Brooklyn Center

BROOKLYN CENTER

Bounded on the North by Daisy and Poe Avenues

Bounded on the South by the Big Creek

Bounded on the West by W. 44th St. (called Gauge Street before 1906)

Bounded on the East by Jennings Freeway

Click on Map to Enlarge

Brooklyn Center was first settled in the 1820's along Pearl Street. This area was a rural area and was part of Brooklyn Township. Farmers lived in Brooklyn Center as it was close to downtown and the Central Market. When the streetcar line was extended along Pearl Street in 1869, businesses opened around the intersection of Pearl Road and Denison Avenue. Beautiful homes are found on Archwood, Denison and Mapledale Avenues. The Brooklyn Savings and Loan Company was built in 1904 by J. Milton Dyer. The Miller Apartments overlook Brookside Valley and were built in 1890. The churches in the neighborhood are the Eighth Reformed Church at 2409 Willowdale Avenue, built in 1909. The original Brooklyn Memorial United Methodist Church was built in 1818 and the new church in 1911. The original church stands behind the United Methodist at 2607 Archwood. Archwood United Church of Christ is also located on Archwood. Esta Brook Recreation Center is located on Fulton Road and the YMCA is on Pearl. Meyer Pool is located at W. 30th and Meyer. Brookside Park is at Fulton and Denison and the W.C. Reed Playfield is located at W. 16th and Denison.

MAIN ETHNIC GROUPS:

Slovaks, Germans

NEARBY CEMETERIES: For a Spreadsheet showing where records can be found for the cemeteries mentioned below, see this site: http://usgenwebsites.org/OHCuyahoga/Cemeteries/index.html

Riverside Cemetery - 3607 Pearl Road, 216-351-4800 http://www.riversidecemeterycleveland.org/

Brooklyn Center Burial Ground - developed 1835

Scranton Cemetery

Brookmere Cemetery

Denison Cemetery

Monroe Cemetery

Willet Cemetery

Lutheran Cemetery

Brooklyn Heights Cemetery

CHURCHES: Click here to see church histories and possibly pictures of the churches below https://sites.google.com/site/faqcuyahogactyresearch/cleveland-pastors-and-their-churches/cleveland-individual-church-histories

Eighth Reformed

Brooklyn Memorial United Methodist

Archwood United Church of Christ

Emmaus Evangelical Lutheran

St. Barbara Catholic

FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS:

LINKS:

http://brooklyncentre.com/wiki/index.php5?title=Main_Page

PHOTOS

BROOKSIDE STADIUM - Brooklyn Center holds a record - the largest attendance at a baseball game ever - 115,000 on October 10, 1915. The stadium is located just south of Denison Avenue, between Fulton Road and West 46th Street. Take a look at these pictures and then do a Google map search and choose the satellite view. You can still see a baseball diamond there today! These pictures show the topography before the Fulton Road bridge existed. (All four photos from the Library of Congress)

Click on images to enlarge.

October 10, 1915 baseball game at Brookside Stadium in Brookside

Park. Denison Avenue is on the left. What would later become the

location of the Fulton Road bridge is near the far right outfield.

October 10, 1915 baseball game at Brookside Stadium. The person who

took the picture was standing where the Fulton Road bridge is today.

October 10, 1915 baseball game at Brookside Stadium. Denison Ave. on

the left. What would later become the location of the Fulton Road

bridge is near the far right outfield.

September 20, 1914 baseball game at Brookside Stadium.

Picture from the 1938 Plain Dealer of Brookside Stadium

Brookside Stadium

SOME HISTORY OF BROOKSIDE STADIUM:

March 16, 1908 Plain Dealer: BROOKSIDE STADIUM, NEAR COMPLETION, WILL ENABLE 15,000 TO 20,000 PEOPLE TO SEE ATHLETIC CONTESTS - The Brookside Park stadium is practically completed. Park Engineer Stinchcomb announced yesterday that it would be in shape for the holding of athletic tournaments early in the summer. "Of course all that we have been able to do with the means at our disposal was to grade the circular tract at the foot of the hills," he said yesterday, "and to fill in the embankment along the railroad tracks. We have a natural amphitheater that is well adapted to athletic contests." The stadium is located at the Denison Avenue entrance to the park. Considerable trouble was experienced in the grading, as the slopes caused the water to flow down to the flat ground and accumulate. The high banks on all sides of the circle will enable 15,000-20,000 persons to get a good view of the contests that are held there.

May 30, 1909 Plain Dealer - SHOUT WORDS OF CHEER FROM HILLS. Great Throng Sees Municipal Athletic Meet at Brookside Park - Bookkeeper Takes First Honors at Dedication of Stadium. Orange municipal gymnasium won the outdoor athletic meet conducted Saturday afternoon by the cit park department at Brookside Park Stadium. The meet yesterday dedicated the Brookside Stadium. Surrounded on all sides by hills, the field is in the center of a vast natural amphitheater. Thousands of spectators sat on the hillsides yesterday cheering the winners of the various events.

