Yankee Lake Park was a leisure destination located near Brookfield, Ohio, to the north of Youngstown and just west of Sharon, Pennsylvania. Although the park got its start in the early 20th century, in 1940, the Pittsburgh Courier reported that Eugene Cooke of Farrell, Pennsylvania, hoped to turn the venue into a full-fledged summer resort […]
Resorts
Wakeman Country Club
Wakeman Country Club was a Black resort outside the Huron County village of Wakeman, roughly halfway between Oberlin and Norwalk. In 1923, inventor and Cleveland Call and Post founder Garrett A. Morgan bought a farm about two miles south of Wakeman along the Vermillion River and envisioned a development there. Wakeman Country Club operated between […]
Cottage Grove Lake Resort
Cottage Grove Lake in the Portage Lakes emerged as a picnicking and recreational spot as early as the 1880s after the Cleveland Terminal & Valley Railroad initiated passenger service through the Cuyahoga Valley between Cleveland and the Portage Lakes. By 1890 the railroad financed the development of Cottage Grove Lake into a full-fledged resort. A […]
On-Erie Beach
On-Erie Beach played a significant role in the African American community in Northeast Ohio from the 1920s to the 1940s. Located in western Lorain, the beach may have been the only African American owned and operated beach in the area. On-Erie Beach lay along State Route 2, near present-day West 21st and Martin Drive. The […]
Locust Farm / Alexander Farm
Locust Farm, or Alexander Farm as it was sometimes called, was owned and operated by Dr. and Mrs. John A. Alexander from the 1940s until at least the end of the 1950s. Dr. Alexander was a noted physician who was raised in Cleveland and earned degrees from Howard University, Meharry Medical College, and the University […]
R. M. R. Ranch Club
The R. M. R. Ranch Club was a 125-acre farm outside Elyria, Ohio. Opened in 1956 by Mary L. DeRamus and two friends, the club included a stable with seventeen horses for riding, picnic grounds, a restaurant, a motel, club room, dining room, hayrides, horseshoe pitching, tennis, and croquet. The R. M. R. Ranch Club […]
Stonibrook
Stonibrook was a large estate off Northampton Road in Peninsula, Ohio. The location was near what is now Blossom Music Center. Bill and Anna Johnson were a married African American couple who owned the 45-acre estate filled with evergreens and three inland lakes. Bill was a World War II veteran who returned to the United […]
Cedar Country Club/Mason’s Farm
In 1935, Benjamin “Benny” Mason purchased a 160-acre farm in Solon on Cochran Road south of Route 43 and established what became known as “Mason’s Farm,” a popular resort, country club, and jazz venue. A well-known game operator, Mason purchased the farm and the Cedar Country Club subsequently opened in 1936. Upon the farm’s opening, […]
Breezy-Air Country Club/Johnson’s Farm
Located about a thirty-minute drive south of Cleveland, Breezy-Air Country Club opened in 1947 on Ledge Road off old Route 8 between Northfield and Macedonia and about one mile from Sportsman’s Park. The country club boasted sixty acres of rolling farmland and was an ideal place for summer. The property was home to the former […]
Maple Hollow Country Club
Maple Hollow Country Club was located about 1.5 miles outside Parkman in the southeastern corner of Geauga County, about 35 miles east of Cleveland. The club’s 253 acres, described by one newspaper as a “veritable paradise of shaded loveliness and rustic charm,” included a 43-acre lake, $60,000 clubhouse, tennis court, and even a nine-hole golf […]
Midway Lake
Midway Lake Outdoor Club was a 125-acre farm with club house on Route 322 east of Windsor in Orwell Township in southwestern Ashtabula County. Marvin and Georgie Rutherford, both originally from Georgia, traveled each summer in the 1950s with other couples to Idlewild, a famed Black resort on a small lake located about forty miles […]
Burton’s Bathing Beach
When we think of historically Black beaches, Atlantic coastal resorts usually come to mind, including American Beach near Jacksonville, Highland Beach outside Baltimore and Washington, and Atlantic Beach near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. But in the early 20th century, African Americans in the Great Lakes region also sought out their own lakeshore beaches, including on […]