the city of Parma.
History
The first instance of European habitation in the Old Brooklyn vicinity occurred in 1790, when fur trader Joseph Du Shatter established a trading post on the west bank of the Cuyahoga River, across from the area that became Newburgh.
Originally a portion of Brooklyn Township, the area was settled permanently in 1814 as the hamlet of Brighton, centered at the present-day intersection of Pearl and Broadview Roads. The Brighton area was incorporated as South Brooklyn Village in 1889 and then annexed with other surrounding villages by the City of Cleveland, OH during 1905–1927.
During the late 1880s, farmers in Old Brooklyn’s Schaaf Road area (also known as South Hills) and the neighboring Village of Brooklyn Heights were among the first in the Midwest to use greenhouses to cultivate vegetables. By the 1920s, the neighborhood was one of the nation’s leading producers of greenhouse vegetables, with more than 100 acres (0.40 km2) under glass. Most of the greenhouses were displaced, beginning about 1960, by new housing and the construction of Ohio Rt. 176 (Jennings Freeway).
Commercial development in Old Brooklyn reached its apex between 1920 and 1960. Shopping districts spread along Pearl, Broadview, and State Roads and were followed, after World War II, by the development of shopping plazas at the intersections of Memphis-Fulton, Broadview-Brookpark, and Pearl-Brookpark. The original Honey Hut ice cream shop, a favorite of many West-siders, can be found on State Road near the community’s south end. Bed Bug Exterminator Cleveland
Landmarks
Old Brooklyn’s most notable landmark, the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, was created in 1907 when Cleveland’s Park Board relocated the Zoo from University Circle on Cleveland’s east side to Brookside Park. The 145-acre park lies entirely within Old Brooklyn and is one of the 16 nature preserve reservations of the Cleveland Metroparks system.
Brookside Park also has a place in sporting lore, having hosted the reputedly largest baseball crowd in Cleveland’s history when the White Autos of Cleveland met Omaha in the World Amateur Baseball Championship. On October 10, 1915, a reported crowd of 115,000 sprawled along and below the park’s northern bluff, directly west of today’s Fulton Road Bridge, and cheered as the home team seized the day.
The Jeremiah Gates Home, built in 1820 and located at 3506 Memphis Avenue, is believed to be the oldest residence in Old Brooklyn. Other notable landmarks include the Brooklyn-Brighton Bridge, the Estabrook Recreation Center, and the Italian Gothic-style Our Lady of Good Counsel Church (now Mary Queen of Peace) at Pearl Road Hill.
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