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The world headquarters of CompuServe was located on the six-acre site at 5000 Arlington Centre Boulevard from 1973 to 2009. Incorporated in 1969, Compu-Serve Corporation (later CompuServe Inc.) was the first major online information services provider. Its subscribers were the first to have access to email, online newspapers and magazines, the ability to share and download files, and a variety of popular chat forums. One especially successful CompuServe innovation was the GIF graphics format. Increasing competition and a succession of corporate owners pressed CompuServe into the fate of many tech start-ups and it ran its course. It did, however, introduce millions of people to online connectivity, social networking, and laid the foundation for the widespread use of the internet.
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Here in 1963 congregants of Beth Israel-The West Temple, led by Louis Rosenblum, Herb Caron, and Rabbi Daniel Litt, founded the Cleveland Committee (later Council) on Soviet Anti-Semitism, the first American organization created to advocate for freedom for Soviet Jews. In 1970 this work led to the formation of the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews (UCSJ) under the leadership of Louis Rosenblum. The UCSJ, whose national office was located here 1970-1973, became the largest independent Soviet Jewry organization in the world. By the turn of the 21st century, the efforts begun here helped 1.6 million Jews leave the former Soviet Union. (Continued on other side)
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The Curtis-Preyer Stone House takes its name from two families associated with its early history. Richard and Clarissa Dille Curtis purchased 70 acres in the Connecticut Western Reserve from veteran Elias Lee in 1819. The Euclid Township “Turkey Knob” settlement soon thrived around Dugway Brook, springs sites, and an American Indian crossroads. The Curtis, Dille, Lee, and Stillman families, related by marriage, helped each other succeed by harnessing the creek to power their grist and saw mills and selling quarried stone and felled timber. Sometime between 1819 and 1835 Curtis built his stone house using the Berea sandstone quarried on site. The roof was created of ax-hewn “pegged” tree timbers, and the thick stone walls fashioned of uncoursed, chiseled stones. A central chimney fed seven fireplaces and a bake oven.
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Players of the Cleveland Browns gathered eleven Black professional athletes and future mayor Carl Stokes to discuss with boxer Muhammad Ali (January 17, 1942-June 3, 2016) his refusal to serve in the Vietnam War. After their private meeting on June 4, 1967, the twelve men decided to “support Ali on principle” and held a lengthy national press conference. The boxer, considered the “greatest heavyweight of all time,” garnered national scorn and paid a high price for his stance. Ali was arrested, found guilty of draft evasion, his passport confiscated, titles stripped, and U.S. boxing licenses suspended. The men in attendance also faced condemnation and threats. In 1971, the Supreme Court unanimously overturned Ali’s conviction. The Cleveland Ali Summit is considered “one of the most important civil rights acts in sports history.”
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Guardians of Traffic,” four double-sided figural pylons towering over 40-feet above either end of the Hope Memorial Bridge, have connected Cleveland’s east and west side since 1932. They were designed by architect Frank R. Walker and lead sculptor Henry Hering. More than 20 immigrant stonemasons — many fromthe Italian village of Oratino — carved the figures at Ohio Cut Stone Company on Random Road from sandstone quarried in nearby Berea. The Italian sculptors lived or worshipped in Cleveland’s Little Italy. Each hand-carved Guardian holds a different vehicle, meant to portray the history of ground transportation. Voted “an outstanding architectural triumph” by the American Institute of Steel Construction in 1936, the bridge and its iconic Guardians were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
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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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Olivet Institutional Baptist Church, one of the largest African American churches in Cleveland, was founded in February 1931. In 1950, the congregation constructed a new building on Quincy Avenue. The Olivet Institutional Baptist Church ministerial leadership and its congregants were ardent supporters of the civil rights movement. Combining social and political action with the ministry, Olivet supported sit-ins to integrate lunch counters and public facilities in the South and participated in social activism in Cleveland. During the pastorate (1952-1973) of Reverend Odie M. Hoover (1921-1973), Olivet became a key voice in the civil rights movement. In 1964, Rev. Hoover accompanied Dr. King to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. The O.M. Hoover Christian Community Center, dedicated by Dr. King in 1966, symbolized Olivet’s commitment to community building and civil rights. (Continued on other side)
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In the early 20th century, the City of Cleveland began opening public bath houses as a way to address the unsanitary living conditions of its overcrowded immigrant neighborhoods. Opened in January 1908, the Clark Avenue Bath House was Cleveland’s third public bath house. It cost $32,000 to build and was designed by prominent Cleveland architect Charles F. Schweinfurth. The semi-Colonial building featured heavy Ionic columns that framed the two entrances marked for “Men” and “Women” overhead. Clark Avenue Bath House had 35 private shower “cabinets,” two group showers, locker rooms, and a gymnasium with a spectator gallery. By 1921, seven such bath houses served the city. Today, five remain and four continue to offer public services to their neighborhoods as Neighborhood Resource and Recreation Centers.