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Discovering Change:
Cleveland Heights Congregations |
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By Marian Morton |
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A glimpse at the
rich and varied histories associated with Cleveland Heights' numerous houses
of worship. Adapted from Marian Morton's newest book, "Discovering
Change: Cleveland Heights Congregations," available at local bookstores
and through Amazon.com. |
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Cleveland
Heights Congregations (Arcadia Publishing, 2009) began as a talk in the
Superior Road Schoolhouse for the Cleveland Heights Historical Society
in fall 2007. The talk in turn began with my realization that, within
a ten-minute walk from my house, were four Jewish congregations (one Conservative,
two Orthodox, one “Traditional Egalitarian"), a Greek Orthodox
cathedral, a Roman Catholic church, a Disciples of Christ church, a Church
of Christ, an African Methodist Episcopal church, a non-denominational
African American church, a Presbyterian church, and two Lutheran churches.
Only two of these existed when my street was laid out almost a century
ago. The point of that talk was that these congregations were an interesting
illustration of our changing community and the diversity that Cleveland
Heights folks like to brag about.
A book on religious congregations, however, needed to be far more inclusive
than the schoolhouse talk. The list of Cleveland Heights congregations
I got from the Community Relations Department at City Hall contained more
than 40 names. And this long list was too short, for I discovered that
some congregations had been inadvertently omitted and others had been
established since the list had been compiled. I tried—certainly
unsuccessfully—to include every single congregation in my book.
And therein lay the biggest challenge of the project: so many congregations,
to which I sent so many letters explaining the book, followed by so many
phone calls to pastors, rabbis, congregation members, and especially,
congregation secretaries. And so many were generous and helpful. Some
shared with me their congregations’ fine histories: Forest Hill
Church, Presbyterian; Church of the Saviour; Disciples Christian Church;
St. Louis Church; Fairmount Presbyterian Church; and Church of the Master.
Some lent me wonderful archival photographs from their own rich collections:
Park Synagogue, New Spirit Revival Center, St. Paul’s Episcopal
Church, St. Louis Church, Sts. Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Cathedral,
the Church of Christ of Forest Hill, St. Alban Episcopal Church. Some
even took photographs especially for me and this book: the First Church
of Christ Scientist, Cleveland; Bethel Community Church, and Oheb Zedek-Taylor
Road Synagogue. So generous and so helpful were these Protestant, Catholic,
Jewish, and non-denominational congregations that I decided to donate
my proceeds from this book to the Heights Emergency Food Center. The center
was founded in 1981 by the Heights Inter-Faith Council, and it was the
best example of Cleveland Heights’ ecumenical spirit that I could
think of.
An unanticipated benefit of my pursuit of the many religious congregations
was that in the course of spring and summer 2008, I got a chance to visit
almost every religious structure in Cleveland Heights. This was quite
a change for someone who isn’t a regular churchgoer. |
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Change
Was Constant
What I continuously (re)discovered about religious congregations was
the important ways they have changed Cleveland Heights, shaping and serving
our community for more than a century and a quarter. Most obvious perhaps,
religious congregations grew with the suburb and helped it grow. The first
congregations established themselves in what was then a rural village
, sometimes referred to as “Heathen Heights” or “Heathen
Ridge.” The very first church, Fairmount Methodist Episcopal Church
(now Church of the Saviour), arrived here in 1875, a quarter of a century
before the village of Cleveland Heights itself was established. |
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Fairmount Methodist Episcopal Church,
c. 1902. The structure was roughly where the Superior Schoolhouse
now stands. |
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Cleveland Heights Presbyterian
Church (now Forest Hill Church, Presbyterian) followed in 1903, and Noble
Road Bible Chapel (now Noble Road Presbyterian Church) in 1907. The founders
of these early Protestant churches became the village’s movers and
shakers, and their congregations attracted new residents and helped to turn
the isolated village into a growing suburb. In the same way, during and
after World War II, congregations such as Park Synagogue, Taylor Road Synagogue,
St. Louis Church, Church of the Master, and the Church of Christ, Forest
Hill, led and followed the last significant migration out of Cleveland into
Cleveland Heights, helping to swell Cleveland Heights’ population
to 61,000. A religious building boom accompanied this population boom. Older
congregations like Forest Hill Church Presbyterian and Noble Road Presbyterian
built new structures or like B’nai Jeshurun-Temple on the Heights
added to the old. |
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Cleveland Heights
developers realized early on that religious congregations attracted buyers,
establishing the close connections between congregations and the entrepreneurial
spirit that fostered suburban growth. Marcus M. Brown reportedly visited
and preached at the Fairmount (then Heights) Methodist Episcopal Church
at the corner of Superior and Hampshire Roads in his Mayfield Heights
allotment. Emil Preyer, a church member, sold Cleveland Heights Presbyterian
Church the property for its first building at the end of Preyer Road,
upon which he was then building homes. Patrick Calhoun, developer of the
Euclid Heights allotment, donated the property at Edgehill Road and Euclid
Heights Boulevard so that St. Alban Episcopal Church could be moved up
the hill from Little Italy. Fr. John Mary Powers borrowed money from Bishop
John P. Farrelly to buy the property for St. Ann Church and nearby properties
on which the Meadowbrook Land Company could build new homes for St. Ann
parishioners. In the post-World War II period, three congregations—certainly
with the blessing of the developer—built churches in the Cleveland
Heights portion of the Forest Hill allotment as it neared completion:
Forest Hill Church, Presbyterian; Church of Christ of Forest Hill, and
Hope Lutheran Church. |
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Church of the Savior |
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Cleveland Heights congregations
have changed our landscape, adding beauty and architectural interest to
our residential neighborhoods. Many early congregations first worshipped
in humble surroundings. Until they had funds to build their own houses of
worship, they met in private homes or shared public spaces. The oldest schoolhouses
– Superior and Noble Road, and later Fairfax, Coventry, Oxford and
Noble Schools—became temporary homes for religious congregations.
