Brooklyn Centre is a

neighborhood A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town, suburb or rural area, ...

on the West Side of

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. It borders

Old Brooklyn Old Brooklyn is a neighborhood on the West Side of Cleveland, Ohio, United States, located approximately five miles south of downtown Cleveland. It extends east-to-west from the Cuyahoga River to the city of Brooklyn and north-to-south from the ...

to the south, Stockyards,

Clark–Fulton Clark–Fulton is a neighborhood on the West Side of Cleveland, Ohio. It is bounded by Ohio City to the north, Tremont to the east, Brooklyn Centre to the south, and Stockyards on the west. The neighborhood, which covers about one square mile, ...

, and Tremont to the north, and the Cuyahoga Valley and the suburb of Cuyahoga Heights to the east.

History

Brooklyn Centre was founded in 1812 by James Fish and became the first settlement west of the

Cuyahoga River The Cuyahoga River ( , or ) is a river located in Northeast Ohio that bisects the City of Cleveland and feeds into Lake Erie. As Cleveland emerged as a major manufacturing center, the river became heavily affected by industrial pollution, so mu ...

. Two years later, around 200 people lived at Brooklyn Centre. By 1812, Brooklyn Centre became a township. In the early 1960s, the neighborhood was changed dramatically with the construction of I-71. Entire streets were lost and new

cul-de-sac A dead end, also known as a cul-de-sac (, from French for 'bag-bottom'), no through road or no exit road, is a street with only one inlet or outlet. The term "dead end" is understood in all varieties of English, but the official terminology ...

s and dead ends were created, changing the fabric of the neighborhood. In 1984, the City of Cleveland created the Brooklyn Centre Historic District, recognizing the location's historic and architectural importance. In November 2004, The Brooklyn Centre Historical Society published ''Reflections from Brooklyn Centre: Presentations and Oral Histories from The Brooklyn Centre Historical Society.'' In November 2008, Brooklyn Centre became a

National Wildlife Federation The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) is the United States' largest private, nonprofit conservation education and advocacy organization, with over six million members and supporters, and 51 state and territorial affiliated organizations (includin ...

registered Community Wildlife Habitat Site, and was among the first city neighborhoods to obtain the designation. The eastern portion of Brooklyn Centre is known as Barbarowa. Brooklyn Centre is bordered on the east by the Cuyahoga River I-176/The Jennings Freeway. The west border is

I-71 Interstate 71 (I-71) is a north–south Interstate Highway in the Great Lakes/Midwestern and Southeastern region of the United States. Its southern terminus is at an interchange with I-64 and I-65 (the Kennedy Interchange) in Louisville, ...

. The border to the south is Big Creek which runs through the

Cleveland Metroparks Zoo The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo aka Cleveland Zoological Park is a zoo in Cleveland, Ohio. The Zoo is divided into several areas: Australian Adventure; African Savanna; Northern Wilderness Trek, The Primate, Cat & Aquatics Building, Waterfowl Lake ...

and is the largest tributary that flows into the Cuyahoga. The northern border is a city street named Trowbridge.

Demographics

Brooklyn Centre was originally settled by residents from

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

who had purchased land from investors of the

Connecticut Western Reserve The Connecticut Western Reserve was a portion of land claimed by the Colony of Connecticut and later by the state of Connecticut in what is now mostly the northeastern region of Ohio. The Reserve had been granted to the Colony under the terms of ...

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

immigrants Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...

arrived starting in the late 19th century, followed by

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

and

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

arrivals in the early 20th century. These new settlers relocated to the east end of the neighborhood so that they would be close to the factories in and around the Cuyahoga Valley such as the tanneries and steel mills. Today, Brooklyn Centre is a diverse neighborhood, with a mixed population of ethnic Europeans,

African Americans African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

, and, most prominently, a growing

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to Vic ...

community, Puerto Rican and otherwise. In 2020, the composition of the neighborhood was 61.1% white, 21.1% African American, 1.6% Asian and Pacific Islander, and 16.1% mixed and other groups. Hispanics or Latinos of any race were 37.8% of the population. As of 2019, Brooklyn Centre had an estimated foreign-born population of 17.3%, with most being immigrants from

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

(especially

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...

, the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...

, and

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

References

External links

Brooklyn Centre blog
{{Geographic Location , Center = Brooklyn Centre , Southeast = Cuyahoga Heights , South =

, West = Stockyards , Northeast = Tremont , East = Cuyahoga Valley , North =

Neighborhoods in Cleveland German-American culture in Ohio German communities in the United States Irish-American culture in Cleveland Polish-American culture in Cleveland Polish communities in the United States Hispanic and Latino American culture in Ohio