Summary
- The Cleveland Landmarks Commission approved projects at the German and Indian cultural gardens, pending approval of some details by city staff. There was some back-and-forth about how to prioritize the appearance of the gardens while expanding their usefulness as gathering places.
- The renovation of two historic buildings, one on Lorain Avenue and one near the West Side Market, was approved with the commission’s enthusiasm, also pending a final review of details by staff.
- The most contentious issue seemed to be the demolition of a historically important house near the Buckeye-Shaker and Shaker Square neighborhoods that has been vacant for years and has deteriorated badly. This discussion raised issues about absentee property owners who can’t be reached and the effect of vacant homes on the surrounding community. The commission approved the demolition, but even commission members voting in favor lamented that the home can’t be saved.
Follow-up questions
- When projects are required to get final approval of details from city staff, what assurance does the commission have that the new details are in accordance with what the commission members wanted?
- What are the legal limits of what the city can do with properties owned by people who cannot be located? If they can demolish a home that is a blight on the neighborhood, could they legally seize and stabilize a building before it becomes unsalvageable?
Scene at the Cleveland Landmarks Commission meeting
The Aug. 27 Cleveland Landmarks Commission livestream initially had the wrong agency in the video title. That was corrected, and the commission meeting stream can be found here.
These commission members were present:
- Christopher Loeser, vice chair.
- Michele Anderson.
- Calley Mersmann, director of City Planning.
- Brook Sabin.
- Michael Sanbury.
- Robert Strickland.
- Raymond Tarasuck, Jr.
- Regennia Williams.
Chair Julie Trott and Mark Duluk were absent. Ward 3 City Council Member Deborah Gray, also a commission member, joined partway through the meeting.
Also present were Daniel Musson (commission secretary), Jessica Beam-Wymer (landmarks staff), Karl Brunjes (landmarks staff) and Mike McGettrick, who attended to present a proposal.
German Cultural Garden
The next speaker was Erik Wittman, who presented on a renovation of the German Cultural Garden. The project is to replace and repair a bust of Beethoven located in the German Cultural Garden. Wittman said the original installation was destroyed or defaced over 10 years ago. The bust was stolen, and damage was done to the monument itself. The German Cultural Garden Federation has been trying to update the garden and finally found an artist to replicate and improve the bust.
The new bust will have a musical phrase from Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony inscribed above the composer.
“This was an attempt to identify him as a musician for individuals viewing the bust,” in case they don’t know who Beethoven is, Wittman said.
Sanbury moved to approve, Anderson seconded, and the issue passed unanimously.
India Cultural Garden picnic tables
The next issue up for discussion was a seating update in the India Cultural Garden presented by Hira Rane, the chairperson for the garden.
The proposal adds two benches and two picnic tables for seating. It is designed to have a concrete bed underneath. The two benches are toward the front on the left, 12 feet or so away from the sidewalk inside the garden, and toward the right side and toward the back is the concrete bed and two picnic tables. There are plans for a 10-foot by 16-foot concrete bed with picnic tables anchored to it.
According to the Landmarks Commission staff recommendation, presented by Musson, the design preservation committee of the Cultural Gardens Federation was intrigued by the idea of picnic tables. “It’s an interesting idea,” he said. “I think it’s nice to encourage the congregation of people and give them the opportunity to actually sit down together.”
Anderson said, “I appreciate the applicant’s desire to put in more seating in their cultural garden. I share the staff’s concern about the materials and the plastic. I think a cultural garden is not merely a park or a playground. It’s celebrating the ethnicity and the culture of the many different ethnic groups in this city, and I just feel like there should be a higher standard for the cultural gardens, and I’m not comfortable with the off-the-shelf plastic in the product that they’ve chosen.”
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Williams echoed concerns about the materials for the benches and tables. “I’m just concerned that they appear to be of different materials in different colors,” she said. She asked if the commission could review the information about the materials and make that a requirement for approval.
Rane said the benches and table are rated for outdoor use and made from recycled plastic.
Rane noted the benches and tables selected are from different suppliers. “We could look into maybe a darker color for the top and the seating arrangement. The frame can probably remain the same, but for the top surfaces, we could choose a darker color.”
He asked for conditional approval while they look at the color schemes for the stamped concrete, benches and table.
Strickland made a motion to approve the project with the conditions that the concrete must be color-stamped concrete with an appropriate jointing pattern and a new color scheme for the benches and picnic tables in a darker color must be submitted to staff for review.
The motion was approved 7 to 1, with Anderson voting no.
Home demolition on Ludlow
Dennis Butler of the City of Cleveland’s demolition bureau presented the proposed demolition of 2988 Ludlow Road, a residential home.
“Despite the fact that we are from the demolition bureau, our answer to everything is not demolition,” Butler said. He said his office tried to work with the homeowner and find a creative solution, but demolition is appropriate in this case.
