I wandered my neighborhood last night to take a ton of photos the commercial corridors of the Old Brooklyn neighborhood of Cleveland.  These shots are from Broadview, Pearl, and State Roads.  In addition to full buildings, I took a lot of photos of storefronts and signage.

 

As always, drop me a PM if you'd like the link to the full-size, hi-res set, and I'll gladly share the link to my Flickr page.

 

See Part II here.

 

Enjoy!

 

OB has a lot of corner convenient stores.

 

 

Old fire station.  New use is...?

 

Schwebel's Bread factory and thift store.

 

Very cool rehab with, *ta da*, a Tarot card reader!

 

Two storefronts, one of which sells medical supplies (I think) and the other was recently vacated by the Glasshouse (more on this later).

 

 

Looking west down Broadview.

 

Don Gi's has pretty awesome wings.  I hear their pizza is great as well (I don't eat dairy).

 

Don Gi's is one of like ten pizza places in OB.

 

Vacant storefront.  I thought that there was once talk of tearing it down and putting in a bank with a drivethrough.

 

US Bank, the anchor of Downtown OB.  Old Brooklyn CDC is also housed here.

 

More underutilized storefronts neglected by property owners.

 

Hudec Dental.  Beautiful building, terrible dentist.  Long story short, I highly recommend against anyone going there.  Will gladly justify my position if necessary.

 

Missing teeth.  (Great segway, isn't it?)

 

More of the Hudec Building.

 

Party center and Planned Parenthood, with the old Deaconess Hospital lurking in the background.

 

In the same strip.

 

This used to be an animal feed store when I was a kid.  Now they sell specialty bicycles, motorbikes, and rims.

 

A funeral home, right by a hospital for senior citizens.  Ironic, right?  There's a cool community garden to the right of the funeral home to which the seniors tend.

 

This is part of Deaconess, I believe.  Maybe doctor offices?

 

Looks like it belongs in the country.

 

Dry cleaner.  Not sure it still operates. 

 

So I think they mean that they clean mini-blinds, right?

 

 

 

Downtown OB, from Pearl Road.  Gil Dor was once a theater, I think.  Now it's a furniture store.

 

Nunzio Cabinetry.  Looks like a Storefront Renovation job.

 

Krather Block.

 

 

Go kart spot right across the street from the zoo on Pearl.

 

Here's the actual go kart track.

 

...and here's the old video arcade.

 

I hope that someone preserves this gorilla.  This is neighborhood history.

 

 

 

 

USPS 44109.

 

Gil Dor storefront.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What owner would actually allow these junk businesses to put newspaper in the windows? 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyone want to buy an airbrush painting of Eminem?

 

...or Jesus?

 

Part II is here!

 

For more Old Brooklyn photos:

- South Hills

- Oak Park area

- Benjamin Franklin Community Garden

- Treadway Connector

Nice! The Rite Aid looks like it was a colonial A&P at one point.

It's good to see pictures of my old neighborhood again.  It really makes me long for Cleveland.  Nice set, cd!

 

 

OB has a lot of corner convenient stores.

 

I actually got into a car accident on this corner once...not my best night. 

Thanks for the pics!

 

A little gritty, but not without good bones.

Thanks!

Always seems like poorer commercial corridors get slammed with sprawl. All the more reason our cities need to make changes in policy to just say no to this junk within city limits. Looks like there's plenty of potential, but how do you renovate an Arby's or KFC to fit in with the neighborhood? Nice silhouette, BTW.

 

^ look at the brick apron front yard on that. interesting -- bricks must have been practically free at one time. unless maybe there was a more substantial building there in the past or something? hmm, or maybe the original owner worked at a brickyard?

 

great thread. very west clevelandy.

I want a giant gorilla.

 

Nice work.