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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

In conclusion, I discovered the changes that religious congregations inspire, but I also discovered their enduring importance to Cleveland Heights – past, present, and future.