OB Photos: South Hills

As the saying goes, "There's gold in them thar hills!" Undeniably, Old Brooklyn's South Hills area is one of Cleveland's best treasures.

South Hills was originally established in the late 1800's as a place where vegetables were grown under glass. By the 1920's, it had become the greenhouse capital of the Midwest and one of the nation's largest suppliers of produce, with more than one hundred acres of land dedicated to raising various plants. Only a few greenhouses, including Old Brooklyn Greenhouse on West 11th Street, remain west of the Jennings Freeway.

Today, the neighborhood is a collection of beautiful architecturally-diverse homes having some of the highest and most stable home values in the city. Streets like South Hills Boulevard, Broadale Avenue, and West Schaaf Road are lined with brick colonials, bungalows, cape cods, and Tudor-style houses, with an abundance of large, mature trees. In recent years, areas around West 11th Street and north of Spring Road have given rise to newer-construction homes.

South Hills is also home to the Benjamin Franklin Community Garden, which was previously featured in OB Photos. For a historical view of the garden, please click here.

Perhaps what's most exciting about South Hills is its strong sense of community and residential fabric. Mann residents are actively engaged in the South Hills Association, a civic group that has organized block parties, yard sales, and other events and has pursued and received grant funds for improvement projects. A plethora of city employees and safety personnel reside in South Hills as well.

View photos Old Brooklyn Blogs' South Hills photos here, or check out the Cleveland Memory Project for historical photographs of the area. To see other areas and aspects of Old Brooklyn captured visually, please click here.