Central is also home to many housing projects like Outhwaite Homes on Quincy Avenue, which were among the first built in Cleveland in the 1930s.Fairfax was once part of Cleveland Township. It joined East Cleveland Township in 1866 and was annexed into Cleveland in 1872. The neighborhood was originally considered Cedar-Central or Central until it was renamed Fairfax in the 1950s, named after Florence Bundy Fairfax, a Cleveland recreation superintendent.
Central was split between Cleveland and Newburgh Township before an annexation in 1873. The neighborhood got its name from the street Central Avenue, which had been previously known as Garden Street. The area was well-known for its vast retail offerings from bakeries to grocery stores and other businesses through the first half of the 1900s, but it still had a reputation of being poorer than other areas in the city. And with the decline of European immigration, more and more Black Americans began to settle in the neighborhood.Central and Fairfax neighborhoods in Cleveland.The Karamu House is far from the only landmark, with many of them being religious.
Antioch Baptist Church on the corner of East 89th and Cedar became Cleveland’s second Black Baptist church in 1893. The United House of Prayer for All People at Cedar and East 87th Street is a stunning architectural feat, particularly its stone lions that sit on the grand front steps.