FIVE POINTS - The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History

FIVE POINTS is the area of COLLINWOOD where St. Clair Ave., E. 152nd St., and Ivanhoe Rd. come together to form a star. The name is more loosely given to all of Collinwood, that area of Cleveland bounded by E. 152nd on the west, St. Clair and Conrail tracks on the north, and E. 171st St. on the east. The Five Points intersection is home to Collinwood High School and the commercial hub of Collinwood. Settled ca. 1910, the area was the destination of many ITALIANS who had previously resided in BIG ITALY. As more migrants came to Collinwood to work in the industry concentrated there, the neighborhood expanded to its present boundaries.

Workers, neighborhood people, and students made the stores and restaurants at the Five Points intersection prosperous well into the 1950s. By the 1960s the changing racial balance of the neighborhood led to the flight of white residents and the alarm of merchants, who let their properties deteriorate as they agonized over whether to remain in the neighborhood. A revitalized merchants' group, the Collinwood Better Business Assn., fought for better city services and better cooperation among its members to reverse the pattern of flight. In 1975 Collinwood got $100 million of Title I money to refurbish Five Points and other sections of the neighborhood.

Related Article(s)

• NEIGHBORHOODS AND LANDMARKS