CLEVELAND COMMUNITY SAVINGS - The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History

CLEVELAND COMMUNITY SAVINGS (formerly the Quincy Savings & Loan Co.) became the 19th largest black-owned savings and loan in the country. In 1954 insurance man MELCHISEDECH C. CLARKE† raised $185,000 from the black community to buy the assets of a Czech savings institution and established Quincy Savings & Loan. Located at 8309 Quincy Ave., and later at 7609 Euclid Ave., Quincy Savings enabled many blacks to obtain home mortgage financing. Under Clarke's leadership, its assets grew from less than $400,000 to $2 million by 1955, to $8 million by 1969, and to $11 million by 1979, allowing the savings and loan to pay increasing dividends each year.

In 1979 Cleveland businessmen Lawrence Schmelzer and Gerald Gilbert bought controlling interest in Quincy Savings and renamed it Cleveland Community Savings Co. The following year the company moved its headquarters to 4084 Lee Rd. At the end of 1982, Community Savings was burdened with several large delinquent loans, causing its liabilities to exceed its assets and the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp. took over its operation. The FSLIC closed Cleveland Community Savings permanently in Oct. 1983, citing questionable bookkeeping and irregular loan practices.

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