May 27, 1918 Plain Dealer - 100,000 HEAR SOUSA VICTORY CONCERN - GREAT CROWD FILLS STADIUM AT BROOKSIDE. Combined community chorus leads thousands in singing national anthems and patriotic songs. One hundred thousand persons yesterday afternoon heard Lieut. John Philip Sousa and his band of 300 United States navy musicians in the Victory Chest concert at the Brookside Park Stadium. The vast attendance, the throng's tremendous enthusiasm expressed in great ovations that passed wave-like over the slopes massed with men, women and children, indicated also that when the city's Victory Chest campaign closes tonight, the $6,000,000 sought will be in the chest, together with a large surplus. Although the jackie's band, the largest in the world, has played to many immense audiences, yesterday's crowd was the largest by far which ever gathered to hear it. Lieut. Sousa, noticeably moved and impressed, declared that in all his experience, he had seldom seen anything that could be likened to yesterday's throng and patriotic demonstration. From every part of the city and county came the crowds. Street car traffic to the park broke down under the strain. Thousands were late to the concert and still other thousands were unable to get there at all. Roads and open spaces in the park and neighboring streets were filled with automobiles. Some of these had come many miles to hear the sailors' band. The scene at the concert was one that will not soon be forgotten by those who witnessed it. From a perfectly clear sky, a bright sun beamed down upon the thousands who stood or sat on the steep slopes.

NOTE: There is talk of renovating this great amphitheater! http://plainpress.wordpress.com/2013/12/29/efforts-underway-to-renovate-and-restore-historic-brookside-stadium-to-playable-condition/

Brooklyn Brighton Bridge (West 25th St. bridge)

THE MABEL FOOTE AND LOUISE WOLF MEMORIAL PARK (located at the far end of the bridge in the above picture)

Louise and Mabel taught at Parma High School which was located at Ridge and Bean Roads (Ridge and Ridgewood today). On February 16, 1921, they were walking from the school, heading towards State Road and Bean Road to catch a trolley to head home to Old Brooklyn. They were murdered while walking together. Either of the women could have ran, but they stuck together to fight their attacker. In 1932 a small park called Foote Park was dedicated to the memory of the two teachers at the south end of the Brookside Bridge (W. 25th and the entrance to Brookside Park aka Wildlife Way). The memorial reads: "In Memory of Mabel Foote and Louise Wolf - Died Feb. 16, 1921. Erected by Cuyahoga County Teachers." Mabel Foote was buried in her family's private cemetery and it is unknown where Louise Wolf was buried. The crime was never solved.

TWO WOMEN BEATEN TO DEATH WITH CLUB - Bodies of School Teachers Are Found on a Desolate Road Outside Cleveland. - NO CLUE TO MURDERERS - Marks in Snow Indicate Women Put Up a Desperate Struggle Against Assailants. (New York Times February 18, 1921) - CLEVELAND - Two school teachers in the Parma High School, near here, Miss Louise Wolf, aged 38, and Miss Mabel Foote, age 24, were found beaten to death early today on a desolate road not far from the school. Marks in the snow and a piece of bloodstained timber near the bodies indicated that the two women had put up a desperate fight for their lives before they were brutally murdered. Police dogs were put on the trail of the murderers after deputy sheriffs and detectives had been unable to find any clues. J.D. Loder, Parma Township Trustee, informed the police that two bareheaded men, whose clothes were spattered with mud, passed his home about 6 o'clock last night. The bodies were on a path alongside Bean Road. Nearby was a heavy fence post spattered with blood, with which the heads of the two women were crushed. The two teachers left the schoo at 5 p.m. and walked toward State Road to catch a street car there. There are only a few houses on Bean Road and none where the murder actually took place. The murderers are believed to have been hiding beside the fence. Miss Foote hit her assailant with her umbrella, breaking off the point. Both women used their fists, their knuckles being broken where they had been hit with clubs. Footprints in the snow indicate that they struggled back and forth along the roadway, crashing into the fence and knocking down posts. But the blows from the murderers' clubs soon subdued the two women. The umbrella used by Miss Foote was found beside her body. About 150 feet away was her wristwatch. It had stopped at 5:15. The body of Miss Wolf lay face downward. Her procketbook was found underneath her body. One of her rubbers was found beside her body; the other was still on her foot. A short distance from her was a black handbag which had been carried by Miss Foote. Its contents, including some garments, were scattered on the ground. Miss Foote's pocketbook also was on the ground. Footprints led from the scene of the murder to a real estate allotment nearby. There they were lost.

A $10,000 reward was offered by the Board of County Commissioners for information that would lead to the arrest of the murderer. Two hundred farmers, business and professional men living in the vicinity met and pledged to use every effort to run down the murderer. However, no one was caught. In 1921, a Fred Gettling confessed to the murders and was sent to Lima State Hospital for the criminal insane. Then, in December of 1930, the murder case was reopened when private parties turned over new circumstantial evidence which came to nothing.

In the 1910 census Mabel was living with her parents and siblings on Schaaf Road in Brooklyn Heights. Her parents were Joel and Ella, and her siblings were Milly, Joes Jr., Aaron and Kenneth. She was also living with her parents and siblings in the 1920 census as well. Her obituary reads: Mabel Foote, beloved daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J.L. Foote, Brooklyn Heights, suddenly, Wednesday, February 16, age 24 years. Funeral services at the Pearl Road M.E. church, Saturday, February 19, at 2:30 p.m I was unable to find an obituary or burial information for Louise Wolf.