Some met first in commercial spaces such as the Center Mayfield and Cedar
Lee Theaters or the Van Sweringens’ real estate office. Cleveland
Heights’ newest congregations continue this tradition, sharing worship
spaces with other institutions or established congregations: Cleveland Heights
Church meets at the India Community Church; Edgehill Community Church at
St. Alban Episcopal Church; the Body of Christ Assembly Heights Church and
Abundant Grace Church, at Park Synagogue. |
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Disciples Christian
Church and Pastor Kristine Eggert. |
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As the suburb and the congregations
prospered in the 1920s, they built more ambitious houses of worship. The
former Heights Methodist Episcopal Church, having outgrown its building
at Hampshire and Superior and re-christened Church of the Saviour, moved
out of temporary quarters at Roosevelt Junior High into its stately Gothic
cathedral on Lee Road; Fairmount Presbyterian replaced its modest wooden
chapel with a gracious Tudor parish hall at Fairmount and Coventry. New
congregations—Grace Lutheran Church, St. Paul’s Episcopal
Church, and Trinity Congregational Church—built in the Gothic Revival
style popular in the period. Jewish synagogues and temples were shaped
by different architectural traditions. B’nai Jeshurun’s Temple
on the Heights was Byzantine-inspired. The distinguished designs of Park
Synagogue, Oheb Zedek-Taylor Road Synagogue, Congregation Shomre Shabbos,
and Congregation Kehillat Yaakov-Warrensville Center Synagogue were distinctively
contemporary. Amidst the growing ethnic and religious diversity of the
post-war period, Protestant churches built or rebuilt in the American
Colonial Revival style recalled the New England origins of the Western
Reserve. |
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New
Life
Still handsome, gracious structures, older religious buildings
have found new owners. Christ Our Redeemer A.M.E., New Community Bible
Fellowship, the New Spirit Revival Center; Congregation Beth-El-the Heights
Synagogue, Mount Olive Lutheran Church, Straightway Bible Fellowship and
Greater Peace Missionary Baptist Church worship in buildings that first
belonged to other congregations. Some former church buildings serve secular
purposes. First English Lutheran Church has become elegant condominiums.
Heights Presbyterian Church is the home of Heights Youth Club. Testimony
to the religious pluralism of Cleveland Heights, houses of worship—from
modest renovated storefronts to stately cathedrals—enliven our streets
on days of worship and dignify them every day. |
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above: Oheb Zedek-Taylor Road Synagogue |
Image
below: Christ Our Redeemer A.M.E. |
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Cleveland
Heights religious congregations educate the community’s children.
Catholic congregations established St. Ann School in 1916 and St. Louis
School in 1951; the Ursuline Sisters founded Beaumont School in 1942. Jewish
congregations opened the Hebrew Academy in 1946 and Mosdos Ohr Hatorah in
1997. Lutherans established Lutheran East High School in 1960. Many churches
also host preschools and day care programs. St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
created Open Doors, an after-school program for middle school children that
now operates at both St. Paul’s and Fairmount Presbyterian Church.
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Congregations serve adults by providing
meeting places for support groups and classes of all kinds and gracious
spaces for public concerts and lectures. The whole community is invited
to attend the Journey to Bethlehem at Disciples Christian Church in December,
the Strawberry Festival at Fairmount Presbyterian Church in June, and the
Greek Festival at St. Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Cathedral in
August. |
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Perhaps the most dramatic change
of the last century for congregations and for the community is that women
now serve as pastors at Protestant and nondenominational churches. Women
have constituted the majority of Protestant church members at least since
the nineteenth century, and churches provided women with an early opportunity
to play public roles. The Heights Methodist Episcopal and Noble Road Presbyterian
Ladies Aid Societies and the Fairmount Presbyterian Women’s Aid Society,
among others, raised the funds for church buildings and furnishings. Today,
women pastors fill not only the pews and coffers but the pulpits in several
congregations, including the Church of the Redeemer United Methodist, Disciples
Christian Church, and the New Spirit Revival Center. |
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Congregations
arouse our civic consciences, urging us to change Cleveland Heights for
the better. The St. Ann Audit in 1972 discovered racial steering and urged
us to stand for racial tolerance and fair housing. The mission of the Home
Repair Resource Center, established by Forest Hill Church, Presbyterian,
in 1972 as the Forest Hill Housing Corporation, is to keep all Cleveland
Heights homes “in good repair.” The Heights Emergency Food Center,
located at Disciples Christian Church, feeds our neediest families. |
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Image
above: St. Alban Episcopal - original structure |
Image
below: First Church of Christ Scientist |
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Cleveland
Heights has continued to change, and so have its religious congregations.
Just since Cleveland Heights Congregations went to the publisher in August
2008, the Start Right Church of God in Christ bought the Community of Living
Hope United Methodist Church (originally Church of the Cross), and NewSong
Church moved into the former Severance Athletic Club. |
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In conclusion, I discovered the
changes that religious congregations inspire, but I also discovered their
enduring importance to Cleveland Heights – past, present, and future.
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The
trustees of the Cleveland Heights Historical wish once again to thank Marian
Morton for her support, and to remind readers that her newest book, Cleveland
Heights Congregations, can be obtained at local bookstores and through Amazon.com.
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