The house is in Ward 3 near the Buckeye-Shaker and Shaker Square neighborhoods. It was bought by Lamplight Acquisitions at auction in 2025 and condemned in 2024. There have been seven formal complaints in the Accela Permit Portal since 2017. It has been vacant since at least 2023. The last owner died in 2017, but the will wasn’t found until 2024.
Inside the vacant Ludlow home
Jillian Bolino, also with the demolition bureau, said she entered the property a month ago through the kitchen window and took photographs of the condition.
The house is 2,200 square feet. The dining room and living room are in better shape than the kitchen, Bolino said, but a side addition is caving in. “There isn’t a foundation under this section of the house … I don’t even know what’s under here,” she added.
Daylight was visible through the stairwell wall, she said. “The best way I can describe going up the stairwell is it’s a little bit like being in a funhouse, because it dips inward.”
The floor dips several inches on the second floor. A third-floor bedroom and attic room have holes in the ceiling. Another room is filled with debris in the back of the house.
“We do know based on testimony from multiple neighbors that there has been a significant lack of care,” Bolino said. “The house hasn’t been maintained for some time. We don’t even know who was residing in the house between 2017 and 2023.”
Searching for the property owner
Cosmore Davis owns Lamplight Acquisitions. Officials weren’t able to reach her. She owns an LLC that buys and sells properties. She doesn’t often invest in Cleveland.
Butler said he searched for her contact information. “We know she exists, but there’s very little out there,” he said. She introduced herself to neighbors after buying the house but didn’t give anyone her contact information, “which is odd,” he added.
“We’re not thrilled or super happy about having to demolish this property. It’s really a beautiful house, and if it were rehabbed, it would be wonderful. On the other hand, there are several other landmark houses in close proximity, and all of them are kind of threatened by this property that’s bringing them all down.”
Butler said the bureau didn’t propose a new structure, but instead proposed grading it and planting seed and straw and having a vacant grass lot. “‘It’s not our preference or our number one choice, but we don’t think it will be viable to rehab this property. A vacant lot would have a much more positive impact on the community.”
The history of the home
Landmarks staff member Karl Brunjes gave a history of the property, which was constructed in 1925 and owned by John Glover. It was posted originally for the equivalent of over $500,000 today, but it didn’t sell, was foreclosed on and ended up at sheriff’s sale.
The Weinberg family ended up living there for about 20 years. Joseph Weinberg was placed in a Jewish orphanage when he first came to Cleveland, but was reunited with his family and ended up working on urban renewal plans in the Great Depression. He’s known for designing Lakeview Terrace, was a planning consultant for the Cleveland Neighborhood Construction Project, and specialized in nonprofit housing for the elderly.
Weinberg sold the house in 1957. Jacqueline Meredith bought the property in 1990 and lived there until her death in 2017.
‘An owner not wanting to be found’
Musson lamented that the property can’t be rehabilitated. “This also seems like another case of an owner not wanting to be found, which is always a struggle.”
He said he’d like to see property owners incentivized to take action before properties get to this state.
“I think there needs to be some sort of an ombudsman to interact with property owners like this one,” Anderson said. “They get notices, violations and tickets and they just kind of go into hiding. They retreat, and it’s counterproductive. This person paid a lot of money for this house. It may be better for her to sell it at a discount rather than have a demolition lien plus accumulated taxes, but there’s nobody there to speak with them.”
Bolino said the office works hard to work with property owners. “They burn us. And even after they burn us, we say ‘What is going on?’ and they burn us again, and then they sell it, and then we start all over” with a new owner.
The history of the Ludlow community
Williams, who is a history professor, said, “I also hear something that suggests there is care and concern about what happens in Ludlow. And I’m saying this as a historian … I know something about the history of the Ludlow community and the efforts on the part of residents beginning in the 1950s to really keep Ludlow as a stable community, to push back against white flight, and to make sure that it was a community that was warm and welcoming to all people regardless of race and ethnicity.”
She pointed to the home’s original Jewish owner. “Shaker Heights and these borderlands like Ludlow have a history of welcoming people who probably experienced a sense of not being welcome” elsewhere, she noted.
Sanbury asked if the city could demolish the collapsing garage and take out trees to make it more viable to rehab.
Butler said he could speak to the law department about tearing down just the garage, but he wasn’t sure a partial demolition was financially practical, particularly if it meant not demolishing another dangerous house elsewhere.
There’s more: Read the full notes from this meeting by Documenter Cid Standifer. They include more discussion about the Ludlow house, and plans to renovate a Market Square District building across from the West Side Market.
If you believe anything in these notes is inaccurate, please email us at documenters@signalcleveland.org with “Correction Request” in the subject line.
