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Seven original members, who were staunch abolitionists, organized the First Congregational Church of Berea in the nearby Union School House on June 9, 1855. These members publicly articulated opposition to slavery and their desire for a church with full local autonomy. The church purchased this property and erected this sanctuary in 1869, the oldest still standing structure used as a church in Berea and the original Middleburg Township. It is constructed of locally manufactured brick with a foundation from the Berea sandstone quarries. The 100-foot spire was added in 1954 to celebrate its 100th anniversary since the founding of the church in 1855. The church joined the newly formed United Church of Christ in 1961. During its long history, the church has developed many programs to assist persons in need in the Berea area and developed collaborative ventures with other churches and civic groups.
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Joseph Peake was born in Pennsylvania in 1792 and came to Ohio in 1809 with his parents and brother. They were the first African Americans to settle permanently in the Cleveland area. He was the son of George Peake, a runaway slave from Maryland, who fought on the British side at the Battle of Quebec in 1759 during the French and Indian War. A man with some means and talent, George Peake invented a stone hand mill for grinding corn, a labor-saving device that endeared the Peakes to their neighbors in western Cuyahoga County. Joseph Peake and his wife Eleanor, an African American from Delaware, bought land in the 1840s on the Mastick Plank Road and built a home near this marker. [Continued on other side]
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In 1817 twenty-two men, including future President William Henry Harrison, chartered Cincinnati’s first Episcopal parish, Christ Church. In 1835 members erected a Gothic Revival-style church on this site. The neighborhood evolved as the city grew with the influx of immigrants. Parish women raised funds to teach, feed, clothe, and shelter tenement families, and alleviate suffering during floods and disease outbreaks. In 1883 the women helped establish what became Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. In 1909 members opened the Late Gothic-style Parish House, a community center with kitchen, classrooms, library, auditorium, clinic, gymnasium, and bowling alley. By the parish’s centennial in 1917, music had expanded beyond worship to public concerts. In 1940 the annual Boar’s Head Festival of music and pageantry began. Since the 1960s, members have collaborated with local agencies to advocate for social and economic justice, a mission continuing into the 21st century. (Continued on other side)
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In 1845, the Disciples of Christ built the first of three churches to occupy this site. They built a second, larger structure, to replace the original in 1858. On August 6th, 1860, 29 year-old circuit minister Brother James A. Garfield, the future 20th President of the United States, was paid $250.00 to speak here every other Sunday for one year. An arsonist destroyed both the second church and the Solon Village Hall. Erected in 1899, this building replaced the second church and was occupied by the Disciples of Christ until 1920, when it merged with two local churches to establish the Federated Church of Solon. In 1951, the Pioneer Memorial Church split from the Federated Church to move into the abandoned Disciples Church, which they renovated. The City of Solon purchased the building in 1968, and it has since been the home of The Solon Historical Society.
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This “little gem of a stone church,” built and dedicated in 1893, is constructed of locally quarried, rusticated Berea sandstone blocks. A Celtic cross at the top of the west wall represented the areas of Great Britain from which many original parish members immigrated to this area of Ohio. The chapel is named in honor of John Ogilvy. He was not a member of St. Thomas Church, but he did leave a bequest which the parish used to erect the chapel. It was constructed at a cost of $4,174.70.
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The first Blendon Presbyterian Church was located at the intersection of Dempsey and Hempstead Roads on what is part of Blendon Central Cemetery. Timothy Lee (1785-1862) donated land at the northeast corner for a church and cemetery. The church was dedicated on December 6, 1829, but it burned that same night under suspicious circumstances. Following the fire, the congregation’s members built another edifice on “Phelps Acre,” across Hempstead Road and so named for benefactor Edward Phelps. Sr. (1759-1840). The congregation held services there from 1830 to 1865. It was believed that the church was finally abandoned and dismantled piecemeal after the Central College Presbyterian Church was finished in 1870.
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On November 19, 1968, the Columbus Metropolitan Library dedicated the first public library in the nation named after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. After King’s assassination on April 4, 1968, the East Side Community Council requested that the new library being planned for the King-Lincoln Bronzeville community bear his name. The King family had both family and civic ties to Columbus and were honored by the tribute. More than 1,000 people gathered outside 1600 E. Long Street to hear Martin Luther King Sr. deliver the November dedication speech. Continuing the King family tradition, Martin Luther King III cut the ribbon to open a new branch building at 1487 E. Long Street on October 18, 2018. The Martin Luther King Branch was the first Columbus public library to bear an individual’s name.
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Elizabeth Tyron Sadler started the Methodist Episcopal Church in North Dover Township in June 1827, on land owned by her father-in-law Christopher Sadler. Charter members were the Rev. Eliphalet and Mrs. Margaret Johnson and their daughter Rebecca, along with niece Catherine Porter Foote. Elizabeth and William Sadler donated the land and much of the material needed to build a new wood-frame church here in 1841. The still-growing congregation built a brick church in 1908 and added a new sanctuary in 1955. Taking the name Bay United Methodist Church in 1968, the church has remained a center of community life and faith continuously since 1827. Family names associated with the church’s early decades include Aldrich, Cahoon, Drake, Foote, Osborn, Powell, Sadler, Tuttle, and Wolf.