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Our History

Mt. Pleasant is a community in southeast Cleveland, Ohio, noted for its history as an attractive, stable community of proud homeowners, concerned residents and small business owners. It is comprised of about 23,000 people. The first residents settled in Mt. Pleasant in 1826 and were from Manx, farmers from the Isle of Man, an area near Ireland.

Not long after the farmers, Mt. Pleasant grew into a populous Bohemian community. During the 1880s and early 1890s, a large migration of Russian Jews settled in Mt. Pleasant. Later, in the early 1900s, an Italian wave of immigrants predominated the community. The largest group of settlers, however, were from the South. During Word War I, Blacks were encouraged to relocate to Cleveland to work in factories to offset the shortage of men leaving for war.

Horse Drawn Wagon

Even though the largest influx of Blacks began to settle during the war, Mt. Pleasant has always been known as an open community in that Blacks have lived alongside whites from its early history. The first Blacks moved into the community in 1893 when a white contractor gave them land in exchange for pay.

The area remained rural until 1921 when Joseph Krizek and his partners purchased 20 acres south of Kinsman Rd. and mapped out streets and planted 248 maple trees along Bartlett Ave. The area was then named Mount Pleasant because of its “handsome” and tranquil appearance.

Since becoming a community, Mt. Pleasant has continued to be a force in local history and growth. The area is home to the State's oldest and Cuyahoga County’s oldest community organization, the Mt. Pleasant Community Council, which was founded in 1946 as a volunteer group comprised of 60 neighborhood street clubs.

Mayor Carl B. Stokes with Couple

The Mt. Pleasant Community has historically played a significant role in city and national politics. Carl B. Stokes, the first black person elected as mayor of a major metropolitan city, was a regular visitor in Mt. Pleasant as this photograph shows. The late honorable mayor is pictured here with Samuel and Naomi Wilcox. Mr. Wilcox served as president of the E. 132nd St. Club, and was an executive member of the Mt. Pleasant Community Council.

While these historical documents, facts and figures are important historically, having just this information does not paint the complete history of Mt. Pleasant. We want you to make the history of Mt. Pleasant “come alive” by sharing your memories.

We urge people who have lived, or are now living in Mt. Pleasant, or who have worked, or are now working in our community to click on the image below to send us a story, a fact or a photograph about Mt. Pleasant.

These stories will serve to broaden the perspective of the Mt. Pleasant Community and its historical significance to the region. We will let you know if your historical information is selected for publication.

Facts:

Luke Easter Park, formerly known as Woodhill Park, was once a loading field for planes carrying U.S. mail.

Before Jewish migration to the eastern suburbs, many Jews lived in Mt. Pleasant and the Kinsman Jewish Center was the center for political and fraternal activities as well as for the preservation of Yiddish culture.