A long-awaited and much anticipated groundbreaking for Allen Estates, an ambitious, 26-home development on E. 66thStreet at Linwood Avenue (diagonally across from the famed renovated League Park baseball field) took place on Sunday, October 25, at noon. While Covid-19 required the number of attendees to be kept to a minimum, every available seat was filled and a crowd of delighted folks were standing in the back of the tent, all observing social distancing.
The project will be one of the crown jewels of the 66th Street Corridor Project, an ambitious effort to turn the street that runs one mile from Euclid Avenue north to Superior Avenue into a “destination.” The street is already dotted with a number of interesting mainstays, such as the Dunham Tavern Museum on Euclid just east of 66th, Château Hough Vineyards and Winery (which our nonprofit operates) on Hough, and the beloved Fatima Family Center on Lexington, which sits directly across the street from the aforementioned League Park.
On the drawing board for the street is the new headquarters for the Cleveland Foundation at Euclid Avenue and a new Hough Branch Cleveland Public Library across the street from Fatima on Lexington. Upon completion 66th Street will be a walkable corridor that will attract visitors from around Cleveland — and far beyond.
The Allen Estates project is named for Robert and Carolyn Allen, the couple that was instrumental in jump-starting the rebirth of Hough a quarter-century ago when they pioneered the development of Renaissance Place, a 20-home development that occupies an entire block from 73rd to 74th Streets and from Hough to Lexington Avenues. They, and the other families they convinced to move back into the neighborhood, were farsighted enough to incorporate a huge common green space in the center of the development.
Carolyn Allen, a civil rights attorney, had been asked by then-Mayor Michael R. White to join his administration as law director. However, the City of Cleveland at the time had a residency requirement, so her family would have to move into Cleveland if she wanted the position. Her husband Robert, who was employed by NASA Glenn, was adamant about persons of color moving back into the inner city where, simply by their presence, he believed the neighborhoods would be strengthened and eventually revitalized.
Nonetheless it was an uphill battle since lending institutions and urban planning experts were adamant in their belief that no market existed for upscale homes in a community that 30 years prior had been the locus of a violent revolt against the substandard conditions blacks had historically been force to live in. The misnamed “Hough Riots,” which really was a “Hough Uprising,” had scared the neighborhood, with most thinking that it was forever beyond salvation.
Fair housing laws had been passed and racial integration was the new buzzword. Blacks were moving into previously all-white neighborhoods, but as soon as they moved in duplicitous real estate agents scared the white homeowners into selling and moving out in what became known as “white flight.” The simple fact was, whites were not ready to live next door to blacks, so integration failed miserably and America remains almost as segregated as it was in the ’60s. When enlightened blacks like the Allens woke up and said they no longer wanted to chase whites for validation of their personhood and identities (if integration was such a good thing, why was it solely up to blacks to make it a reality?), the market for homes in their own indigenous neighborhoods — like Hough — was created and they were welcoming to anyone who wished to move in.
The experts simply didn’t understand the desire of blacks to invest in their own communities. Other members of the White administration also built their homes in the development and within three years all of the planned 20 homes were occupied by middle-class pioneer families.
Soon other blacks of the same mindset realized the housing revolution that was taking place and in the ensuing years over a hundred other new homes were built by persons of color. My wife and I built our home on 66th and Hough over 20 years ago and haven’t regretted our decision for one moment.
Robert and Carolyn Allen, by their brilliant foresight and tenacity, set the tone and the table for many black families to move into Hough, and Allen Estates is set to continue this tradition as it honors this remarkable black couple.
Part II: The Developers
