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Known as the “Village Cemetery,” this was Berea’s main burial ground from 1834 to the 1880s. However, in 1886, the Cleveland Stone Co. purchased quarries adjacent to the cemetery, where Coe Lake is today. Quarrying had already caused flooding and landslides in the area. Local stories say that the company operated too near to the edge of cemetery, causing a landslide in the northwest corner that exposed some graves. Worried families moved their loved ones’ remains to other cemeteries, including those of five Civil War veterans. Pioneering families, 16 Civil War veterans, 3 mayors of Berea, several quarry owners, and many ordinary people still rest here. Of the original 589 burials, 40% were children. (Continued on other side)
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Woodvale Cemetery was established in the mid-1800s, in Middleburgh Township, Ohio. The oldest marked grave holds Fred G. Klink (1835-1858), whose family donated a half acre of land for burials. In 1876, Frank M. Stearns (1832-1911) suggested the unnamed cemetery be called Woodvale, after the wooded vale beside it. In 1908, a fire destroyed the caretaker’s house and many cemetery records. Woodvale became a non-profit, union cemetery in 1931, owned by Berea and the Village of Middleburg Hts. and covering 35 acres at 7535 Engle Road. Pioneer families buried here: Fowles, Kraft, Lovejoy, Sprague, and Stearns. Also buried here: John Baldwin (1799-1884) founder of Baldwin University and James Wallace (1878-1953) founder of German Wallace College (merged in 1913 to become Baldwin Wallace College) (Continued other side)
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United Colored American Cemetery is among the earliest in situ African American cemeteries in Hamilton County. The 11.6 acres in Madisonville were purchased by the United Colored American Association (UCAA) after the legislated closure of their earlier Avondale cemetery. Many Avondale burials and headstones were moved prior to the new cemetery’s dedication on May 30, 1883. Designed by Adolph Strauch, United Colored American Cemetery features the looping roads and picturesque elements typical of his designs at Spring Grove and Eden Park. After the dissolution of the UCAA, Cincinnati mayor Charles P. Taft asked Union Baptist Church to take ownership and maintenance of the cemetery. Union Baptist assumed ownership in 1968 and burials continued until 2019. United Colored American Cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2022.
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Dunbar, or Corsica Hollow, was an African American neighborhood on the western edge of Madisonville. Its streets and lots were laid out in 1886 after Mahlon and Anna Leonard subdivided their 10-acre tract near Duck Creek and sold lots to African Americans. Many early Dunbar residents were from the South; some born there prior to emancipation. Prominent early citizens included Harriet Deatherage, Elihu Parks, Gandison Embry, Thomas Duett, and James Murphy. Dunbar was home to the New Mission Missionary Baptist Church, founded in 1907. Originally meeting in a one-room building, the extant congregation relocated to Ravenna Street in 1963. By the late 1920s, Dunbar had about forty houses, a grocery run by Henry Lowman, and a hair salon run by Flora Hector. (Continued on other side)
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The Ohio Baptist General Association (OBGA) acquired 48 Parkwood Avenue in 1954 and used the former residence as its headquarters until 1996. Formed in 1896, the Association includes more than forty African American churches, many formed prior to the Civil War. Baptist general associations nationwide became an important voice during the 1960s Civil Rights Movement as they addressed the wrongs of racial violence and discrimination in business, housing, and education. The OGBA fought for the ideals of justice and freedom with its strongly-held Baptist beliefs. “America with her wealth as a great nation,“ OGBA President Wilber A. Page declared in 1957, “is well able to face integration and give a democracy to all her citizens.” The former Association Headquarters was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on December 3, 2020.
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City architect Frederic H. Betz designed the St. Clair Avenue Public Bath House and it was constructed in 1919-1920 at a cost of $320,000. The facility included a large gymnasium, swimming pool, and laundry, in addition to showers. City Council dedicated the newly completed building to the late, beloved Cleveland Indians shortstop Raymond Chapman in 1920. The St. Clair Recreation Center, as it was later known, was in the impact zone and survived the East Ohio Gas Company disaster on October 20, 1944. The facility was remodeled in 1949 and subsequent renovations demonstrate the utility of the building. Edward J. Kovacic (1910-1974) was the superintendent of the bathhouse from 1933-1934 and served on the City Council from 1940-1953. In 1977, the facility was renamed to honor Kovacic’s contributions to the citizens of the St. Clair neighborhood and to the city. (Continued on other side)
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The Greater Abyssinia Baptist Church (GABC) organized with 250 members on December 16, 1945, at a Phillis Wheatley Association meeting. Led by its first pastor, Rev. John Rollins Plummer, the congregation raised $47,000 to purchase the Jewish Synagogue at East 105th Street and Tacoma Avenue from the Beth Hamedrosh Hagodel Beth Israel Congregation in 1946. It later purchased a parsonage, land for parking, and created a Federal Credit Union. Tragically, Rev. Plummer was killed in a car accident on October 22, 1951. The church’s lower auditorium was remodeled and dedicated as J.R. Plummer Memorial Hall. Honoring its missionary and pastoral care foundations, the church built a $3M senior citizens complex nearby. An endowment fund, instituted by its pastor’s savings in 1995, ensures that this commitment to civic leadership endures.
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The Bay Village Chapter of the League of Women Voters was established in Spring 1948, with Dorothy M. Austin as president. The goal of the chapter was to ensure all citizens of Bay Village had the information they needed to cast an educated vote. They first met in the Cahoon family homestead, which then served as the city library and later as Rose Hill Museum. Gladys H. Luecke led the group on its first study, a city charter form of government for the village. Voters approved the charter on April 12, 1949, and the Village of Bay officially became the “City of Bay Village” in 1951. Since its founding, the Bay Village Chapter has made an educated voter its first priority by supporting citizen participation in government and influencing public policy through education and advocacy.