Union Miles: Part 3

This was my third section run of the Union Miles neighborhood and the final section of the former Corlett area. It featured a guest run with Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb through a section which included his childhood home.

Map: Run 1, Run 2, Run 3, Run 4

Distance This Section: 13.7 miles

Distance So Far: 800.8 miles

As mentioned in the introduction, this run featured a trot with Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb who grew up in this home at the intersection of E. 121st & Dove Ave. His grandparents purchased the house in 1979 and he lived with them + his mother during his youth. His grandmother, Sarah, lived in the home until her passing in 2022 at the age of 93. The mayor has mentioned that one of the greatest joys in her life was living long enough to be able to cast a vote for her grandson as Mayor.

Mayor Bibb held his swearing in ceremony at E. 131st Street Branch library (pictured behind him), a place in which he spent many days as a kid (photos of the event here). The branch is beautiful, having been built in 1929 by local firm Walker & Weeks who also designed the main library, Public Auditorium and Severance Hall.

It just so happened that the street in which the Mayor grew up on was undergoing an improvement project during our run. He remarked how cool it was to see his name on a sign for that project, providing a moment of reflection of just how far he had come since his days as little kid playing makeshift basketball with a crate affixed to a wooden light pole in place of a sign like the one above. What an awesome feeling that must be.

Union Miles - along with the Lee-Harvard and Mt. Pleasant neighborhoods - are part of the mayor's Southeast Side Promise which is an initiative to address the issue of concentrated disinvestment in these neighborhoods. $15 million has been reserved for blight removal and code enforcement; rehab & repair of 150+ homes; commercial corridor improvements and; $5 million for catalytic site investment in locations such as the old JFK high school and Gracemont Elementary schools sites as well as the Hamilton Rec Center (plus others). Lee Road (between the Shaker Heights border and Miles Ave) will also receive a major ($15-$25 million) road rehabilitation in the next few years.

When it opened in 1920, this building at 12711 Miles Ave was originally the Corlett Theater. It was remodelled in 1933 by architect James Love Cameron who built other notable buildings such as Lemko Hall in Tremont. The Corlett Theatre closed in the 1950s. It later became the Broadway-Newburgh VFW Post 3456 and then a church in the 1970s. Here's a photo of what it used to look like back when it was a theater. Photos are all we will soon have of this building as recent aerial photos show that the roof has collapsed which likely means the building will eventually be demolished.

Fred Hampton print on RTA shelter near E. 131st & Miles Ave.

Garrett A. Morgan Place is a cul de sac of 8 modern(ish) homes in the 2100 block of Miles Ave. The development was built in the early 1990s by the Union Miles Development Corp. The street is named after the famous Cleveland inventor.

A home in the Garrett Morgan Place development.

The incredible Schaefer-Miles Community Garden - located at the corner of E. 120th & Miles Ave - was established in 1984 and has 39 gardeners. It is part of the Summer Sprout program, a partnership with the City of Cleveland and Ohio State since 1977. Nearly 100 years ago, the land was home to a school annex building and a branch of the public library.

Here's another Summer Sprout site, the Princeton-Benwood garden located at 3964 E. 123rd Street. It was founded in 2013 and has 4 active gardeners.

This church on Corlett Ave was likely built around 1930 and was originally home to the East Side Slovak Baptist Church. It's been home to New Light Missionary Baptist Church for at least the last 50 years and is still going strong.

Corlett Ave is one of the nicest streets in all of Union Miles. It's also one of the widest because it served as a rare residential street for a streetcar line back in the day.

In fact, this oversized transit waiting area on the eastern end of Corlett Ave near E. 131st looks the way it does today because it served as the terminus/turn-around for the streetcar line which ran from here all the way to the lake and downtown.

A stout row of "Cleveland Doubles" on the 12500 block on Benwood Ave.

This church on the corner of E. 123rd & Lenacrave Ave was built in 1924 and was once home to an office of veterans affairs.

The Harvard Performance Academy (12000 Harvard Ave) is an academic and fitness institution that "strive(s) to instill the values of lifelong learning, strong character, and the importance of being physically fit in each of (their) students". The building was built in 1946 and was home to a transportation company for years.

Next to the Harvard Performance Center is another newer development of 8 homes much like on Garrett Morgan Place off Miles Ave. These homes were also built by Union Miles Development in the early 1990s.

The homes are located on John P. Green Place, which is named after the "Father of Labor Day". John (Patterson) Green was the son of free Blacks from South Carolina who moved to Cleveland in 1857. Green left school to take care of his family but studied on the side and published several essays about the experience of a self-educated Black man. Green graduated law school and moved back to S.C. for a bit but returned to Cleveland and won a Justice of the Peace seat making him the first African American to hold elected office in Cleveland. He went on to serve in the Ohio House & Senate, the first Black to do so in the latter. There, he introduced a bill making Labor Day a state holiday. The U.S. Congress eventually adopted it nationally. He died in 1940 at the age of 95 and is buried in Woodland Cemetery.

