November 14, 2003

CONTACT:
Deanna L. Bremer
Director of Marketing
Cleveland Restoration Society
Phone: (216) 426-3111
Fax: (216) 426-1975
E-mail: dbremer@clevelandrestoration.org

SOCIETY’S COMMUNITY LUNCHEON TO FOCUS ON UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

The Cleveland Restoration Society will hold its 31st Annual Community Luncheon on November 25, 2003 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Cleveland Marriott Society Center Ballroom, 127 Public Square, Cleveland, Ohio. Keynote speaker, Dr. Spencer R. Crew, a Cleveland native and Executive Director and CEO of the new National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, will discuss how the Underground Railroad is a useful illustration of the past and important guide for the future. The Society will present a Community Preservation Award to Mrs. Joan Harris Southgate, who walked in the path of the Underground Railroad from Cincinnati to Canada and founded a grassroots organization that seeks to preserve the Cozad-Bates House in University Circle. The luncheon raises much-needed unrestricted funds for the Cleveland Restoration Society’s programs and operations.

Following the opening of the Ohio and Erie Canal and later the opening of several railroad routes, Cleveland became a significant destination for fugitive slaves making their way north to Canada. Known by the secret code “Hope,” Cleveland became a center of the Abolition movement and a hotbed of kidnappers and bondsmen in search of their prey. Over 40,000 fugitive slaves were transported over the Ohio Underground Railroad, aided by over 1,500 operators or stationmasters who manned stations 10 to 20 miles apart.

The Cozad and Ford families, original settlers of the University Circle area, assisted many fugitives. Several homes owned by them were documented safe houses. The homes stood on sites now occupied by University Hospitals, Case Western Reserve University and Severance Hall. Unfortunately, none of them survive. The two-story red-brick Italianate residence, at 11508 Mayfield Road, is the only pre-Civil War era structure remaining in University Circle. Its original section, at the rear, was built in 1853 for Justus L. Cozad, the grandson of Samuel Cozad who settled in Cleveland in 1806.

The Cozad-Bates House now sits abandoned and faces a very uncertain future. Mrs. Joan Harris Southgate, who attended the National Trust’s Preservation Conference here in Cleveland last year as an Emerging Preservation Leader, has formed Restore Cleveland Hope, a culturally diverse advocacy group that has taken an active role in the fight to preserve the house.

Dr. Spencer Crew has a distinguished track record of making history accessible. As the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, he is building a museum from the ground up. Dr. Crew grew up in Cleveland and sits on the Board of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. He made a name for himself as a curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. In 1994, he was named director of the museum, becoming the youngest and the first African American director of a major Smithsonian museum.

Individual tickets for the Community Luncheon range in price from $40 to $125 each. For reservations and more information, contact the Cleveland Restoration Society at (216) 426-1000 or e-mail fhall@clevelandrestoration.org.

The Cleveland Restoration Society/Preservation Resource Center of Northeastern Ohio is the region’s largest non-profit preservation organization and is a Local Partner affiliate of the National Trust. Founded in 1972, the Society is dedicated to the preservation of greater Cleveland’s historic resources.

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