Cool business logo for Carter Exterminating at E. 131st & Benwood Ave. The business was founded in 1937 by African-American World War I vet John H. Robinson, applying what he learned from prevention of insect-borne diseases in the war. Robinson became the only Black licensed fumigator in the state of Ohio at that time. The business went on to thrive under the direction of John W. and LaVenia Robinson Carter. It still has the only African-American certified entomologist in Ohio.

This pocket park at the corner of Glendale & E. 131st was constructed in 2021 by the First Street Coalition, a grassroots organization comprised mainly of retired residents who have been active in the neighborhood since coming together in 1988 to create curb appeal along the East 131st Street corridor. The park was the site of a long-shuttered gas station which was demolished by the Cuyahoga County Land Bank (here's an image of what it used to look like).

Adjacent to the park is Vermel Whalen Ave, named after a former State Representative who served for 11 years (1986-1997). On September 18, 1992, then-Mayor Mike White proclaimed the day "State Representative Vermel Whalen Day". Whalen died of cancer in 2013. You can read her bio here.

The mighty John Adams High School which opened in this location at the corner of E. 116th & Corlett Ave in 1923. The orginal school closed in 1995 but this new school was built in 2006. Notable alumni include controversial boxing promoter Don King; renown musical conductor William Appling; famous band conductor Fredrick Fennel; Cavs founder Nick Mileti (Cavs colors of wine and gold are a tribute to the high school which have the same colors); professional wrestling announcer Jack Reynolds; former NFL standout and ESPN announcer Tom Jackson; Olympic boxing gold medalist Nate Brooks and; Congressional expert and founding vice chairman of the (eventual) National Holocaust Museum Mark Talisman.

The facade of the former U-Need-A-Sign Company which was owned and operated by sign maker extraordinaire Earl Phillips. Phillips was born in Arkansas in 1934 and moved to Cleveland with his parents at a young age. He graduated from East Tech and was enamored with the school's commercial art program. After a stint in the military, he went to the Cooper School of Art, which was a private art college in Cleveland that operated from 1924-1981. After graduation in 1960, he bought this building on E. 131st Street and began his business (the first black business in the neighborhood). His signs are featured all throughout Cleveland. Earl recently retired at the age of 90 but still occasionally breaks out the paint to help a business or two in need. Here's a nice little 5 min documentary about him and his shop.

John Adams HS is fronted by E. 116th Street which has some pretty great public infrastructure to include this sweet roundabout, one of only a handful like it in Cleveland. Here's what this crazy 5-point intersection used to look like before it was installed.

The street also has wide, green medians, bike lanes and 9' tree lawns.

The neighborhood is served by the Union Miles Development Corporation, which was was organized in 1981 to serve the Union Miles community (and now also Mt. Pleasant) through a range of community development projects and revitalization initiatives.

This church on the corner of Crennell Ave & E. 131st was built in 1930 and opened as Corlett Christian Church. It's currently home to Greater Mount Ararat Baptist Church.

Sanctuary Baptist Church (4004 E. 131st Street) has been a mainstay in Union Miles for over 40 years. The building was built in 1940 and was renovated in 2021.

ADM Deli on E. 131st looks like your average convenience store - which it is - but it was also where music superstar Machine Gun Kelly (who grew up in the neighborhood) filmed his first music video. It's also where a young Mayor Bibb used to get a copy of the Plain Dealer for his grandmother every Sunday.

Ran into this guy on E. 121st.

H. M. Martin Funeral Home (3856 E. 131st Street) has been serving Cleveland since 1969.

The old Fire Station #36 on E. 131st Street. It was built in 1921 and closed in the early 2010s. A new station was built a few blocks north in 2015 but the City still owns this building. Check out the cool stone-carved CFD logo in the top left of the building.

Charles Dickens Elementary on E. 131st was originally known as Corlett Public School when it opened in the 1915. Mayor Bibb attended kindergarten here.

One of the cooler looking houses I noticed throughout my runs in this section.

And speaking of cool houses, this might be the most notable one of them all in Union Miles. It's the Bradford House (11715 Miles Ave) which was built in 1833! The Bradfords were descendants of Virginia and built the home upon purchasing the lot where the house currently sits and moving 500 miles to start a new life in then-Newburgh township. They eventually sold the house to the Putnam family who would occupy it from 1874-1933. In fact, there were so many members of the Putnam extended family living on the block over that time period that there's literally a street named after them just behind this house. The Salamon family - Slovenian immigrants - owned it for the next 45 years. Anton Salamon was a carpenter which liked aided in the house's preservation. The house is currently owned by the same gentleman who has had it since 1997. It will turn 200 years old in 2033!

We close with a mural at 4105 E. 131st Street by beloved local artist "Mr. Soul". The full mural reads: "The sun never asks permission to...SHINE nor does the flower to...BLOOM...so why should YOU?". Shine and bloom, good people of Cleveland.